Subject: PETITION FOR THE SAFEGUARD OF SERBIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 09:57:27 +0200
PETITION FOR THE SAFEGUARD OF SERBIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE
We, the undersigned, plead for an immediate end to the Albanian Kosovo
"Liberation" Army's annihilation of Serbian cultural heritage in the
form of destruction of medieval monasteries and churches. We further
urge the NATO and Albanian leaders Mr. Robertson and Mr.
Rugova to explore possibilities to safeguard this irreplaceable
cultural heritage from further, senseless destruction .
Please sign and forward this petition to friends, family, news groups,
mailing lists etc.
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Negovan Rajic: From Kabul to Kosovo
The barbaric destruction of the gigantic Buddhas in Afganistan has
provoked a justified hue of worldwide protests. Believers and
nonbelievers alike, all civilized people are recoiling in pain at this
intolerable assault on culture. It is not only an attack on the artistic
heritage of mankind, but also on human history and our collective
memory.
Sadly, as I write these lines, the Taliban has already reduced to a
pile of rubble the sandstone cliffs where pious Buddhist monks infused
a soul so long ago. None of the great powers has dared to send troops
into the Afghan's hornet's nest to save those priceless treasures. Even
if, to some extent, this failure can be justified by the wish to save
human lives, one cannot understand how, in Kosovo, in the heart of
Europe, in the presence of U.N. troops, the West is unflinchingly
witnessing the destruction of the monuments of a civilization which, in
the final analysis, is one of its own.
Who can believe commanders of the United Nations' Kosovo Protection
Force (KFOR) - an army of 40,000 soldiers and 2,000 policemen deployed
in an area no larger than a single department of France - who say they
do not have sufficient means to protect the Serb communities from
Albanian extremists nor to stop the destruction of almost a hundred *
churches and monasteries, some of which were adorned with magnificent
frescoes dating back to the Middle Ages? How is it that the same western
leaders and intellectuals who only yesterday were demonizing the Serbs
with allegations of all crimes imaginable, are so cowardly silent today?
For how long will the Western leaders be able to close their eyes to a
reality that will surely boomerang as did the wartime misdeeds of the
Nazis. No, tomorrow, our leaders will not have the right to say, "We
did not know". Orthodox churches are being dynamited, Serb houses set
aflame, and old cemeteries desecrated, all in the presence of the troops of
that same "international community" that is trying to impose
itself as the supreme judge of good and evil.
Whether it is the peak of cynicism or insensitivity,we are now being
told that the commander of the allied troops in Kosovo, an accomplice of
the terrorists, is thinking of entrusting the protection of those
Orthodox shrines still standing to the former soldiers of the Albanian
Kosovo Liberation Army! Even Hitler himself didn't dare to push perfidy
so far as to entrust the protection of synagogues to the
units of his SS! If this news is confirmed, we might as well put a cross
on the last vestige of the jewels of medieval art which, despite being
formally under Unesco's protection, have become, as the giant Buddhas,
mute witnesses of a civilization put to death.
But let's not fool ourselves, their disappearance will also be our moral
defeat and the world's power- brokers will not have an easy conscience
when trying to persuade us that this destruction is what the Serbs
deserved for their crimes. And who, after the the big petroleum
companies have elaborated their plans to run pipelines
across the Balkan peninsula, can still believe that the war
against Yugoslavia was a "humanitarian" war?
1. Jovana Krstic, Belgrade, YU
2. Anika Krstic, Belgrade, YU
3. Marija Knezevic, Belgrade, YU
4. Jovan Popov, Novi Sad, YU
5. Zorica Becanovic Nikolic, Belgrade, YU
6. Goran Nikolic, Belgrade, YU
7. Gordan Vujanic, Cardiff, UK
8. George Kokai, Liverpool, UK
9. Vojin Sljivic, London, UK
10.Dusan Puvacic, London, UK
11.Ranko Risojevic, Banjaluka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia-Herzegovina
12.Ivan Miocinovic, Bedford, UK
13.Dinka Miocinovic, Bedford, UK
14.Tessa McGilloway, London, UK
15.Dusko Jaksic, Nis, YU
16.Svetlana Uskokovic, Nis, YU
17.Andrew Mayer, London, UK
18.Svetosava Milunkovic, Nis, YU
19.Dobrica Djuric, Zajecar, YU
20.Bojana Djuric, Zajecar, YU
21.Nikola Djuric, Zajecar, YU
22.Doris Back, Belgrade, YU
23.Svetozar Cvetkovic, Nis, YU
24.Dragana Cvetkovic, Nis, YU
25.Milos Cvetkovic, Nis, YU
26.Milena Cvetkovic, Nis,YU
27.Milun Budisavljevic, Nis, YU
28.Draga Budisavljevic, Nis, YU
29.Zorica Budisavljevic, Nis, YU
30.Dragan Budisavljevic, Nis, YU
31.Djordje Panajotovic, Kragujevac, YU
32.Svetlana Panajotovic, Kragujevac, YU
33.Toma Svilanovic, Kragujevac, YU
34.Zoran Jugovic, Beograd, YU
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