Byzantine Blog

Please Oppose Congressional Resolutions Urging Detachment of Kosovo From Serbia

American Council for Kosovo Calls on All Americans:

Tell Your Senators and Congressman Today: Please Oppose Congressional Resolutions Urging Forcible and Illegal Detachment of Kosovo and Metohija from Democratic Serbia!

It is anticipated that Congress may soon consider two similar non-binding resolutions endorsing an independent Kosovo. (In the Senate, S. Res 135, and in the House of Representatives H. Res. 36). While these resolutions would not have the force of law, their passage would be important political endorsement of a misguided U.S. State Department and United Nations policy, which is in desperate need of support as the one-sided and discredited Ahtisaari plan faces collapse in the Security Council.

Since democratic Serbia will not agree to amputation of 15 percent of its territory, these resolutions effectively demand that such a separation be imposed on Serbia in violation of the U.N. Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, Security Council Resolution 1244 of 1999, and Serbia’s own constitution, which, adopted with overwhelming public approval, defines Kosovo and Metohija as an integral part of Serbia.

The American Council for Kosovo urgently calls on you: Please contact your Senators and Congressman today to request — respectfully but firmly — that they oppose these misguided and counterproductive resolutions. Please note the following links and suggested messages. (We suggest e-mail as the best way for an immediate impact, but phone calls or hard copy letters can also be used.)

In Opposition to Senate Resolution 135 (U.S. Senate)

Find your (two) Senators’ names and contacts at the link (alphabetical by state)

Suggested text to be sent to both your Senators (If you use e-mail, suggested subject line: “Senator [Name], please oppose S. Res. 135 about Kosovo”):

Dear Senator [Name]:

As your constituent, I am writing to urge your opposition to Senate Resolution 135 relating to the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. If the State Department and United Nations policy endorsed in S. Res. 135 were implemented, it would mean the final eradication of the Christian Serbian presence in Kosovo, which is the cradle of Serbia’s national and spiritual life. It would also be a vain and misguided effort to appease the violent demands by radical elements of Kosovo’s Muslim Albanian community, which would lead in turn to more violent demands in nearby areas. At a time when America is leading the global effort against jihad terrorism, this is a mistake we cannot afford to make!

An independent Kosovo, forcibly and illegally detached from democratic Serbia , would be certain to become a rogue state dominated by radical Islamic and organized crime influences. Since 1999, two-thirds of Kosovo’s Christian Serbs have been terrorized from the province, along with comparable percentages of Roma (Gypsies), Croats, Gorani, and other groups, as well as the entire Jewish community. Attacks against the dwindling number of non-Albanian targets continue. Some 150 churches and monasteries have been destroyed or desecrated and replaced with hundreds of new mosques propagating the extremist Wahhabist version of Islam. Organized crime rackets, connected to the Albanian mafia’s operations throughout Europe, and implicating the highest levels of the UN-supervised Albanian administration, traffic in drugs, weapons, and slaves — women and even children.

Finally, the policy endorsed in S. Res. 135 violates the UN Charter and other fundamentals of international law by seeking to detach part of a country’s territory without its consent. Instead of an illegal attempt to appease violence and threat of violence from the Muslim Albanian community, America should be supporting a balanced, negotiated, and legal solution that protects the legitimate interests of all of Kosovo’s inhabitants, regardless of religion or ethnicity. Please oppose S. Res. 135. I thank you for your urgent consideration of this matter.

Respectfully,
[Your name]
[Your address and phone number]

In opposition to House Resolution 36 (U.S. House of Representatives)

Find your (one) Congressman/woman’s name and contacts at the link (at upper left of page by zip code)

Suggested text to be sent to your Congressman/woman (If you use e-mail, suggested subject line: “Congressman (or Congresswoman) [Name], please oppose H. Res. 36 about Kosovo”):

Dear Congressman (or Congresswoman) [Name]:

As your constituent, I am writing to urge your opposition to House Resolution 36 relating to the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. If the State Department and United Nations policy endorsed in H. Res. 36 were implemented, it would mean the final eradication of the Christian Serbian presence in Kosovo, which is the cradle of Serbia’s national and spiritual life. It would also be a vain and misguided effort to appease the violent demands by radical elements of Kosovo’s Muslim Albanians community, which would lead in turn to more violent demands in nearby areas. At a time when America is leading the global effort against jihad terrorism, this is a mistake we cannot afford to make!

An independent Kosovo, forcibly and illegally detached from democratic Serbia, would be certain to become a rogue state dominated by radical Islamic and organized crime influences. Since 1999, two-thirds of Kosovo’s Christian Serbs have been terrorized from the province, along with comparable percentages of Roma (Gypsies), Croats, Gorani, and other groups, as well as the entire Jewish community. Attacks against the dwindling number of non-Albanian targets continue. Some 150 churches and monasteries have been destroyed or desecrated and replaced with hundreds of new mosques propagating the extremist Wahhabist version of Islam. Organized crime rackets, connected to the Albanian mafia’s operations throughout Europe, and implicating the highest levels of the UN-supervised Albanian administration, traffic in drugs, weapons, and slaves — women and even children.

Finally, the policy endorsed in H. Res. 36 violates the UN Charter and other fundamentals of international law by seeking to detach part of a country’s territory without its consent. Instead of an illegal attempt to appease violence and threat of violence from the Muslim Albanian community, America should be supporting a balanced, negotiated, and legal solution that protects the legitimate interests of all of Kosovo’s inhabitants, regardless of religion or ethnicity. Please oppose S. Res. 135. I thank you for your urgent consideration of this matter.

Respectfully,
[Your name]
[Your address and phone number]

Help us save Kosovo today, and it will save over 200 currently contested regions world-wide from future wars for secession, bloodshed and decades of grief!

Photo: Gracanica Monastery (pronounced: Grah-chah-ny-tzah) — Church of the Dormition of the Holy Virgin, built 1312-1321.

Situated in southern Serbia, 13km from the town of Pristina on the Kosovo plain, Gracanica is an endowment of the Holy king Milutin Nemanjic, one of the greatest Serbian and Balkan medieval rulers. The church of the Dormition of the Holy Virgin, built around 1312 upon the foundations of an older Byzantine church, with its fine arrangement of architectural masses, their stair-like narrowing as they rise in height, the red and yellow blocks of stone used, combine to produce an exceptionally harmonious construction, considered to be among the most beautiful Serbian and maybe even Byzantine five-dome churches, listed by the United Nations as the World Treasure.

Almost seven hundred years old frescoes of Gracanica are well preserved and they belong to the narrative, Paleologian style, characteristic of Byzantine painting in the first half of the 14th century. Gracanica is a female monastery inhabited with around 30 nuns.

Today, the monastery is in a very difficult situation like all the other churches and monasteries in Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. Surrounded with hostile, Muslim Albanian population, it has to be under the constant guard of the armed troops. If the Albanian lobby, holding U.S. senators in its pocket, succeeds in amputating Kosovo-Metohija from Serbia, there can be no doubt that every trace of Christianity will be permanently erased from the newly formed Afghanistan in the heart of Europe, including the 14th century Gracanica.

Take a virtual tour of the Gracanica church and monastery grounds, and a look at part of the church interior.