EU 95: Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from Mr Radomir Putnikovic: Desecration of graves

I am now sending you a copy of my letter to His Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury, dated 3 September 2009 (see annex). From the statement enclosed and issued on the 16th June 2009 by a Minister at the Foreign Office, Mr Chris Bryant, you will note that 155 Churches, 250 Graveyards and 6,570 graves in Kosovo have been destroyed or desecrated. All that spiritual and cultural genocide happened under the very eyes of the international community led by the British and American Governments pursuing the "independence" of Kosovo, in contravention of UN Resolution 1244 and United Nations Charter.

It is not particularly the matter that the graves in question are of Serbs nor that they are Christian graves, it is the question that the graveyards are the resting places of human beings, and that the Albanians do not have the humanity to respect them. Some graveyards which were repaired and resurrected by families earlier, have since been destroyed again. I am angry, I am very angry. Where is the British sense of justice and fairness?

Would you be good enough, Mr Gapes, to make this letter known to other members of the Committee, and I thank you in anticipation.

14 September 2009

ANNEX

His Grace, Dr Rowan Williams,

The Archbishop of Canterbury,

Lambeth Palace,

London

Your Grace,

I am sending you a copy of a White Paper dated 16 June 2009 issued by a Government Minister from which you will note that since the 12th June 1999 when NATO and British troops entered the Serbian Province of Kosovo and Metohija, 155 Serbian Churches and Monasteries, 250 cemeteries, more than 6,750 graves have been destroyed or desecrated by Albanian muslim extremists.

I am very disappointed and saddened - I speak not only for myself but for Serbian diaspora in this country, that this Spiritual and Cultural genocide has happened with the knowledge of the Christian community in this country and Europe. Is it the case that "political correctness" driven today by the political establishment has gone so far that we are not able to speak openly about these crimes so as not to "alienate" the muslim community in this country?

I am going to quote the words of Bishop Artemie, the spiritual leader of Serbs in Kosovo who said, after meeting the KFOR commander Federick Mathieu at Gracanica Monastery: "All words have been used already; everything that should have been said has been said so many times already, but the situation has not merely stayed the same, it gets harder and harder each day". Some graveyards which were repaired and resurrected by families earlier, have since been destroyed again.