Atrocities continue against Serbs in Kosovo, Orthodox bishop says

Published: 2004-02-05

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Atrocities have continued against Serbs in Kosovo nearly five years after the NATO-led war was supposed to have returned peace to the region, said a Serbian Orthodox bishop. Some 250,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo since the end of the 1999 conflict, while about 1,300 Serbs have been killed and another 1,300 kidnapped, said Bishop Artemije Radosaljevi of Raska and Prizren, Serbia-Montenegro. Bishop Artemije said the United Nations, which administers Kosovo, promotes the province as a model multiethnic democracy, but civil rights have not been extended to Serbs and other ethnic and religious minorities. Serbs reside in "enclaves or ghettos" under protection of armed U.N. soldiers, he said. "When a Serb goes beyond the enclave, he runs the risk of being killed or being kidnapped," the bishop said in a speech at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington. The Feb. 4 event was sponsored by the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .