STATEMENT OF HRH CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDER II ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF VIOLENCE ON KOSOVO AND METOHIA

Belgrade, 17 March 2005 - On the anniversary of the violence over Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia HRH Crown Prince Alexander II gave the following statement:

“With grief we are recalling the harsh actions of the pogrom on Kosovo and Metohia, in which 19 people lost their lives, 11 Albanians and 8 Serbs. 800 houses and 35 Orthodox Churches and Monasteries, that represent the treasury of our Middle Age culture, were destroyed.

Not even today, a year after this unfortunate event, Serbs that left their birth homes out of fear from the continuation of the violence, do not dare to return to their hearths of their ancestors. Their destiny is difficult and uncertain, and grief for the lost native soil is huge.

Therefore, I am appealing to all the representatives of International Organizations, to the representatives of the Government and to all political parties, to do everything that is in their power to overcome this hostility and to make life continue from the spot where it was so cruelly stopped; to make all people live in harmony and make them respect each other, regardless of their religious or ethnic origins, and to enable them to live in dignified conditions.

Today, when exactly at noon, the bells of all churches in the country and in Diaspora will ring, prayers should be sent to the Lord for this kind of catastrophe never to happen again and never to be forgotten” – Crown Prince Alexander II pointed out.