EXCHANGE OF LETTERS

AIM Pristina, 7 January, 1998

Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Pavle, obviously very concerned for the foreseeable future of Serbia, and Yugoslavia, one could say not for the first time with very good reason, decided to direct his thoughts in the beginning of this year towards Kosovo, the recent developments and those which may easily take place especially if great care is not taken, if things get out of hand (of any of the protagonists in the long-lasting dispute between the "state and the People") and consequently lead to a situation which will be very difficult to overcome. As any good "politician", Patriarch Pavle assessed that it was "a minute to twelve" to state the stand of the Sebrian Orthodox Church according to the already tested recipe "warm or cold". Historians will register and analysts will analyse for a long time to come his open letter sent via media to the students of Albanian ethnic origin in Kosovo, concerning their latest protests in the capital of Kosovo and other six centres in this region.

In his public address, the Patriarch of the SPC underlined that he had understanding for peaceful demonstrations of the students and denounced intervention of the police against them, adding that a solution was possible only "if on every occasion we act like human beings, according to eternal justice of the one and only God". Patriarch Pavle, not wishing to disclaim his identity papers which he reminded had been issued to him in Prizren, where, as he said in the letter, he "still received his pension, and was therefore addressing his compatriots", recognizing their right to university buildings and wondering how they imagined "to return to these buildings, without recognizing the state this university belonged to"?

The state, according to the Patriarch, is not the same thing as the regime, but a historical and geographic organism which "has its own identity and institutions older than any policy". Patriarch Pavle, as he says in the letter, is wondering why the Albanians in Kosovo use passports of Serbia, why they leave and return to this country which is illegal only for them, although a large part of the world recognizes it. Speaking of the students' protests, the Patriarch stresses that the situation in Kosovo "demands serious opening of all problems which are poisoning the relations between our two nations, as well as their neighbours, and which are shaking the entire European space". "I would like it best if in this part of the country relations would change and if fundamental ethnic, religious and all other human rights were recognized to everybody, but also responsibilites - if everybody respected everybody else and those different from oneself", it is stated, among other, in the letter to Albanian students by the Serbian Patriarch Pavle.

The unexpected letter of His Holiness, not only caused much surprise, but it was received in religious, political and intellectual circles of Kosovo with suspicion and numerous comments. The first reactions referred to the fact that Patriarch Pavle had renounced police brutal intervention against the Albanian students, but that his criticism arrived with a great delay, but also doubt was expressed whether it could be possible that the Patriarch had not noticed during all the past years how the regime treated Kosovo Albanians. In any case, the Albanian students needed more than 24 hours to learn that the letter was addressed to them, to get hold of it, and finally, in the same way in which they got it, to answer, as they said, via "their" media. Circles close to the students' organization carried that concerning the demand to "liberate occupied" school and university buildings and intervention of members of the police, they had expected reactions of the circles in Serbia which claim for themselves to be civic-oriented or from the colleagues-students who offered their verbal support when they visited Pristina, but now, "when it was needed", their voices were not heard, but that after all it was a good thing that anybody had addressed them after all.

In the letter addressed to Patriarch Pavle and signed by the president of Independent Union of Students in Pristina, Bujar Bugoli, standpoints of this students' organization concerning their demands were stated in four points. After declaring that the students during their protests had not demanded anything but liberation of the buildings and university premises which was, as the students reminded, founded in 1970 as the university of Kosovo, "and since 1991 exists as the university of the Republic of Kosovo, when it was occupied by the Serbian regime", in the letter addressed to Patriarch Pavle, they also state the following:

"We would have been grateful if in you letter, except for condemnation of the use of rubber batons against the students by the police, you would have condemned the systematic and most inhuman violence applied by the Serbian state against the Albanian people in Kosovo, using no less than medieval methods. We wish to remind you that times have passed when the issue of Kosovo could have been resolved by politics and medieval myths", it is stated in the letter and added that "it can and should be resolved only by methods of the new democratic policy, by giving all the peoples the right to formulate their will as the best way to live in good both neighbourly and inter-state relations". It is also stated in the letter that students in their demands have never demanded to return, as they say, to the state Serbian university, but that they demand "liberation of the occupied buildings and university premises, in which they are resolute", it is stated in the letter and at the same time the conviction is expressed that Patriarch Pavle can best explain construction of the church on the territory of the university downtown Pristina. In the end of the letter, wishing him a long life, the students thanked the Patriarch for his concern because of the used police violence against them.

