Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox Bishop to Richard Holbrooke

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Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 08:49:02 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox Bishop to Richard Holbrooke

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>

Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox Bishop to Richard Holbrooke


Open Letter from Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox Bishop to Richard Holbrooke
 
June 25, 1998
 
TO: Richard Holbrooke
 
Your Excellency,
 
Yesterday, on June 24, you spent all day on the territory of Kosovo
and Metohija. We believe that you came with the noble intention to
make your contribution to the calming down of the conflict as well as
to the victory of peace and justice in this region.
 
However, your visit has brought me in a dilemma. I ask myself whether
your visit to Kosovo in Metohija was really a peace-making and
well-intentioned. Here is the reason of my concern:

It is very difficult to understand (and even more to accept) that the
peace may be achieved by contacting one side in the conflict only. On
this occasion you have had only the contact with the Albanian side. Is
it possible to have a full impact on the truth here if another side is
not heard (in this case the Serbian one)?
 
Is it possible that you have overlooked the fact that there are also
Serbs who live in Kosovo and Metohija and not only Albanians?
 
How can we understand and explain the fact that you passed through
Prizren yesterday and did not have a wish to meet there the Bishop of
Raska and Prizren in order to hear from him at least a part of the
truth on what is going on in Kosovo and Metohija. And the Bishop would
have had a lot of things to tell you.
 
How can we understand and explain the fact that you were in Decani and
did not visit Decani Monastery which is only two kilometers from the
town. There you could have seen and learned more about the deep
historic roots of the Serbs in this region. In the contact with the
Serbian refugees there you could have heard their tragic story and
learn how they became refugees in their own homeland.
 
We are therefore in dilemma whether you wanted at all to learn the
factual truth or it was your kind hosts from your escort (Mr. Fehmi
Agani, Mr. Veton Surroi and others) who did not allow you that and
mislead you so that you could have an impression of only one side of
the Kosovo and Metohija situation.

No matter what the real reason were, we think that such a relationship
towards the Kosovo and Metohija reality cannot and will not contribute
the achievement of the mutual confidence, peace and the common life in
this region. It is painful to learn that your mission and mighty
America have missed this point.

With my wish that the next time you show more understanding for the
pain and cries of the Kosovo and Metohija Serbs, I am greeting you
cordially.

Sincerely Yours,
Bishop of Raska and Prizren
ARTEMIJE

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