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The continued story about the medieval Christian churches that survived years of Mussolini and Hitler but could not survive a few MONTHS of Bill Clinton and his "humanitarians"!


KFOR PRESIDES OVER SYSTEMATIC DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT CHRISTIAN SHRINES!


The HUGE project of the eradication of the Serbian heritage in Kosovo is an important element in the overall planned destruction and GENOCIDE the NATO/KLA forces are perpetrating on the Kosovo Serbs. Burning, looting and dynamiting of the medieval Serb churches and monasteries started IMMEDIATELY as NATO occupation force and their KLA narco-trafficker proxies entered the sacred Christian lands of Kosovo.

Knowing full well what savages the "humanitarians" are - the Yugoslav government demanded that at least token Yugoslav forces should be allowed to guard the sacred places. This Yugoslav demand was included in the U.N. document signed by all the parties involved.

But, when it came to practical implementation of the signed document NATO did not respect ANY part of it. This included the part about letting Yugoslav forces protect the monuments.

Here we are presenting a couple of Western news articles that dared even mention the wanton destruction of the Serbian heritage. Such articles are rare in countries that engineered the Kosovo tragedy.

The first article describes the events only two weeks after NATO "humanitarians in military boots" arrived in Kosovo.

We have deleted the blunt, often repeated NATO propaganda labeling the planned destruction as a simple "revenge".

We left only the facts the articles mustered to mention.

[Our comments are in square brackets.]


Chicago Tribune, June 21, 1999

Vandals take revenge on Serb shrines

By Paul Salopek

Tribune Foreign Correspondent

VUCITERN, Yugoslavia -- The 13th Century Orthodox monastery in this small Kosovar town must have been beautiful once.

An open, tree-shaded courtyard with fountains leads to a tiny chapel decorated with spectacular medieval frescoes. The paintings, done in the Byzantine style, depict a stunning parade of Orthodox saints and angels--almond-eyed figures in flowing robes who stare out serenely from a bygone age.

The six-century-old patina of candle soot can't dim their glory--nor, unfortunately, does it protect them from the bullets that have gouged knuckle-size holes in their surfaces.

Today, the interior of the monastery is a gutted ruin, the victim of a mob of enraged ethnic Albanians who sought to wreak revenge on a cultural symbol of their hated Yugoslav oppressors. The saints gaze down on a scab of shattered glass, stomped crosses, censers and soiled vestments littering the chapel floor.

[Here the author gives a fee room to an Albanian to spill the usual propaganda about Albanian "revenge". The Albanian says that the Serbs "deserve it. They're all war criminals, even the priests." ]

Friday's assault on the monastery at Vucitern was one of several attacks against Serbian Orthodox religious sites in Kosovo in recent days, as ethnic Albanians -- who are nominally Muslim -- react [sic!] with growing outrage to the devastation unleashed on their homeland by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's soldiers. [Non-stop bombing by 1,400 NATO planes for 78 days was exclusively - humanitarian - and brought no devastation?]

Vandalism attacks were reported at 13th Century Samadraxha monastery, the oldest in Kosovo. At Vucitern, an Orthodox priest who struggled to stop the frenzied crowd was roughed up and had to be rescued by French NATO forces. At Devic, an Orthodox nunnery, NUNS WERE THREATENED WITH RAPE and expelled by armed men who may have been guerrillas with the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA].

NATO peacekeeping [sic!] troops intervened there as well, stationing troops around the building to ensure the nuns' safety.

This grubby spasm of violence in the final phase of the Yugoslav army pullout from Kosovo was long expected, according to experts in the region...

[The article continues with an idiotic and astonishing propaganda excuse that some guy, Milosevic has somehow "used the Serbian monasteries" for a "crackdown" on Albanians.]

DOZENS of Orthodox monasteries in Kosovo, many of them PRICELESS ARCHITECTURAL GEMS built at the peak of the Serb kingdom's power in the 14th Century [... but in continuation of this sentence - another senseless attack - not on vandals - but on Milosevic.]

[I]n a nod to Serb sensibilities, the recent peace deal that brought an end to NATO's [savage] bombing campaign against Yugoslavia PERMITS a token number of Yugoslav police to return to Kosovo and guard the Serbs' sacred shrines.

