Source: Geelong Advertiser
February 21, 2016
Serbian Orthodox Church was vandalised overnight. President of the Serbian Community and church, Miroslav Perisic cleans the graffiti from the church walls. Picture: Mike Dugdale
A GEELONG church is shocked by an act of hate-fuelled vandalism just before a visit by its global leader.
A swastika and other offensive symbols were among the spray-painted messages that greeted parishioners when they arrived at the Serbian Orthodox Church in Hamlyn Heights for Sunday morning’s service.
Churchgoers said the racist graffiti was a reminder of atrocities carried out against their people during World War II and the horrors their forbears endured in prisoner of war camps.
“This is aggressive, and it’s very deep and meaningful to the people who have lived through these times or have loved ones who did,” Lily Stefanovic said.
“Their desire when they came here was to build a new life and build a church and continue to be who they are; they wanted to leave all that pain behind, so this is very distressing to people. They are traumatised by these reminders.”
The church community moved quickly to wash the graffiti off walls and paths yesterday, and urged for a measured response to the attack.
“You’d hope people won’t be hotheads and will understand this is just stupidity by a couple of people,” said Ms Stefanovic, who was a candidate in the Greater Geelong mayoral by-election of 2013.
“The last thing we want is for people to react.”
Ms Stefanovic is a regular at the church, her grandfather part of the community that built the hall in the late 1950s and the church in 1967.
She said the messages scrawled on the wall of the church hall and a walkway to the church were written in Serbo Croatian, and easily interpreted by most who attended Sunday’s service.
The aggressive graffiti on the church’s property.
One message apparently translated to ‘Serbs hanging from branches’, while another said ‘The only good Serb is a dead one’.
The ustaše logo — an emblem of brutal Croatian fascist revolutionists during World War II — was also used prominently by the vandals.
“It’s very upsetting for people as we are about to start our service,” Priest Petar Bozic said. “This is all about the second World War, it’s all about Hitler and his work, and what these people think hasn’t been completed. We will try our best to clean it up before too many people see it.”
The timing of the vandalism is particularly unsettling for members of the Geelong church as they prepare for a visit early next month by Patriarch Irinej Gavrilovic, their equivalent of the Pope as the worldwide leader of their movement.
Churchgoers wondered yesterday whether news of this visit had prompted the vandalism, saying they was no other obvious reason why the attack would have happened this weekend.
The matter is being investigated by police. Anyone with information about the vandalism should phone CrimeStoppers on 1800 333 000 or Corio Police, 5273 9555.
President of the Serbian Community and church, Miroslav Perisic cleans the graffiti from the church walls. Picture: Mike Dugdale
