Priština official declares he'll "demolish church"

Source: B92, Tanjug

PRIŠTINA -- A recent statement by a member of the government in Priština concerning plans to demolish a Serbian Orthodox church in that town has caused reactions.

The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Eparchy of Raška and Prizren called on Tuesday Dardan Gashi's pronouncement "an open provocation."
The Kosovo Albanian official, in charge of spatial planning, was on Monday quoted as saying by the Priština website Telegrafi that the Church of Christ the Savior that is still under construction was being built illegally. The website ran the article under the headline, "I will demolish the Church of St. Nicholas."

The eparchy said in a statement that it had secured all the necessary paperwork for the construction, and that claims about the structure being built illegally were false. Noting that Gashi "did not even know the name of the church" in question, the eparchy accused him of wanting to damage inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations in Kosovo and Metohija, "and precisely during the greatest Christian holiday, Easter."

It further said that Gashi's statement can only be interpreted as an attempt to commit ethnic and religious discrimination, "in the service of the upcoming elections in Kosovo."

The eparchy stressed that the SPC was recently informed "directly from the very top of the Kosovo government" that they supported the building of the church, and that international representatives in Kosovo had been informed of this.

According to the eparchy, Gashi previously, "due to his inappropriate statements to the media and attempts to politicize issues related to cultural heritage" blocked the work of a mixed commision set up to implement protected zones, and noted that the commission was co-chaired by "EU's special representative for the Serb Orthodox heritage."