Lethbridge Herald

Serbian church protests suffering of Serbs in Balkans

- Dusan Stojanovic

Thousands of people protested in Serbia’s capital Wednesday against the alleged suppressio­n of religious and other rights of Serb minorities in neighbouri­ng countries, answering a call to action by the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Orthodox priests led a procession through downtown Belgrade to the landmark St. Sava Temple, one of the world’s largest Orthodox churches, to pray about the “suffering” of Serbs living in Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia and elsewhere in the Balkans.

The demonstrat­ion featured religious iconograph­y, including Serbian church flags and paintings. “It’s Time For God’s Justice,’’ one banner read.

The focus of the protest was a religion rights law adopted last month by the Parliament of Montenegro. Serbian nationalis­ts claim the law, which took effect Wednesday, will lead to the impounding of Serbian church property in Montenegro. Montenegri­n officials have repeatedly denied the claim.

Serbian nationalis­ts used similar allegation­s of minority Serbs being mistreated in neighbouri­ng countries to fuel a bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia during a civil war in the 1990’s.

Montenegro’s national security council said Wednesday that the country “remains secure despite the subversive activities from within and from the immediate neighbourh­ood,” apparently referring to Serbia.

The Montenegri­n law says all religious communitie­s need to produce evidence of ownership of their churches from before 1918, when Montenegro joined a Serb-led Balkan kingdom and lost its independen­ce and when Montenegro’s Orthodox Church was abolished.

Montenegro split again from Serbia in 2006 but nearly 30% of its 620,000 citizens declare themselves to be Serbs and want closer ties with Belgrade. Montenegro defied another historic Slavic and Orthodox Christian ally, Russia, when it joined NATO in 2017.

Led by Orthodox priests and fueled by Serbia’s state propaganda, thousands of Serbs in Montenegro have been staging daily protests in the small Balkan state, demanding that the law be annulled.

Some 800 known public figures from the region, including writers, law experts, actors, opposition politician­s and historians, have signed a petition against Serbian meddling in Montenegro’s internal affairs.

The petition states that Belgrade and the Serbian Orthodox Church have been working to “forcefully destabiliz­e” Montenegro’s pro-Western government and jeopardize its independen­ce.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada