Second part of the interview with Father Sava Janjic, Archdeacon of the Visoki Dečani Monastery in Western Kosovo and a key figure of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
How would you describe the lives of the Serbs who remained in Kosovo?
There are around 130,000 Orthodox Christian Serbs out of 2 million people living in Kosovo. They are scattered in various enclaves, where basic services and decent hygienic sanitation are still lacking. Northern Kosovo is mostly populated by Serbs, but they especially prevail in Central and Eastern Kosovo, mainly populated by Albanians. Living on the fringes of the Kosovar society and suffering from a very high unemployment rate, these Serbs are socially isolated, which makes their life extremely difficult. There are also Serbian communities that are targeted and harassed by Albanian nationalists, making their living conditions even harder and more humiliating.
Several holy places have been destroyed since the end of the war in 1999…
Since 1999, 150 Serbian Orthodox churches have been destroyed by Albanian nationalists. All those acts of vandalism are fully documented. In the 90s, during the conflicts that have bathed former Yugoslavia in blood, several religious sites belonging to any faith have been devastated. Despite the presence of international peacekeeping forces in Kosovo, this destruction has been continuing well after the war. During the uprisings in 2004, 35 Serbian churches were burnt in two days, and one of them was a designed UNESCO World Heritage site. The situation is currently a little more stable, although the Orthodox Christian sites are often targeted and threatened by radical Albanian nationalists. The international community in Kosovo has introduced several laws to protect Christian sites, but implementing these laws is a completely different story.
In the last five months, Kosovo has been stuck in an institutional deadlock, since the large parties cannot seem to find an agreement over power sharing and societal reforms. Moderate political initiatives have been ostracized, and the most likely political scenario is that the effective power will be held, once again, by former KLA military leaders, disguised as “democratic” lawmakers of the new Kosovo.
Despite this serious situation, diplomats and the media keep talking about the ongoing normalization of Kosovo…
Kosovo is indeed experiencing a stabilization process. However, it is a very long one and I doubt we will see more visible results for our generation. From the outside, Kosovo’s democracy looks like a theater stage. But if we take a look backstage, we can see a complex maze made of clans influenced by the dreadful illegal trafficking as well as organized crime groups that control in turn the interests of power élites. Currently, in Kosovo, two mayors (of Prizren and of Skenderai) are still in office despite having been convicted of crimes judged in all levels of courts. The mayor of Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo, belongs to an ultra nationalist party that supports the idea of a “Greater Albania”, and aims at freezing any diplomatic dialogue with Belgrade and Serbia.
Some international environments insist on presenting the Kosovo model as a success story because it would be extremely difficult to explain how 15 years of international peacekeeping and a great amount of financial aid have not resulted in any significant change in the Kosovar society. Nonetheless, it is crucial that the EU insists on playing its role in the region and on the political-correctness of Kosovar politicians’ statements, but also on acting as guarantor through concrete actions and the compliance with the law.
What is the role of the Catholic Church in Kosovo?
The Catholic Church in Kosovo is mainly formed by an Albanian-speaking community, and has around 60,000 members. As Christians, they’re closer to their Orthodox brothers with whom they share several traditions and past historical alliances. Yet they are affected by the Pan-Albanianism, which makes them politically closer to the Albanians of the Muslim part of Kosovo.
We have a constructive relationship with the Catholic bishop and the higher clergy, but cooperation and solidarity at the local level are in fact lacking, because they fear their closeness with the Serbian community could be seen as an offensive against nationalists.
I firmly believe that all of us, as Christian brothers, shall build a stronger cooperation, and distance ourselves from any political form. We shall work hard to preserve the Christian roots in Kosovo, which is the only glimmer of hope that will allow us to retain this side of the Balkans within the European cultural sphere.
Edited by Sayuri Romei
Second part of the interview with Father Sava Janjic, Archdeacon of the Visoki Dečani Monastery in Western Kosovo and a key figure of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