[It was not "a nod to Serb sensibilities" - as said above the Yugoslav government *DEMANDED* that some, at least token troops should be let in to protect the monasteries. NATO troops were NOT let in until they signed that this condition would be fulfilled.]

That move may prove a hard sell to Kosovo's Albanians, who see more than mere symbolism in the Serbian Orthodox monasteries here.

"This was not senseless revenge," [it is a well planned one] said Nyseret Lapashtica, 49, who said he watched but did not participate in the sacking of the Vucitern monastery. "We wouldn't have touched the monastery if the priests had stayed neutral. They were hoarding food -- flour, cooking oil, sugar -- while we were starving. They let Serb snipers take up positions on their roof. [To snipe whom!? NATO!?]

[We have left the above lie as an ilustration of the level of propaganda practiced in the West.]

... [T]he abbot of the Serbs' most famous shrine in Kosovo, the beautiful Visoki Decani monastery [said]... "Both the surrounding Serbs and Albanians have protected this monastery for 650 years. We pray they continue to do so."...

(End quote)


We are let to believe that 40,000 troops of the most equipped and most vicious force on Earth could not deal with street gang that wants to rape nuns and burn churches. But they are the same force that INSISTED; that have bombed for 78 days DEMANDING that they bring law and order to Kosovo.

During the summer of the last year the Yugoslav government under threat of bombing had to reduce its 40,000 troop contingent in Kosovo. With NATO bombers "monitoring" the place from above Yugoslavs were able to keep some calm. They were able to keep all the monuments intact. Even during 11 weeks of vicious NATO bombing - the religious shrines (other than ones that were destroyed by NATO) were preserved.

Are NATO troops, in larger numbers, under better conditions not able to repeat the same? Or is it all done purposely?


Two months later - The Los Angeles Times
(round September 22, 1999): "The DOZENS of Orthodox
Christian monasteries destroyed" from the above article -
turned into 60 (+20)!!!

Christian Sites Being Decimated in Kosovo

Balkans: Serbs accuse ethnic Albanian rebels of systematically destroying places sacred to Orthodox

By PAUL WATSON,
Times Staff Writer

ZOCISTE, Yugoslavia--The church was built of stones quarried six centuries ago from the rock of Kosovo, and before last week's blast it had the power to make people believe in miracles.

For generations, through endless cycles of war and foreign occupation, people came to the small Serbian Orthodox shrine behind monastery walls and asked the spirits of saints to heal them.

Pilgrims reached out to touch caskets said to contain relics of St. Cosma and St. Damian, or lay down beside them and whispered a prayer before closing their eyes and waiting to be healed. Even ethnic Albanian Muslims were known to come.

But the saints' power was as nothing against the explosion Sept. 13 that collapsed the 14th century church.

The charges that destroyed it were placed at just the right spot to bring the whole medieval building down and make certain there was NOTHING left to rebuild.

The Church of Saints Cosma and Damian was built in 1327. It is now a ruin of broken stone, yellowed by the centuries that the sanctuary endured.

Four other, newer buildings where the monks lived and worked were not blown up. They were gutted by fire instead, and scorched pieces of religious icons lie among the ruins.

A Painted Acronym Suggests Complicity

The letters UCK, the Albanian acronym for the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA], were painted neatly in white on the wooden doors at the monastery's front gate.

samodreza-2.jpg (46936 bytes)

The Zociste monastery is one of at least 60 [SIXTY!!!] Serbian Orthodox churches and other religious sites that have been looted, burned or, in at least 21 cases, blown up since the NATO-led peacekeeping force, known as KFOR, began to take control of Kosovo--a province of Serbia, the dominant of Yugoslavia's two republics -- from retreating Serbian forces in mid-June. The Serbs say they were promised that several hundred of their soldiers and police would be permitted to return to guard Orthodox churches and sites in the province as well as to secure border posts, but so far that hasn't happened.

[Did you notice "The Serbs say they were promised..."? It is not what the Serbs SAY - it is simply - the fact.]

The list of sites destroyed by explosives includes several dating back to the Middle Ages, such as the Dormition of Mother of God parish church, built near Suva Reka in 1315.

virgin-before.jpg (69153 bytes)

Orthodox leaders have received reports that 20 MORE churches and monasteries have been destroyed, but it is too dangerous for Serbs to check their condition, Father Sava Janjic, an Orthodox cleric, said in an interview. Orthodox churches, religious offices and schools have also been targeted with grenades and rockets but not seriously damaged, KFOR reports confirm.

