Orahovac, December 6, 2014
Unidentified perpetrators have daubed graffiti reading “KLA” (Kosovo Liberation Army) and “Kosovo” within the courtyard of the Sveti Vracci (Holy Healers) Monastery in Zocciste, western Kosovo-Metohija, and the Diocese of Raska and Prizren of the Serbian Orthodox Church qualified this as a new provocation.
The case has been reported to the Kosovo police, reads the website of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren, adding that the perpetrators have entered the courtyard through a crack in the wall near the gate. Daubing graffiti is yet another provocation, probably with the aim to stir up unrest among the monks, reads the statement.
The diocese noted that this is not the first time that graffiti are being daubed on the walls of this medieval Serbian monastery, but every time it is a new warning to the monks that they must be on alert.
In addition, shouting insults at the monks and Serbs in this area, including swearing and shouts such as “Go to Serbia”, have been constant over the last ten years since the beginning of the repair works on the monastery.
The Zociste monks were kidnapped by the KLA in 1998 and later freed on the intervention of the International Red Cross. The monastery was blown up and burned in 1999 and again damaged in the attacks by ethnic Albanians in 2004.
The current monastic community returned to the monastery after the reconstruction, which began in 2005, the Diocese noted.
The monastery in Zociste has been under the protection of the Kosovo police since 2010, but obviously the police presence did not prevent the perpetrators from entering the monastery, just as it does not avert those who regularly provoke and offend the monks as they pass by the monastery, the diocese said on its website.
