Cut Servia Down To Size
Barry S. Marjanovich
The Zajednicar, April 8, 1998
Letters
Secretary Madeleine Albright
Dear Madame Secretary:
As long as the great (and some not so great) powers are promoting their
proxies in the Balkans, rewarding them with territory and privileges,
there will be no peace in the troubled region.
From the Middle Ages until the 19th century, Serbia was under the Ottoman
domination and did not play any significant role in the Balkans. However,
the advent of national awakening throughout Europe stimulated Serb
nationalists to, as later proved typically, overact. They started
promoting the idea of assimilation and subjugation of all South Slavs, and
creation of Greater Serbia.
Berlin Congress of 1878 bestowed Serbia independence and created grounds
for the implementation of the Greater Serbia plan, which gradually brought
a lot of misery to the region and directly caused World War I. In the
aftermath, Serbia was rewarded and given the reins of Yugoslavia.
The following generations of Greater Serbia propagandists used
Yugoslavia in the realization of their plan, culminating in the last 10
years with Milosevic, Karadzic, Mladic, etc. All of these war criminals
are a product of Greater Serbia aspirations fomented by such drive, and by
now deeply seated in Serbian psyche. If all present ethnic cleansers are
removed, but the means for Greater Serbia aspirations are left intact,
other Karadzics or Milosevics will emerge, rather sooner than later.
The only lasting solution is a quasi balance of power among the Balkan
states themselves, however, leaving the Serbs, the biggest bully, down to
size, stripped of means for any further adventure. Therefore, Kosova
should be independent.
Yul B. Draskovic
CFU Lodge 1987
San Pedro, CA
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MacDiarmid
The Serbs guard the SE gate of Europe from Islam. God bless every one
of them in their Titanic struggle
-- Take care
MacDiarmid
Nothing matters very much and very little matters at all. Balfour
Barry S. Marjanovich
Croatia's Roman Catholic Churches Lie In Ruins
The following story appeared in The Catholic Register of Canada on May 20,
1996. It was written by Toronto freelance writer Erica Zlomislic:
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In the small village of Chuntich, Croatia, a mountain of rubble is all
that remains where St. Anthony's Church once stood. Built in 1669, the
church and nearby monastery were demolished and set on fire by Serb troops
after they had stolen its wealth of paintings and artifacts, including the
church bells.
At least there is still evidence of where St. Anthony's once stood, unlike
another demolished church in nearby Glina. Its remnants were deliberately
paved under a new road.
"We're talking about more than 1,000 richly decorated Catholic churches
and monasteries which were destroyed in the war," says Fr. Ilija Zivkovic,
press officer for Croatia's bishop's conference.
Although Zivkovic has been compiling statistics for all of Croatia, most
of his findings have been recent discoveries in what was since 1991 the
Serb-occupied region known as the Krajina. Croatian authorities only
regained control of the area last summer. Since then, refugees have been
returning to find "urbicide" - the complete destruction of the region's
buildings and infrastructure.
"Returning residents were shocked to find their ancestral homes completely
destroyed," says Zivkovic. "The Catholic churches suffered the same fate."
Accompanied by a camera crew and experts from the Institute for the
Protection of Cultural Monuments, Zivkovic's team locates the sites of
churches, surveys the area, compiles statistics and assesses the damage.
All of the information will be published in a book, due out shortly.
These pages of ghastly statistics are a cultural historian's worst
nightmare. Under each church listed one reads of arson, damage by mortar
shells, bombing, use as an ammunition storehouse or as the Serb army's
command headquarters, statues smashed or defaced.
It is said to be some of the worst destruction since the Second World War.
According to witnesses and members of the church, the devastation was a
systematic and deliberate process used to eradicate any religious,
cultural or historical evidence of Croatian Catholics in the region.
Cardinal Franjo Kuharic says even wayside crucifixes were not spared.
The parish of the Holy Trinity in Dubica stands out on the list. It was a
baroque-style church dating from 1771 which was completely burned to the
ground. In its place the United Nations troops built their base and
parking lot.
Fred Eckard, former UN press spokesman in the area, unapologetically
pointed out that it would be difficult to track down the officers who drew
the plan to place a base in such a sensitive region. Although
well-documented by the Catholic Church and Croatian authorities, UN
officials in New York say they need more information about the desecrated
area before apologizing or pursuing it.
"I'm sure there may be more than one instance (of this) in other countries
where missions are established...I don't recall any sort of public apology
but there is always a first time, it depends on the intensity of course,
how serious," said the UN press office's Rolando Gomez.
Zivkovic's book will not only include data on Catholic churches but on
those of Protestant, Orthodox and other faiths as well. Some comaparisons
are drawn to contrast the damage to churches of different faiths.
According to Croatia's Mission to the UN in New York, 94 percent of
Catholic churches in Croatia's occupied areas were damaged or destroyed by
Serb forces, compared to 15 per cent of the Orthodox churches.
Not only did these churches and monasteries act as places of worship, they
were also cultural monuments and testimony to the people that have
inhabited the area for centuries. Here Christianity was welcomed by the
Croats more than 1,300 years ago.
Most of the churches were built between the 14th and 19th centuries. Some,
however, date back to the ninth and 10th centuries. Their valuable
medieval, renaissance and baroque artworks have been either stolen or
ruined. According to some historians, Croatia had extremely rare cultural
and religious treasures in these churches which have been completely lost.
Only limited rebuilding work has been done due to the lack of funds. After
the continued heavy burden of both Croatian and Bosnian refugees,
resources are few. Zivkovic estimates restoring the churches would cost in
the hundreds of millions of dollars.
"The problem is that these churches had rich and elaborate interiors with
detailed pictures, murals and statues," says Zivkovic. "We've had no
interest from the West in restoring our sacral objects and churches."
An option being considered is starting a "sister program", where parishes
from abroad can help finance the reconstruction of parishes in Croatia
that carry the same name. However, Croatia's church is primarily concerned
now with providing makeshift places where parishoners can continue to
clebrate Mass and receive the sacraments.
Although overwhelmed by the tasks ahead, locals are uniting to start from
scratch. In the devastated town of Lipik, the 18th-century Church of St.
Francis was mined and destroyed. Returning residents pulled the church
bells from the ruins and hung them up nearby to ring while trying to
slavage and rebuild what they could.
But saving even the ruins may come too late in some parts. In what remains
occupied territory in eastern Croatia, in the village of Lovas, the
Catholic church was destroyed while the foundation-stone of a new Serb
Orthodox church was consecrated, according to the Croatian Information
Centre.
International groups have come too late and have primarily worked along
Croatia's coastline. UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific and
Cultural Organization) and the World Monuments Watch have mostly done work
in the port city of Dubrovnik. The international relief group Aid to the
Church in Need says it has provided more than $10 million in aid to the
region. These funds, however, have gone primarily to pastoral aid and
charity.
Neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina is yet another problem, where a number of
desecrated Catholic churches remain in Serb-held areas. Teams have been
compiling data separately in Bosnia and the statistics are even more grim.
In a recent interview, Bosnia's Cardinal Vinko Puljic said: "The
archdiocese here, which existed for nine centuries, is on the verge of
extinction."
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