Published by Ecumenical News International Daily News Service, August 14, 2003

Serbian Orthodox Church leader calls for end to violence in Kosovo

By Clive Leviev-Sawyer

SOFIA, August 14, 2003 (ENI) -- Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Pavle has called on domestic and international authorities to stop a rising tide of violence in Kosovo, following a killing this week of two youths who were among a group of people swimming in a river near a village in western Kosovo.

The gunmen fired from nearby bushes, killing the two youths and injuring six others. The attack is reported to be the worst since a family of three was killed in the town of Obilic two months ago.

"There is and cannot be any major crime than killing these innocent and blameless children, for which there can be no justification," Pavle said in a statement released on Thursday in Belgrade about the attack on the youths in Gorazdevac, a mainly Serb village in western Kosovo.

Reports of violence have increased over recent months in Kosovo, run by the United Nations since a NATO military operation in 1999 to drive Serb forces out of the province to halt repression of the majority Albanians.

Pavle said the "honest Albanian people of Kosovo and Metohija [as the western part of Kosovo is known to Serbs] as well as the temporary Kosovo political authorities" should stop such crimes, which were becoming more and more frequent.

This week's attack coincided with a visit to the province by Harri Holkeri, a former Finnish prime minister who is the new head of the UN administration there.

Kosovo is still formally a part of Serbia and Montenegro but its status is unresolved. Ethnic Albanians insist it should become independent while Serbs say it has to remain within Serbia.

In a document published last week, the Serbian Orthodox Church described Kosovo as the "Jerusalem of the Serbian nation". Serbia's cabinet approved on Tuesday a draft document on Kosovo, asserting the province to be an inseparable part of Serbia.

The document sharply criticised the UN civilian administration in Kosovo for failing to act against violence, demands the punishment of ethnic Albanians alleged to have committed war crimes, and calls for Serbian security forces to be allowed to protect the Serbian community in Kosovo.