_WORLD WATCH______________________________
______________________Yugoslovia____________________
Serbian homes, churches are targets
Revenge the motive in Kosovo
Officials of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the international peacekeeping force KFOR condemned a series of attacks on Serbian houses and churches in Kosovo in February, dubbing them “criminal acts.”
A church in southeastern Kosovo was destroyed and attempts to blow up another one nearby were thwarted by KFOR troops. “An investigation is in progress and further information will be provided at a later time,” said a KFOR statement.
No one was injured in the explosion, which razed the church in the village of Gornji Livoc in Kosovsko Pomoravlje only 50 yards from a KFOR checkpoint. “Initial reports indicate that the blast was caused by an explosive device inside the church,” KFOR spokesman Captain Richard Kusak said. The UNMIK regional administrator for Gnjilane, Pasqualino Verdecchia, condemned “a criminal act against cultural heritage.”
UNMIK spokesman Susan Manuel reported that there had been “an increase in attacks on Serbian houses and churches” in recent weeks. In the past 18 months about a hundred Serbian Orthodox churches, monasteries, monuments, and graveyards have been seriously damaged or destroyed in Kosovo. No one has yet been charged, arrested, or tried for any of these attacks.