Moscow, May 17, Interfax - A group of young
ethnic Albanians beat up and hurled stones at a monk at a Serbian Orthodox
monastery in Kosovo, the Russian Orthodox Church said on Thursday.
The Monastery of Saints Cosmas and Damian near
the town of Orahovac, the site of the attack, is officially under the
protection of the Kosovo police.
The assault on monk Dionisije was the latest in
a series of incidents "that have marred the life of Orthodox believers in
[Kosovo] province over the past few months," the Moscow Patriarchate
Department for External Church Relations said in a statement.
"The assault was perpetrated three hours
after the monastery was visited by the commander of the German contingent of
the Kosovo Force, and this makes this extremist act even more brazen," it
said.
On the day of the incident, an allegedly
terrorist ethnic Albanian group disseminated leaflets with threats of violence
against ethnic Serbs who refuse to leave Kosovo.
"The beating up of monk Dionisije has
given rise to concern in the Russian Orthodox Church. The incident must receive
an appropriate legal qualification and become one more reminder of the need for
measures to protect the churches and monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox
Church," the department said.
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