Second Kosovo War
Destroyed Church of Holy Trinity in Petric, Kosovo and Metohija, Serbia. Leveling the church apparently wasn’t enough, so Albanians have also cut down the tree, branches of which are visible on this photo.
Italian Casa dei Libri has recently published a truly remarkable book about Kosovo and Metohija, titled “Second Kosovo War,” with subtitle “Serbian Orthodox Christian Heritage that Has to be Rescued.”
European Unity Built on Serbian Graveyard
“Second Kosovo War” is a compilation of well documented studies prepared by the Italian Parliament Senator, Luana Zanella. In a short and powerful preface Mayor of Venice Massimo Cachari writes:
If Europe fails to comprehend that monasteries and churches in Pec, Decani and Gracanica are an integral part of its own memory and its own cultural heritage, not only a possibility for the peaceful development of the Balkan region will be lost, but the political unity of the European community will become absurd.
Cachari urges Europe to rebuild destroyed cultural, artistic and religious monuments in Kosovo and Metohija, since “although most proficient and most capable of destruction, the man is also able to restore.”
Apartheid in the Heart of Europe
Editor Luana Zanella says that if there is “one nation today that is forced to live in the state of apartheid in the heart of Europe, and precisely at the place where its civilization was born, it is the Serbian nation.” In the gesture of His Eminence Amfilohije Radovic, the Bishop of Serbian Orthodox Church, who defended a mosque in Belgrade from the enraged crowd, Zanella sees the hope for ethnic, religious and cultural tolerance in the Balkans.
The first part of the book titled “History and Art,” follows the once flourishing Serbian culture and art in Kosovo and Metohija as it steadily declines through the centuries, suffocated by the Turkish and Albanian Muslim hordes and tribes.
Andrea Catone, President of the Bridge for Belgrade Society, documents that the latest ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija is only the continuation of the ethnic cleansing Albanians were carrying out for centuries, especially since the mass exodus of the Serbs in 1690. Valentino Pache claims the architecture and fresco painting from the time of Serbian medieval King Milutin represents the peak of Byzantine art.
Outside the Ghetto Walls
The second part of the book, titled “Testimonies and Documents,” contains articles by Alessandro Bianchini and Andrea Catone (“Kosovo Under the UNMIK Protection: Ethnocide Revealed”), as well as reports and interviews by Tomaso di Franchesco, the renowned Manifesto journalist. The compilation ends with Luana Zanella’s travelogue, “Three Days of Kosovo.” Both Franchesco’s and Zanella’s writings give a convincing picture of the true situation in Kosovo and Metohija today.
Tomaso di Franchesco also spoke with Father Sava of Decani Monastery, who says that Albanians plan to turn Serbian shrines and holy places into museums, but that can be done only if they cleanse Kosovo and Metohija from the last remaining Serb. They have already achieved that with Gypsies, very few of whom remain in Kosovo today within Serbian enclaves, and whom -- as Rajko Djuric said -- no one from the International Community even thinks of including into the negotiations about Kosovo status. While the images of Serbian misery and poverty dominating Serb enclaves are still fresh, Zanella is taken to a luxurious Albanian restaurant in Pristina named by the Italian military base from which fighter jets were taking off to bomb Serbia -- “Aviano” -- another detail from the sad, controversial and absurd Kosovo and Metohija reality.
“Second Kosovo War” is richly illustrated with color photos of the most important churches and monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija. The photo of the destroyed Church of Holy Trinity in Petric is on the front cover, along with the note that Albanians have even cut down the tree around which the faithful were gathering.