SERBIA: Kosovo Serbs mark Orthodox Christmas in the divided city of Mitrovicain as declaration of independence looms

Record ID: 777957

  • Title: SERBIA: Kosovo Serbs mark Orthodox Christmas in the divided city of Mitrovicain as declaration of independence looms
  • Date: 8th January 2008
  • Summary: (EU) MITROVICA, KOSOVO, SERBIA (JANUARY 7, 2008) (REUTERS) PRIESTS AND SERBS WALKING UP HILL TO SAINT SAVA CHURCH PRIEST OPENING DOOR AND GOING INTO CHURCH SERBS GOING INTO CHURCH VARIOUS OF SERBS KISSING CHURCH DOOR AS THEY ENTER BLACKENED CEILING AND WALLS OF CHURCH (FROM 2004 RIOTS) TILT DOWN TO PEOPLE AT SERVICE
  • Embargoed: 23rd January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Serbia
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: International Relations,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVAAYT57YM8XAD4NDCGP0ZJAL6FI
  • Story Text: Dozens of Serbs from northern Mitrovica arrived to mark Orthodox Christmas at the Saint Sava church in the south of the city on Monday (January 7).
    Under NATO and police escort, they made the short trip by bus from Serb-controlled northern Mitrovica across the river into the southern, mainly Albanian, half of the city.
    Every year Serbs from northern Kosovo are taken to mark religious dates at the church, which was abandoned when the city divided at the end of the war in 1999. It was then gutted by Albanian rioters in 2004.
    This year's celebrations, however, come as Kosovo's Albanian leaders prepare to declare independence, a move Serb leaders describe as illegal and that will cause yet more uncertainty for the already precarious future of Serbs living in the province.
    Ninety percent of the province's two million people are ethnic Albanians. They insist on building their own state after Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic tried to empty them from the province in an offensive that killed thousands. Serbs, however, claim it has their religious heartland.
    Tens of thousands of Serbs fled a wave of revenge attacks following NATO's 1999 bombing that drove out Serb forces. Those who stayed faced discrimination and sporadic violence, many in isolated rural ghettos. Talk of independence has sparked fears of being driven out further.
    Standing outside a Mitrovica church damaged in riots in 2004, Slobodanka Nojic, a Serb from northern Mitrovica said: "We wish that what we have just seen here never happens to anyone. We wish for peace, health, joy, harmony among us, to rebuild these churches, our holy places for young people to come back, so they can continue to worship in this church as we did for many years. So they can live in health, peace and joy."
    The Albanians say independence will be declared in the first months of 2008 and count on the major Western powers to overrule opposition form Serbia and Russia and recognise the new state.
    But Serbs are defiant this will not happen.
    "I think there is no reason to fear," said Marko Jaksic, a member of the Serb negotiating team on Kosovo's status.
    "For a country to become a country it has to be recognised by the UN Security Council and we know that the balance of powers at the UN is such that Albanians cannot get a second state in the Balkans. They can declare it, some countries may even recognise it, but it means nothing."
    Almost two years of Serb-Albanian talks ended in failure and Serb ally Russia has blocked the U.N. adoption of a plan granting Kosovo independence under European Union supervision.
    The United States and the major EU powers now say they will move ahead with the blueprint by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, without a new U.N. Security Council resolution.
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