“The initiative of the President of the Republic to launch an internal dialogue on Kosovo is very positive, only in my humble opinion, it is more than ten years late” Mother of Makarija, Abbess of the Sokolica monastery in Kosovo stated to Blic.
She wondered how come Kosovo is a southern Serbian province, when it was recognized by most of the countries in the world, by accepting the UN Security Council Resolution 1244.
“Thus, the “ provisional institutions of Kosovo” are in fact institutions, the so-called KLA is the Kosovo Liberation Army, which still exists, but under a different name and with the undisputed hope of Priština that at one time the regular Army of Kosovo will be created from it … Let’s not fool ourselves. Let’s start living in reality,” she said.
When asked to comment on the dialogue about Kosovo, Mother Makarija said that the main thing is that “Serbia must never recognize the independence of Kosovo, even at the cost of joining the EU, which by continually seeking concessions and renunciations does not show the desire to have Serbia as its member”.
“The one who would dare to put his/her treacherous signature on the act of surrender of Kosovo will be labelled as the greatest enemy of the Serbian national being for all time. Until we recognize Kosovo, the hope remains,” she stressed.
Mother Makarija said that Serbia has to talk with the representatives of Priština with dignity and appreciation and underlined that at the moment the most important thing for Serbia is to set a line, under which it will not go in the talks on the position of Serbs in Kosovo and it is the spiritual, personal and territorial autonomy of Serbs. “Certainly, the Serbian monasteries should be included in the territorial autonomy, while the spiritual autonomy, among other things, would have to be recognized as the activity of the Serbian Orthodox Church – the guardian of the spiritual and traditional values of its people, and especially as the owners of the monastery and church property”.
Mother Makarija also said that the participants in the dialogue should be all well-meaning people who can contribute to the general cause.
When asked to comment the difference in lives of Serbs in the north and the south of Kosovo, Mother Makarija said that “the life of Serbs in the south and north of Kosovo is not the same” and pointed out that Serbs in the South, in order to survive because they are surrounded by Albanians, “are forced to uphold the laws of Kosovo”, while the Serbs in the north are in a different position.
“(…) Everyday life of both is getting increasingly harder every day…For Serbs in the South there is no work, and for the Serbs in the north the work is slowly disappearing. It’s true, there are construction works and there are jobs, but only Albanians can be seen on construction sites. How can one wrap ones’ head around the fact that the monument of Saint Lazar in Mitrovica was placed by Albanians?
Serbian entrepreneurs are slowly closing down their companies, while and their workers announce the abandonment of Kosovo for a simple reason – seeking their fortune (livelihood). I am afraid that, for these reasons, a new exodus of Serbs from Kosovo will follow.”
Asked how Serbs in Kosovo feel, the Abbess Makarija said that: “Serbs in Kosovo sometimes feel betrayed because, what can one say about Telekom’s daughter-company in Kosovo? If you want to have a phone, you must have a Kosovo ID card, which means that you have to declare yourself as a subject of the state of Kosovo. And yet, since euro is the official currency in Kosovo, you pay your bills exclusively in euros. If you want to travel throughout Kosovo, you must have Kosovo plates, which means Kosovo’s traffic and driving license … Problems never end. The question remains why in the past negotiations they did not discuss about the common problems related to everyday life? Because one needs to provide to the people, above all, the dignity of life.”
As the conclusion, her message to the authorities in Belgrade is that Serbs in Kosovo love Serbia dearly and stressed that Mother Serbia should not forget that “ her faithful children feel like drowning men on this turbulent sea of Kosovo, who are reaching for the branch whose name is Serbia”.