The message of the Serbian Patriarch to the Albanian students was assessed by the political circles in Kosovo, and not only by them (the office of the Islamic community in Kosovo reacted similarly to the letter), as very contradictory and ambiguous, adding that Patriarch Pavle had double standards concerning human rights of the Albanians in Kosovo.

Fehmi Agami, vice-president of the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo (DSK) said that this interpretation and condemnation of repression could not but be welcomed, but that demands of the Albanian students were basically presented incorrectly, because they did not demand to return to the buildings of the state university which, according to Agani's words, allegedly was owned by the state they did not recognize. "It was founded by the law of the Assembly of Kosovo, and it, like all the school premises, belongs to the Albanians, the Serbs and others who live in Kosovo and they in fact demand that the part of the school and university premises taken away from them by force be returned to them", says Agani. He wondered whether it was possible that the Patriarch had not had the insight into any of the reports of the Pristina Committee for protection of human rights, or that of a similar international organization, or perhaps reports of the Humanitarian Law Fund seated in Belgrade.

Another vice-president of the DSK, Hydajet Hyseni, stresses that it is a good thing that the Serbian Patriarch had the courage to condemn the brutality of the police against the Albanian students, even if it were just a formal condemnation of police brutality. Assessing that this was a message needed in "our time", he says that it could contribute to the attempts to create a climate of tolerance and mutual confidence, when the question of Kosovo is just about to be resolved. Hyseni adds, hopwever, that "the letter could have been interpreted like this if it had not been for the second part which is politicized with transparent chauvinist and anti-Albanian messages to the Albanian students to accept what is unacceptable, and that is the Serbian occupation of Kosovo".

On the other hand, vice-president of the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo (PPK), Jonuz Salihaj, stresses that Patriarch Pavle is forgetting that the "genocidal Serbian policy is the reason why Serbia is not recognized by the USA which isolated the Serb people from the international community. Unfortunately", Salihaj adds, "Patriarch Pavle was not bothered by this policy because he directly participated in its creation". He understood this message of the Patriarch as a signal that Serbia, due to great pressure from within would be forced to implement the Rugova-Milosevic agreement, but his wish was to put a full stop there and make the Albanians settle down for cultural rights. "Patriarch Pavle knows only too well that independence of Kosovo is the expressed will of the Albanian people who demand nothing but freedom, this fundamental value blessed by God", Salihaj concluded.

Vice-president of the Albanian Christian Democratic Party of Kosovo, Tadej Rodiqi, assesses that "the Serbian Orthodox Church was informed about everything that happened in B&H, Croatia, Slovenia, and supported such things". Rodiqi also reminds Patriarch Pavle of all the developments in Kosovo, "abolishment of autonomy, throwing the Albanian students and pupils out of the school premises" and concludes that "together with the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Society of Writers of Serbia, and a part of Serb intelligentsia, the SPC was at the head of the action for creation of the climate for depriving Kosovo of its autonomy".

Independent analysts did not receive the letter of the Patriarch without certain signs of approval and as a sign that attempts are being made even in the SPC to change things, in view of its undoubted responsibility for developments on the territory of former Yugoslavia, on the one hand, as well as special relations of the Church with the national state on the other, which greatly limit the "democratic range" of its political public appearances.

It is also interesting that the only local daily in Serbian language Jedinstvo, contrary to the press in Albanian, did not even carry the letter of Patriarch Pavle, as well as that none of the Serb intellectuals from this region reacted to its appearance. Perhaps this could be just another "proof" that the Serb political hierarchy is still "vulnerable" when Kosovo is mentioned in any sense. Of course, if this was not just an attempt to feel out the pulse by means of the pen of Patriarch Pavle.

    Public declaration of the Serbian Patriarch about his

view of resolving the problem of Kosovo completely overshadowed the letter sent to the Serbian public by the president of the Social Democratic Party of Kosovo Llulleta Pulla Beqiri. She appealed that "the Serb public finally, without demur and guilty conscience break the silence about numerous injustices and evil deeds done in Kosovo against the other nation, because this is the only way to liberate the state from its own chains. This would at the same time stimulate relieving of the tension caused on the other side and at least try to help future talks and agreement", she says in this letter. She also appealed on the Serbian public to prevent its regime from continuing with its evil deeds, to tame it and not to permit further blemishes on the reputation of the Serb nation and play with dangerous fire on this territory.

The "year of letters", as some have already christened it, evidently does not promise any changes. The latest exchange of letters just re-confirmed the deeply divided political stands - Serb and Albanian...

AIM Pristina

Arber VLLAHIU