consuming cannabis in her monastery, the Keston News Service (KNS) reported Monday, August 12.
KNS, which closely monitors religious persecution, said that the Prioress of Gracanica Monastery, Mother Efrosinia, was detained late on August 7 by UNMIK officers in the Yugoslav province.
She was questioned for several hours by a German police inspector until close to midnight before being released at the Kosovo Police Service in Gracanica, about 8 kilometres (apr. 5 miles) east of Kosovos’ capital Pristina, KNS said.
The arrest was carried out on suspicion that cannabis is being grown and consumed on about 100 square metres of the monastery.
"WILD HEMP"
However KNS quoted UNMIK police chief Charles Weber as telling local radio that that the investigation had shown that the alleged cannabis "was just wild growing hemp."
The news agency also quoted Mother Efrosina as telling the Raska & Prizren Diocesan Bulletin, that the sisters of the monastery "once raised hemp (prior to 1953) on that part of the monastery land."
She said that "it is still growing wild on the edge of a meadow" frequently used for landing by UNMIK helicopters. "Hemp is a plant of poor people once raised by everyone and used to make clothes," Mother Efrosina explained.
FORMAL APOLOGY
The Serbian Orthodox Church has asked for, but not yet received, a formal apology from UNMIK Police for the wrongful arrest of Mother Efrosina, KNS reported.
This latest incident was expected to further strain the already tense relationship between Kosovo’s Serbian Orthodox Church and UNMIK, which has been criticized of not doing enough to stop attacks against Serbian christians and church leaders.
Kosovo was put under United Nations administration in 1999, after NATO bombing drove out the Serb forces of ex-President Slobodan Milosevic in a bid to stop repression of the ethnic Albanian majority in the troubled province.
