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RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC ___________________________________________________________ RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 9, No. 143, Part II, 1 August 2005
RELIGIOUS TROUBLES BETWEEN SERBIA AND MACEDONIA CONTINUE... Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, several government ministers, and the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church lodged formal protests on 31 July against the recent jailing in Macedonia of Serbian Orthodox Bishop Jovan to serve a two and one-half year sentence, RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 July 2005 and "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 23 January and 6 August 2004). Serbian Minister for Capital Investments Velimir Ilic sent a letter to Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski asking him to amnesty Jovan. Elsewhere, Ilic suggested that Serbia might levy economic sanctions against Macedonia over the affair, adding that the Macedonian Mat airlines might be asked to pay its outstanding debts to Serbia. Jovan, who became a central figure in the long-standing dispute between the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MPC) and the Serbian Orthodox Church when he switched allegiance from MPC to the SPC in 2003, was sentenced in August 2004. The central problem is deeply rooted in what historians call the "Macedonian question" and interrelated issues involving the traditional Balkan tendency to equate one's nationality with one's religion. In 1967, the communist Macedonian authorities recognized a MPC separate from the SPC and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which has a much smaller number of Macedonian adherents than the other two. The SPC and other Orthodox churches do not recognize their Macedonian counterpart, regarding it as schismatic. PM
...APACE... Ljupco Jordanovski, who is the speaker of Macedonia's Parliament, told the Belgrade newspaper "Politika" of 31 July that relations between Skopje and Belgrade are good enough that other states might envy them, RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service reported. He suggested that time will probably settle the church issue and called on the SPC to note that every state in the Orthodox world has its own autocephalous church. Jordanovski stressed that the decision to jail Jovan is a matter strictly for the courts, arguing that all citizens are equal before the law regardless of their confession or profession. On 30 July, the Macedonian authorities decided not to mark, as they usually do, the anniversary of Macedonia's declaration of statehood on 2 August 1944 by visiting the monastery of Prohor Pcinjski, where the declaration was made and which is on the Serbian side of the border (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 6 August 2004). The authorities noted that they have not yet received permission from the Serbian authorities to send a delegation there. In Belgrade, unnamed Serbian officials said that the SPC must decide whether or not to admit delegations to the monastery. PM
...AS WELL AS IN MONTENEGRO. Representatives of the SPC consecrated a prefabricated metal church on Mt. Rumija near Bar on 31 July, one day before the deadline that the Montenegrin Environment Ministry had given the SPC to remove the structure, RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service reported. A helicopter of the Army of Serbia and Montenegro brought the church to the mountain on 21 July without the permission from Montenegrin authorities (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 February 2003). Most Montenegrins belong to the SPC regardless of their political beliefs, but there is also a small Montenegrin Orthodox Church closely allied to the much larger pro-independence movement. After the church was dedicated on Mt. Rumija, a spokesman for the pro-Belgrade Serbian People's Party (SNS) called for the reconstruction of a former chapel on Mt. Lovcen in place of the mausoleum of Petar II Petrovic Njegos, the Montenegrin national hero and writer. Montenegrin Albanian political leader Mehmet Bardhi said in Podgorica that the dedication of the church on Mt. Rumija is "the biggest provocation against the Albanians in the past 50 years," adding that the move "is preparing the ground for further ones" that he did not specify. Several pro-independence Montenegrin political leaders said that the SPC was misusing religion for political ends by erecting the church. PM
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