The skilled execution of the attacks leaves Janjic and most other Serbs convinced that well-trained KLA guerrilla units are secretly trying to wipe out historical Serbian links to the territory.

virgin-1.jpg (46059 bytes)
virgin-2.jpg (72093 bytes)

"It is more than obvious that these churches were destroyed by people with military training, people who still have not just ordinary weapons but hundreds of kilos of the best explosives," Janjic said.

"We are completely sure that the perpetrators of these crimes are from the ranks of the KLA," he said. "It is now only a question whether these groups are under the control of the highest KLA officials or not."

Dutch troops are posted just over a mile from Zociste, guarding Velika Hoca, a Serbian village of vineyards and churches dating back to the Middle Ages.

The village is outside the city of Orahovac...

...Agim Hesku... leads a protest blockade that has been keeping Russian peacekeepers out of Orahovac since Aug. 23... [Just another prove that KLA and KFOR work together].

Hazards Hamper Search for Evidence

Peacekeeping troops have not found any suspects in the attack on the monastery in Zociste, and two Dutch army officers said troops hadn't gone in to examine the ruins for fear of land mines.

The officers, who would not speak on the record, said Dutch troops were ordered after the blast to block the wooden gate of the walled monastery with coils of razor wire.

"I'm afraid KFOR is not prepared to get in serious conflict with the KLA because KFOR countries don't want the coffins of their soldiers coming home," Janjic said...

The KLA signed itself out of existence as of midnight Tuesday, but mounting evidence of systematic, clandestine attacks and the discovery of arms caches suggest that Kosovo's ethnic violence might not end so quickly...

The peacekeepers also have accused Serbs of trying to destabilize Kosovo. They say paramilitary units appear to be infiltrating from Serbia proper. [A blunt lie - never repeated again.]

At the height of Kosovo's civil war, KLA guerrillas attacked the Zociste monastery with grenades and light artillery on July 21, 1998, as the rebels seized nearby Orahovac.

After taking control of the monastery, the guerrillas took seven monks, an elderly nun and 30 elderly Serbian refugees prisoner. They were later released uninjured.

But the KLA also captured an estimated 85 Serbs in Orahovac, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. By August 1998, 40 Serbs were still unaccounted for, the rights group said. Serbian officials reported the missing Serbs to the Red Cross, but none of them have been found. Serbs continue to disappear in Kosovo despite... repeated calls for an end to ethnic violence...

[The Albanian hearsay about supposed Serbian destruction of Albanian mosques - deleted here. The author equates the true destruction of the Serbian sacred places with empty accusations from KLA terrorists.]

While the NATO-led peacekeeping force tries to stop the attacks on Serbs [sic!], it calls them acts of revenge.

Janjic, who has repeatedly condemned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his Serbian security forces [said] " [T]here has been a systematic attempt [by KLA/KFOR] to push the Serbs out of Kosovo in order to create a fait accompli"...

More than three months after NATO's bombing campaign drove Serbian security forces out of Kosovo, a NATO-led peacekeeping force of at least 40,000 troops has failed to stop the ethnic violence.

While the victims have come from different ethnic groups, the heaviest attacks since the peacekeepers arrived have been against Serbian targets. They have included at least three separate attacks that killed four Serbs and wounded 12 in recent weeks in the U.S.-patrolled zone in the southeast...

(End quote)


The "peacekeeping" force did NOTHING to keep peace. Quite the opposite.

The same place: Orahovac - mentioned above - where (Dutch and German) KFOR did nothing to stop Albanians from burning and destroying the Serbian heritage is the place where KFOR (with help of KLA) have created a true WWII-like ghetto for the Serbian civilians: young and old. You see the town of Orahovac is the "war criminals" factory. The women and children will be let go only if men "admit" a fabricated war crime.

To learn more take a look at interviews we organized with witnesses of the ghetto: three-women.html

And again, be sure to look at the list of destroyed Christian shrines at: eradication.html

Spread the news about the destruction of the Christian shrines to all your friends. Do not let NATO fascists continue their savage work.

Do not let NATO-fascism win!


Some other web sites talking about the topic:

- Truth in Media

- Orthodox Peace Fellowship, The Netherlands

- Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren.

- The Voice of Kosovo


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Last revised: November 6, 1999