the "large portionhas fled the troubled Serbian province of Kosovo, where it said "many Jewish synagogues have been destroyed," an independent news agency reported.
Belgrade’s FoNet said a WJC delegation made the comments in Belgrade during talks with Serbia’s recently elected President Boris Tadic and reformist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. WJC President Israel Singer was quoted as saying it was important to "expand cooperation between the congress and the Jewish community of Serbia," at a time of tension in Kosovo.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the destruction of the unspecified number of synagogues in the province, where the mainly Muslim population of ethnic Albanians form a majority.
However Serb authorities have suggested that ethnic Albanian militants are responsible for the destruction of non Islamic religious sites.
On Monday the nationalistic Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic appealed to the WJC to support Serbia’s struggle to retain control of Kosovo, The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported from Belgrade.
"SERBIAN JERUSALEM"
Draskovic called the province "the Serbian Jerusalem," and compared a Kosovo divorced from Serbia to Jews’ historic separation from their homeland, the daily added. "There is no difference between terrorists killing children in Chechnya or in Jerusalem or in Kosovo or in New York," he reportedly said.
WJC leaders declined to back the Serbian position, as the "first and most important thing is respect for human rights" Singer told the minister, according to The Jerusalem Post. However, Singer added, that he and others "will try to sensitize people… to the depths of feeling of your people." He said he was encouraged that outside Kosovo elsewhere in Serbia the phenomenon of anti-Semitism is "not (as) widespread, as in most of Europe."
"There have been [only] a few incidents in Serbia and Montenegro and we’re pleased about that," he was quoted as saying. However Serbia and Montenegro’s small and aging Jewish population numbering a few thousand has complained about a rise of anti Semitism this year, said the International Religious Freedom Report 2004, of the United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
KOSOVO ELECTIONS
Serbian President Tadic has urged Kosovo Serbs to participate in their province’s parliamentary elections this month, saying that "participating in the democratic process" was the best way to guarantee more influence over the police, judicial system and healthcare in Serbian enclaves.
Tadic told BosNewsLife he was optimistic about the future talks on the final status of Kosovo, which is under United Nations administration since 1999, when NATO with 78-days of heavy bombardments forced Serb troops to withdraw from the area.
