Graffiti of the so called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) have appeared on the gate of the Visoki Decani Monastery, communicated the Eparchy of Raska and Prizren.
Messages of hatred recently appeared on the church in Djakovica, and later on Serbian houses in Orahovac. This time a provocative message was written on the very gate of Visoki Decani Monastery, only few dozen meters away from the Italian KFOR check point.
Eparchy of Raska and Prizren deems the act as an open threat to Visoki Decani Monastery and its monastic brotherhood, which in last 15 years of so called international peace in Kosovo and Metohija, found themselves exposed to threats and four times under the armed attacks carried out with rockets by Albanian extremists.
Unfortunately, this provocation and the threat is nothing but consequence of the nationalistic rhetoric which has been spread for years in local media in the Albanian language against the monastery, in which monks, amongst the others, used to help and Albanian refugees, said Eparchy.
“This newest incident is also an indicator that the safety of Serbian shrines in Kosovo and Metohija is still jeopardized, even if such shrines are guarded by KFOR,” reads the statement.
Abbot of Visoki Decani Monastery Archimandrite Sava informed in writing international representatives about the latest incident and requested additional security measures for this shrine, which was put on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2005.
“Even though such provocations are jeopardizing the safety and lives of monks and orthodox pilgrims, along with numerous tourists from around the world, they are most damaging for Kosovo, which is today the only territory in Europe where Christian monuments and shrines are still jeopardized,” reads the handout.
