Bishop Artemije: My country's answer to all forms of pressure will be "No"

Radio Television Serbia, Belgrade, Tuesday, 18 July 2006 14:15

My country's answer to your request that we renounce Kosovo will be - no, regardless of pressures from Washington or from London or from Brussels. All our parties will say: The hand that will sign the surrender of Kosovo does not exist, said Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren in Washington.

He asked his hosts, before whom he testified regarding the situation in the Serbian province under the UN protectorate, to ask their government to again reconsider its policies, "which are bad for both Serbia and for America". The Bishop of Raska and Prizren, who is heading a delegation which arrived in Washington a few days ago, testified upon the invitation of the World Heritage Foundation before some 50 representatives of non-governmental organizations and members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

According to the Diocese of Raska and Prizren's press office, the Bishop noted that he had come to seek help in the effort for a change in US policy which, if it remains unchanged, will condemn his "people to extinction and create another country of evil - in the middle of Europe".

The Serbian bishop said that under the eyes of the UN and NATO Kosovo has become a black hole of corruption and organized crime, including trafficking in drugs, arms and white slaves. He reminded that the day after the arrival of international forces 220,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians were forced to leave Kosovo and Metohija, that more than 1,000 Serbs have been killed and more than 150 churches and monasteries, many of them dating back to the Middle Ages, destroyed.

"With each passing day Kosovo and Metohija are losing more and more of the physiognomy of a Christian land with many churches and monasteries, and increasingly coming to resemble a Muslim country overflowing with mosques. This transformation is the direct result of the violence that has been committed, and threats that violence will occur. In the meanwhile, hundreds of Wahhabi mosques have been built and are still being built, mostly with funding from Saudi Arabia and the countries of the Persian Gulf. And now, implementing the policies inherited from the previous administration, some officials of the American are asking for, and increasingly demanding, that my country, Serbia, turns over a part of its territory to this extremist Islamicist movement," said the Bishop. "The separation of Kosovo and Metohija, an integral part of democratic Serbia, from its motherland, would mean condemning my people to extinction in that part of the land, and the creation of a country of evil, whose government will be in the hands of terrorists," he added.

"I cannot understand why official representatives of America desire this. Perhaps they think that by doing so they will leave a good impression on the Islamic countries," said the Bishop.

He warned that this is not just a Serbian problem but also an American one and that recently an accused war criminal, Agim Ceku, who is now the head of the [Kosovo] Albanian administration, was received in the White House by the State Department with high honors. Bishop Artemije pointed out that Kosovo should not be an exception to the American global battle against jihad terror. "By sacrificing our country and our blood, you cannot protect yourselves from jihad."

"It is a fact that my country's answer to your request that we renounce Kosovo will be - no, regardless of pressures from Washington or from London or from Brussels. All our parties will say: The hand that will sign the surrender of Kosovo does not exist, emphasized Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren.