September 05, 2004
Religious Freedom Coalitions Report on Kosovo to Washington

    William J. Murray, Chairman
    Religious Freedom Coalition, Washington, DC

    Religious Freedom Coalition Report on Kosovo Religious Freedom Coalition Chairman and Team Observations Reports from Kosovo Province to Washington D.C. About Muslim Persecution of Christian Serbians
    ERP KiM Newsletter 05-09-04
    Religious Freedom Coalition Chairman Reports from Kosovo Province
    To state it plainly, NATO and the UN have been responsible for the well being of the people of Kosovo, both Muslim Albanians and Christian Serbs since June of 1999. While the UN and NATO have been in control, more than 200,000 Serbs have been forced from their homes and thousands of Serbian civilians killed. Thousands of Christian Serbian homes have been looted and destroyed and 150 churches, monasteries and seminaries have been destroyed. Some of the churches which have been defiled looted and burned have existed since the 1300’s and survived even the 500-year long Ottoman occupation. In March of this year an organized effort was made by Kosovo Albanians through mob violence to force out the last remaining Christian Serbs from Kosovo. (from the report by W. J. Murray)
    St. George Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Prizren - defiled and burned by Kosovo Albanian mob in March riots. The ruins of the church remain encircled with barbed wire
    WilliamJ.Murray
    The Chairman's Action Report
    August 18, 2004
    Religious Freedom Coalition This report is available in PDF format on the servers of Religious Freedom Coalition: http://www.rfcnet.org/pdfs/04F12new.pdf
   
    I have just returned to the United States from one of the most physically and emotionally draining missions I have ever been on in my life. During the mission trip I moderated a panel on anti-Semitism in Brussels, Belgium and examined churches desecrated and destroyed in Kosovo. The extremes of my journey took me from a European Hotel near the seat of government of the European Union, to being escorted by heavily armed special Ukrainian police units to a burned down monastery where we had a face-off with French troops who would not let us enter.
    While the 2nd annual Inter-parliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Religious Freedom was of great importance to this ministry and its supporters, I feel a deep heartfelt obligation to use the limited space I have in this letter to report on the conditions I found in Kosovo and Metohija.
   
    First a brief history: The ancient history of Kosovo goes back to 400 ad where the early monastic movement had come and set up churches, St. Cyril and St. Methodias stopped in Kosovo on their way to taking christianity to Russia. St. Cryil was responsible for writing the first Russian alphabet and the first Bible in Cryllic, for Cyryl. The name of the russian langague today. They started the second monastery in Kosovo. From 500 to 800 the monastic movement established over 500 monasteries in lower europe. The muslims began attacking spain and Kosovo areas from 800 ad on. The major crusade fought in the valley where Kosovo is located, a natural land bridge. Over 300000 thousand crusaders were slaughtered by the armies of muslim armies of Sulliman the Magnificent. The christian serbians kept their monasteries with their lives. When the Ottoman Muslim Turks were pushed out after siding with Hitler the normal majority of Kosovo were christian. Osama Ben laden in the 80's helped organize the KLA, Kosovo Liberation Army. They were shooting serbian christians from the hills, and using terrorists attack methods to slowly gain pockets of muslim control. It was when Serbia sent troops to protect the non-muslims from anahaliation that the, Completely Ignorant World to the history of the religous struggle inserted itself.
   All the muslims have to do is cry "ethnic cleansing" and the NATO/US Armies went in to protect the "KLA and muslim Albanians" from the mean christian serbs.
    Well they succedded. Kosovo was 78% christian. 12% muslim. Now, almost all the ancient shrines of the early churches are destroyed, 300000 christian serbs are dead or gone, and the Muslim population is now over 72% of the population.
    This is reverse "ethnic cleansing". NATO forces and the US held the christian resident serbs back while the "armed KLA" slaughtered and wiped out their churches.
    More Reciently,
    Kosovo was the original Serbia, a home to the Serbian people since at least the 10th Century. The first Christian church was constructed in Kosovo less than 400 years after the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ and long before the birth of Mohammed.
    Pristina - six storey banner photo of Bill Clinton. Who they say helped the muslims drive the christians out of Kosovo.
    The first Muslim invasion of Kosovo and Metohija (which means “Lands of the Church”) came in the 1300’s by the Ottoman Empire. In 1389 at the battle of Kosovo Polje, the Ottoman Sultan was killed by Serbian forces led by Prince Lazar, thus saving Europe from Islamization. When the news of the Sultan’s death reached London the bells of Westminister Cathedral were rung. But in reality the Serbs lost ... the Ottoman Empire, although stopped, had already controlled most of Kosovo. Tens of thousands of Serbs fled to the north to present day Hungary and Croatia.
    The Islamic empire of the Ottomans expanded, and finally Constantinople fell in 1453. Although several wars were fought to free the Serb lands from Islamic rule, final control of Serbia and Kosovo was not regained by Christendom until 1912.
    Serbian Christians remained a slight majority until WW II, when the Albanian minority collaborated with the Nazi occupiers to kill and “cleanse” the Serbs. In the mid 1990’s the mostly Albanian Muslim majority in Kosovo formed the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to struggle for secession of the Province. During what could be called a civil war, thousands were killed on both sides. The fighting ended when the United States and NATO entered the war in 1999 on the side of the Muslim Albanians. As a result the main highway through Kosovo’s capital is named after President Bill Clinton and huge banners picturing him hang on buildings in downtown Pristina, the administrative capital of UN-ruled Kosovo.
    During the fighting in the 1990’s both churches and mosques were damaged or destroyed, sometimes on a tit for tat basis. The United Nations took over administrative control of Kosovo in June, 1999 and NATO took responsibility for security. As a result the police are controlled by the UN and security forces are controlled by NATO.
    UN Principle Deputy Charles H. Brayshaw, Joe Grieboski, Bob Edgar and
    William J. Murray
   
