Monday, April 23, 2007




Decani Monastery

Novo Brdo is a small municipality which lies t the southeast of pristine, consisting of 10 villages and dozens of mahallas tucked away in a hilly area. It is an entirely rural area with the majority of the population living off subsistence farming. It is one of the poorest municipalities in Kosovo with high unemployment and little prospect for job creation.

According to estimates from UNHCR and OSCE, prior to the conflict, the population of Novo Brdo was less than 5,000. The population has since decreased to approximately 3,900. Before the 1999 conflict there was a Kosovo Serb majority of approximately 54%. Currently, there is a Kosovo Albanian majority of 61%.
April 23, 2007
Albanians Setting Up Fires to Serb-Owned Kosovo Forests
In last four days Albanians have burned over 200 hectares (490 acres) of Serb-owned forests in Kosovo-Metohija.
Albanian Way of Hijacking Kosovo Province — Burn It All!
After razing to the ground over 150 Serbian churches and monasteries, there are very few left to destroy and those that still remain are heavily guarded day and night by the foreign troops. The ground where glorious medieval Christian churches once stood is today mostly cleared and the new mosques, memorials and monuments to terrorist KLA/UCK have been erected in their place.
A number of Serbian villages have also been burned during the NATO-brought “peace”, since the summer of 1999, especially during the March 2004 Kristallnacht, another mass expulsion of Serbian Kosovo-Metohija residents. Three years ago, 7 Serbian villages were entirely wiped off the earth, along with 800 Serbian houses scattered in the tiny ghettos throughout.
But in a province that has been Serbian for over a millennium, there is still much more to destroy, more ways to force the remaining non-Albanians to flee, more devastation to cause in order to erase ten centuries of history and change the face of the region for good.
Serb-Owned Forests Set Ablaze
Tanjug reports that a series of fires set up near the Istok municipality in Kosovo-Metohija province since Saturday have so far ravaged 200 hectares (over 490 acres) of Serb-owned forests.
“In only four days Albanian terrorists set fire on Poljana and Bogace forests owned by local Serbs, ravaging more than 100 hectares (over 240 acres). The same happened yesterday in Tucep where the fire has not been put out yet. According to locals, more than 200 hectares (approx. 495 acres) of Serbian forests has so far been ruined,” the Coordinating Center statement said.
As the raging fire is quickly surging towards Serbian villages Osojane, Tucep, Blagaca and Poljane, the alarmed residents have no doubt the fire was set up by the Albanian terrorists, since it was started in the Albanian village on the road to Rakos and spread from there.
“When similar incidents keep repeating in a short period of time, there can be no doubt we are dealing with the organized actions aimed exclusively at intimidating and purging Serbian residents from Kosovo-Metohija province,” Istok municipality coordinator Rados Vulic told the press Saturday.
He said that fires have been intentionally started for the last eight years, adding that the local Serbs were persistent in dealing with innumerable hardships, enduring and remaining in their homes.
The Coordinating Center stressed that “KFOR and UNMIK representatives failed to respond to numerous appeals to protect Kosovo Serbs.”
The Kosovo Coordinating Center said in a statement that “the fire started near Tučep village in the vicinity of the Istok municipality and spread into the neighboring village of Poljane as a result of an unprofessional and untimely intervention by the Istok fire brigade.”
“Locals fear it may last two more days and devastate more than 600 hectares (over 1480 acres) of forest.”
Rightful Owner
News like this inevitably brings up the question of rightful ownership — if southern Serbian province ought to be gifted to those who would rather see it completely destroyed, turned to ashes and smoke, just to spite the Serbs and force them to leave.
At one point Albanians launched a bizarre propaganda campaign attempting to persuade the world Orthodox Christian churches and monasteries in the province, built centuries ago, are actually Albanian property that Serbs took away, “stole” from them at some point in time. Father Sava (Janjic) of Decani Monastery asked: If that is so, then why are you destroying them?
To own something means to be responsible for it, to love it, to take care of it, to be proud to see it grow, prosper and endure, and to be heartbroken to see it demolished and destroyed. The only thing Kosovo-Metohija Albanians have proven thus far is that they never really owned a thing in Kosovo-Metohija and they don’t deserve a single foot of Serbian land, let alone the entire Serbian Kosovo.
Posted by Svetlana at Byzantine Sacred Art Blog at 04:27 AM