Destruction of churches and church property on Kosovo in days of March Pogrom (March 17-19, 2004)

The city of Prizren, the medieval capital of Serbian King Dusan, went through very difficult times immediately after the end of the bombing in 1999, when mobs of Albanians (from the Republic of Albania) entered the city and looted Serb houses. Over 8,000 Serbs were forced to leave their homes before the tidal wave of furious Albanians. In the last convoy to leave the city was Bishop Artemije of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija with a large group of remaining Serbs, accompanied by the curses and spitting of the Albanian mob. The German soldiers who had come to establish order did nothing except enable the evacuation of the Serbs. Despite the efforts of Bishop Artemije to provide for the stay of the Serb population in the city, the Germans were not ready to guarantee security for anyone. Consequently only a few dozen mostly elderly people stayed in the city who did not want to leave their centuries-old homes. During the first days and weeks, several dozen Serbs were murdered or abducted. They were mostly elderly natives of Prizren who believed that their Albanian and Turkish neighbors would protect them, as they protected their Albanian neighbors during the bombing, and allow them to remain in their homes. Serb houses were torched in a campaign that lasted days; chaos and disorder ruled in the city. A few Serbs who had been expelled from their homes found sanctuary in Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary, the pious endowment of a renowned native of Prizren from the 19th century, Sime Igumanov. The Seminary became a sanctuary not only for expelled Serbs but for all those who met with the disapproval of KLA henchmen who, despite the KFOR presence, immediately assumed power in the city. All this was calmly tolerated by German KFOR. Albanians from neighboring villages forced their way in and usurped Serb property. During those first days, in June 1999, Monk Chariton Lukic of Holy Archangels Monastery disappeared in the streets of Prizren near the former Yugoslav People's Army Hall on his way to visit a Serb family. His body was found in the summer of 2000, beheaded and with signs of torture. The bodies of many kidnapped Serbs have not been found to this day.

Nevertheless, after the first wave of violence that swept like a storm through the Province, by the beginning of the year 2000 it appeared that life had become somewhat more normal. Many international representatives cited Prizren as a symbol of stability and coexistence; one could frequently hear Serbian spoken in the street as it is also the language used by local Serb Muslims, Torbesi and Gorans, collectively proclaimed Bosniacs overnight. Nevertheless, the Serbs lived in a state of caution. Despite external signs of "improvement" in the situation, it was obvious that the Kosovo Albanians intended to build a society where there is no room for Serbs, especially for returnees. Despite the suffering of summer and autumn of 1999, immediately following the deployment of German KFOR and assumption of power by representatives of the former KLA, by some miracle of God almost all of the key Orthodox Christian shrines in the city had been preserved. Only the church of St. Nicholas, located not far from the Roman Catholic church, had been blown up in summer of 1999. Our priests kept a regular presence in the Bishop's residence, which Bishop Artemije had turned over to German KFOR for safekeeping with a signed contract with German commander von Korf. The Germans guarded the Orthodox Cathedral of St. George, the Seminary, Holy Salvation, the Mother of God of Ljevis. We made efforts to serve religious services regularly in all churches and enable the shrines themselves to stay alive. Our remaining Prizren natives came to Holy Liturgy and visited us in the Bishop's residence and the Seminary.

In Holy Archangels Monastery life quickly returned to normal after June 1999. New brothers joined us and we developed our engraving activities and other monastic obediences. The German protected the monastery and placed barbed wire and ramps all around. Although we had no serious problems with German KFOR, our relations with them were never sincere although we always graciously received them and consciously sought to maintain friendly relations. In recent weeks, our relations with German KFOR were especially drawn due to discontinuation of escorts and stoning of our monks in Djakovica in January. Nonetheless, we believed that those problems would eventually be resolved. We were always told that they would protect the monastery and that we had no reason to worry. We tried to believe them but in our heart of hearts remained a deep disbelief in their promises.

Albanian mob sifts through the ruins of the Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Great Martyr George in Prizren - In the next three days the church would be demolished even further with explosives>. Although the representative of the Bundeswehr (German Army) signed a contract with Bishop Artemije in 1999 that the German KFOR will protect the Bishop's residence and the Cathedral of St. George was proved to be one of many unfulfilled promises. Compared to other KFOR contingents who fought to protect the churches, German KFOR under the command of infamous Colonel Hintelmann let the crowd destroy Christian Orthodox sites without any obstacle. All they did is that they evacuated the monks and hid themselves in the KFOR base.

That tragic Wednesday, March 17, began as any other day in the monastery. Monastic obediences were carried out starting early in the morning; work was being done in the engraving studio. The disturbance began with news of riots in Kosovska Mitrovica from our faithful from Prizren. We followed the news primarily by Internet. Recently new computers had been given to us by a donor and we had the intent of collecting as much material and many testimonies as we could in these difficult times. With each passing hour, information arrived that the violence was spreading like wildfire throughout Kosovo and Metohija and that the situation was especially critical in the areas of Caglavica and Gracanica. In Prizren the day was a relatively slow one and our people did not call us with any indications that the violence might spread there, too. In the last few years, Prizren has been one of the quietest cities in the Province, and the remaining 60 Serbs there were already able to freely move about outside their homes. Since last year there has been a more intense return of Serbs to Sredska Zupa, and the returnees to the village of Novake. We believed that life in the medieval Serb capital of Serbian King Dusan was slowly returning to normal. However, as if according to some plan, by the late afternoon hours Albanians had begun to massively gather in the streets. These were no ordinary demonstrations like those held before in support of arrested members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

In the afternoon we could see from the monastery great clouds of smoke rising above the city located only a few kilometers to the north. We could not imagine that a pogrom of unprecedented proportions had already begun, and that the streets were already full of thousands of primarily young people who had already begun their crusade of destruction. According to information we later received, the Albanians first headed for Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary, which was home to eight Serb refugees. Among them were two children, one pregnant woman and one bed-ridden elderly woman. First they hoisted the flag of the KLA; then, to the sound of incredible shrieking and screams, they began to set the fire. After burning the Seminary where, as we learned later, Serb Dragan Nedeljkovic (born 1955) lost his life, the wave of destruction swept on the Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Great Martyr George, above the fountain. Father Myron, who was on duty in the Bishop's residence, informed us in a state of obvious excitement that a huge crowd of people was approaching the Bishop's residence and church with a lot of noise and shouting. The German soldiers were very frightened and disturbed. The Albanians had already begun to smash the windows of the Bishop's residence; some had already broken into the Church of St. George. Father Myron was quickly ordered to prepare to evacuate. With lightning speed, the Germans threw him into an armored transporter and transferred him to the German base. In the meanwhile, the Albanian mob had already broken into the Bishop's residence and set it on fire, while some were helping themselves to anything of value left in the building. A fire was also set in the church of St. George from which the Albanians, according to later testimony, were also removing precious objects. After it burned down, the church was also dynamited so that the entire roof with the dome collapsed. The mass howled in its destructive delirium.