when NATO-led forces stormed a church and the rectory in a failed operation to capture Radovan Karadzic, one of the worlds most wanted Serb war crimes suspects.
Jeremija Starovlah, 52, and his son Aleksandar, 28, were wounded when peacekeepers used explosives to break into the complex, shattering windows and leaving a hole at the main entrance, witnesses said. Doctors were fighting for their lives, several reports said, quoting hospital sources.
The setback underscored the difficulties to capture Karadzic, a former Bosnian Serb president who has been on the run since his indictment for genocide in 1995, amid growing concern among Serb Orthodox Christians that they will be caught in the middle of rising tension in the Balkans. Karadzic is sought by the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague for his alleged Involvement in a massacre in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica where up to 8,000 Muslims were killed by Serb forces.
One of his supporters, ex-Bosnian Serb policeman Darko Mrdja, was sentenced Wednesday, March 31, to 17 years in prison by the U.N. court for another massacre of more than 200 Muslim and Croat men on Mount Vlasic in 1992. Judge Alphonse Orie spoke of a large-scale massacre. "We conclude that the sentence should reflect all of the cruelty and inhumanity embodied in Darko Mrdja’s direct participation in the shooting of more than 200 civilians, of which all but 12 were killed," he said.
Serbia has been accused of supporting suspects in The Hague, while hiding others. The United States has therefore announced it is suspending a 25 million dollar aid package to Serbia and Montenegro, which replaced the Yuguslav federation.
ORTHODOX CHURCH CONCERNED
But the latest political problem between Washington and Belgrade as well as Thursday’s NATO attack against the Pale church added to concern among Serb Orthodox officials living outside Serbia about perceived growing post-war opposition towards them in Bosnia Herzegovina and elsewhere in the Balkan region.
New figures in Kosovo, the U.N. administered troubled Serbian province, show about 30 Orthodox churches and monasteries have been destroyed there during recent violence by Albanian mobs against the minority Serbian population, reported the Forum 18 News Service of the religious rights group Forum 18.
In Budapest, the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) also expressed concern about reports that over 70 homes from Roma, or Gypsies, in Kosovo were burned by angry ethnic Albanians during last month’s violence in which at least 19 people died.
MORE PERSECUTION
In addition the ERRC is worried about the reported persecution of other ethnic minority groups. On Thursday, April 1, the United Nations presented a plan for more stability and peace in the region ahead of status talks on Kosovo.
But the plan has been rejected by the Belgrade leadership as "a show", which it claims will do little to provide long term protection for the Serb minority and its churches.
The Washington based Institute on Religion and Public Policy (IRPP) suggested Thursday, April 1, that the attacks against Serbian Orthodox churches resemble attacks against Jewish institutions during the Nazi era.
"SHAMEFUL AND INEXCUSABLE"
"The recent events in Kosovo and Metohija were shameful and inexcusable. One UN official in Kosovo stated that, ‘Kristallnacht is under way in Kosovo,’" said IRPP President Joseph K. Grieboski. "Another (official) commented that ‘What is happening in Kosovo must unfortunately be described as a pogrom against Serbs: churches are on fire and people are being attacked for no other reason than their ethnic background.’" he added.
Grieboski said that the "calculated targeting of homes, churches, cemeteries and monasteries must be strongly condemned." He said his institution welcomed the U.S. Senate Resolution 326 on Kosovo which "takes such serious steps."
He said monasteries and churches dating back to the 12th century are burning; 14 have been completely destroyed. "Their cultural significance–not only for Christians but for all humanity–is irreplaceable. Photographs and memories are all that remain of these objects of civilization."
Resolution 326 also recognizes and condemns the destruction of historic mosques in the cities of Belgrade and Nis, and of an Islamic center in Novi Sad, the IRPP stressed. Last month, former Swedish Prime Minister and Balkans peace negotiator Carl Bildt suggested to BNL that the international community should have seen "the warning signs". He said NATO and the European Union should have send more troops to Kosovo, instead of reducing their forces in the area.
