Belgrade, February 10, 2013
Head of the Serb Orthodox monastery Visoki Dečani Sava Janjić has said that Kosovo Albanian extremists continue to make threats against the monastery.
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| A view of Visoki Dečani (I. Jovanović, file) |
The court determined that 23 hectares belonged to the monastery and ruled against two companies who claimed that the land belonged to them.
“This would be very dangerous because Visoki Dečani is not just a church and it owns a land that is important for the survival of monks,” Janjić stressed.
He told B92 that he had discussed the issue with KFOR Commander Volker Halbauer on Saturday.
“He assured us that our safety was not threatened and that KFOR would protect the monastery from attacks of local extremists,” Janjić said.
He warned that the Albanian extremists continued to make threats and that they had announced that they would “radicalize” the protest and take away the monastery land.
Albanians organized a protest in Dečani on Friday, demanding that the court’s decision be overturned and that the land be taken away from the monastery. KFOR troops and Kosovo police blocked off the monastery in order to prevent the extremists from approaching it.