Dr. Artemije Radosavljevic speaks truth to power. From CNSNews.com, with thanks to Sparta:
(CNSNews.com) – A prominent Serbian Orthodox bishop Thursday said the U.S. was allowing Islamic extremists to wage war on Christians in Kosovo by deciding not to oppose Kosovo’s independence.
Kosovo is an autonomous province in Serbia with a population of about 2 million, most who are ethnic Albanian and Muslim. It is currently administered by the United Nations Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), but negotiations which began this year are expected to eventually result in independence for the province.
However, Dr. Artemije Radosavljevic on Thursday issued a warning about the prospect of and independent Kosovo.
“At a time when America is leading the free world in a global struggle against jihad terror, Kosovo-Metohija must not continue to be an exception, where for reasons we do not understand, American officials have taken the side of the criminals and jihadists,” Artemije said during a news conference in Washington, D.C.
Artemije, the bishop of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija, has traveled to the United States on several occasions to meet with government officials and urge them to oppose independence for Kosovo.
He told reporters that the region has become a “black hole of corruption and crime” since it became a protectorate of the United Nations in 1999, following NATO bombings that were intended to encourage then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosovic to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.
Since 1999, the Kosovar Albanians have targeted Serbian Orthodox Christians, according to Artemije, allegedly burning down more than 150 churches, driving more than 220,000 Christians from the region and killing thousands more.
Granting Kosovo independence from Serbia would make Serbian Christians more vulnerable to violence from the region’s Muslim majority.
“Detaching Kosovo from democratic Serbia,” Artemije said, “would mean a virtual sentence of extinction for my people in the province and create a rogue state in which the terrorists are the government.”
He added that there have been thousands of Christians captured and killed by Muslim extremists, including numerous videotaped beheadings. “Why are jihad beheadings an outrage in the rest of the world, but not when they’re happening in Kosovo to Christian Serbs?” Artemije asked.