belgrade - with a foot on the north and an open hand ... - Koha Ditore

Church rivalry and Artemije supporters
Coordinator’s office for the Strategy of North
Various Serb-Serb conflicts and rivalries in north extend also in the religious field.
The
division that happened in the Raska-Prizren bishopric, increasing into an open conflict
involved north in particular. Division between the two lines in this bishopric, and
in general
<strong>with</strong>in the Serb Orthodox Church, involved well-known stakeholders from different interest
groups
from north. The decision to replace bishop Artemije who was holding the position for
many
years brought a politically radical wing from north in his protection, supported by
Marko Jaksic,
Milan Ivanovic and other exponents from DSS. But, here were also involved
different
groups of ultra-right youth and sport hooligan groups, as was elaborated previously
in this report. Thus, organized groups by Igor Vojinovic and “Narodni Pokret Otadjbina”
were involved also in the well-known conflict in front of Gracanica monastery
during
February 2011, where two church groups were involved in a physical fight in front of
cameras. In fact, Vojinovic was seen armed in the Duboki Potok monastery in November
2010 when together <strong>with</strong> Artemije followers took control over this monastery. Following this
event, Vojinovic was pursued by Kosovo Police, but quite strangely
he managed to escape
through the
window of his apartment in Mitrovica during the police operation. Different
groups
like “Obraz”, “Nacionalni
Stroj”,
“1389” openly took sides supporting the Artemije group. This support was politically
backed
by the Marko Jaksic group and “Civil Support”. This made north not only an active
factor
in this division, but also became its own epilogue.
Thus,
church group around Artemije, supported by this political wing is located in north of
Kosovo,
and took over in an anti-canonical manner control over some monasteries, like
Duboki
Potok and different churches in municipality of Zubin Potok, Zvecan and Leposavic.
This
was an open attempt to confront the central authority of Serb Orthodox Church, clearly
supported
by the pro Tadic political wing. In fact, this marked the most serious attempt for a
kind
of schism <strong>with</strong>in KOS.60 Such an activity happened <strong>with</strong> an open support of the pro DSS
wing
and various radical and ultra-right groupings. In fact, Artemije and his wing that
previously
had support from groups suspected of serious misuses <strong>with</strong>in the Church,
including
huge financial means, such as the case <strong>with</strong> the monk Simeon Vilsovki, secretary of
the
Raska-Prizren bishopric, who a while ago emigrated to Greece when he received the
warrant
to arrest from Serb investigation authorities.61 Bishop Artemije started an activity in
north
that implicated wide support and logistic establishment in different parts in north, like
the
house of Rajko Miletic in Zitkovc who currently lives in Arangelovc in Serbia and who is
suspected for attack against KFOR. It is believed that such base-houses exist also in Zupc of
Zubin Potok, Lesak, Leposavic, etc. Unconfirmed
information linked the support of Artemije
in north <strong>with</strong> Russian ultra-right groups. In the end, Aretemije’s putsch attempt was driven
back from direct Kosovo Police intervention, which
in a combined action, starting from the
request of legitimate Church authorities and Raska-Prizren bishopric acting in Kosovo, but
also <strong>with</strong> a support of authorities
in Belgrade and other kosovar and international authorities
managed to avoid the putsch group of church
fraction, which left Kosovo physically,
although it seems that a group of their supporters remained still.
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