Today on Sep 22 on the session of the Kosovo Transitional Council the representatives of the Serbian national commuity, Bishop Artemije and Mr. Trajkovic officially resigned from their positions within the KTC. They explained their leaving of the Council with the fact that after three months of KFOR andUNMIK presence in Kosovo the multiethnic concept in Kosovo has failed.

This failure was crowned by the transformation of the KLA into a monoethnic and armed Kosovo Protection Corps which is directly violating the UN Security Council Resolution 1244. After three months of peace the results are catastrophic for the Serbs in the province: about 200.000 expelled, more than 350 killed, 450 abducted, thousands of burned and looted Serb houses as well as 70 destroyed churches and monasteries in the presence of almost 50.000 international peace forces. In Kosovo there is not a single multiethnic institution. Serbs have been practically expelled from all multiethnic areas and forced into reservations and ghettoes. They are denied the basic human rights and freedom of movement, education, work and medical protection. Nothing is done to enable the expelled Serb to go back to their homes while the remaining Serbs and other non-Albanians are still being persecuted, killed, raped and beaten. According to the words of Mr. Trajkovic the winners in the so far process in Kosovo are Mr. Thaci and Mr. Milosevic while the loosers are Kosovo Serbs, Serb and Albanian moderate and democratic forces and especially the international community (KFOR and UNMIK).

The Serb representatives in the KTC said that their participation in the Council was motivated with the idea to constantly point out to the difficult security situation for the Serbs in Kosovo and make efforts to contribute to the better conditions for life and survival of our people. But Bishop Artemije and Mr. Trajkovic have clearly explained that they are not ready to take upon themselves the political responsibility for the decisions which are made in Kosovo without the consultation with the Kosovo Serbs and against their interests. The international community is working more and more in direction of creating the independent Kosovo for which no one from the Kosovo Serb community can and should take responsibility. Kosovo Protection Corps which is already translated into Albanian as KOSOVO DEFENSIVE TROOPS is the continuation of the KLA with full continuity of its millitary structure with the gen. Agim Ceku as its head. The fact that KLA have given over only one part of mostly outdated weapons and have hidden the majority of the modern wapons in their secret depots is only an attempt to show that UNMIK and KFOR have managed to demilitarize KLA, what was envisaged by the UN Resolution 1244. In reality this is a tacit legalization of a monoethnic army built on the foundations of an organization which is considered by many as a terrorist organization directly responsible for many crimes against the Serb and other non-Albanian population. The New Corps is nothing but a nucleus of the future ethnic Albanian army of Kosovo.

Since the international community has completely denied the multiethnic approach to the resolution of the Kosovo issue and focused on attempts to resolve Albanian question only, the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija with full right might ask for resolution of the Serbian ethnic question in direction of cantonization and the establishement of the Serbian Protection Corps.

Bishop Artemije and Mr. Trajkovic have clearly manifested that in the present situation they have not the mandate to represent the Serbian people in Kosovo and they proposed to Mr. Kouchner to find other representatives for the Council among those who seek the ethnic approach to the Kosovo issue or to build Kosovo future with Albanians only. The Serb representatives cannot be any longer a decoration of the inexistent multietnicity.

Despite their leaving of the Council, Bishop Artemije and Mr. Trajkovic said that they remain open for the further cooperation with the international community in order to better protect the human rights and freedoms of the Serbian national community in the southern Serbian province.

Information Service of the Church and National Committee
Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren Gracanica Monastery, Pristina, Kosovo and Metohija
http://www.decani.yunet.com
e-mail: decani@EUnet.yu