Serbian Church comments on recent Kosovo unrest

(SOC) - On May 29, 2023, His Grace Bishop Irinej of Eastern America sent a letter to the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the United States National Security Advisor to President Joe Biden, Mr. Jacob Sullivan, regarding the violence in the north of Kosovo and Metohija.

Bishop Irinej, motivated by deep concern and great indignation due to the violence against the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, which intensified in the past few days, and turned into an open armed conflict on Monday. In his letter, Bishop Irinej noted that in the conflict between the Kosovo Albanian Police Force and the Serbs, KFOR had sided with the aggressor - the Kosovo Albanian authorities in Kosovo and Metohija. Also, it is indicative that the violence occurred the day after Secretary Blinken tried to calm tensions by unequivocally condemning the violence committed by the Kosovo Albanian authorities against the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija.

Bishop Irinej expressed satisfaction with the historical statement of Blinken since it is the first time in recent history that a Secretary of State strongly and unreservedly condemned the violence of Albanians against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. Bishop Irinej emphasized that the experience of the past years indicates the fact that the temporary institutions of Pristina do not respect international agreements or their own laws when it comes to the Serbian people. The violence that happened on Monday clearly shows that Albanians are now able to brazenly ignore the United States of America and its allies.

With such actions, the Kosovo Albanians put the United States of America and the European Union representatives in an unenviable position, given that the latest violence clearly indicates the extent of aggression and the true intentions of the Kosovo Albanian authorities to create an ethnically pure state without Serbs, said Bishop Irinej and reminded that peace and stability in Southeast Europe, among other things, depend on the ability of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija to live freely, in peace and with human dignity. The biggest threat to these basic rights of Serbs in Kosovo and Kosovo stems precisely from the irresponsibility and constant violation of human and religious rights by the temporary Pristina institutions.

Bishop Irinej called on the United States of America and NATO to immediately consider, together with the representatives of the Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija, the implementation of new security measures to protect the lives of the Serbian population and enable their survival.