Protest from the pulpit on St. Vitus' day

Bishop Artemije of the Raska-Prizren diocese blasted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on June 28, accusing his policy of being to blame for all the evil done in Kosovo to Albanians and Serbs alike.

"That policy has hurt the Albanians, but at the same time Serbs disappeared from Kosovo," Artemije said at a press conference in the monastery of Gracanica. He agreed with the international community "that the evil which the Albanians suffered and survived" was a product of the undemocratic regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

"Milosevic bears the brunt of the responsibility for all that has happened, but he is not the only culprit. Much of the blame rests on Albanian extremists and separatists who tried to take away a part of Serbia by force and create a second Albanian state in the Balkans," Artemije said, adding that any state would have fought against terrorism, "But not the way that Milosevic's regime did."

"Milosevic has inflicted much evil upon everybody, but his policy has hurt the Serb nation the most," he said, adding that "thanks to Milosevic, several hundred thousand refugees are living in Serbia, we have been under sanctions for eight years, and the country was bombed for two and a half months."

On June 28, St. Vitus Day, Patriarch Pavle held a liturgy at the Gracanica monastery that was attended by more than 100 Serbs.

Source: Free Serbia

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