    To state it plainly, NATO and the UN have been responsible for the well being of the people of Kosovo, both Muslim Albanians and Christian Serbs since June of 1999. While the UN and NATO have been in control, more than 200,000 Serbs have been forced from their homes and thousands of Serbian civilians killed. Thousands of Christian Serbian homes have been looted and destroyed and 150 churches, monasteries and seminaries have been destroyed. Some of the churches which have been defiled looted and burned have existed since the 1300’s and survived even the 500-year long Ottoman occupation. In March of this year an organized effort was made by Kosovo Albanians through mob violence to force out the last remaining Christian Serbs from Kosovo.
    The purpose of our fact finding mission to Kosovo was to determine the cause of the March, 2004 destruction of Orthodox churches and monasteries and to make recommendations to stop future violence of this nature. While the fact finding mission was organized by social conservatives, notable liberals were invited to make sure the panel was unbiased. As a result, Rev. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches and a self avowed opponent of the conservative movement, accompanied us. He was just as appalled by the violence as were the rest of us.
    When we met with Charles H. Brayshaw, the Principle Deputy for UN General Secretary Koki Annan in Kosovo he was frank in admitting the failures of the administration of the area. He was particularly concerned about “...the failure to provide a sense of security for minorities.”
    He did not have to give us illustrations to prove the point that minorities needed protection in Kosovo. A heavily armed, specially trained unit of Ukrainian police was assigned to our delegation. Each of our 18 guards wore class four body armor and carried high caliber automatic weapons.
   
    Ukrainian special police under UN command were assigned to protect our delegation
    One of the individuals accompanying the delegation was an Albanian photographer whose husband was Serbian. This individual confided to us that her husband could not leave their home unless accompanied by her, for fear of attack. It is virtually impossible for a Serbian Christian to obtain emergency services in Kosovo. Serbs die mysteriously when they are taken to any of the Albanian run hospitals. Christians have no freedom of movement and therefore no freedom to practice their faith.
    In advance of the mission to Kosovo I learned that rural clinics in areas where Serbs live have few medical supplies. To be of some help, I took three “mission medical kits” with enough drugs to care for up to 500 people for three to six months in each kit.
    Let me make it clear that the medical kits delivered were purchased and transported by the Religious Freedom Coalition and not by the full delegation. The delegation was investigative only.
    The medical supplies which included very expensive antibiotics, were delivered to a clinic in the village of Osojanje in Kosovo. Although the clinic had an ambulance, the doctor informed me that he could not send any patients to Albanian controlled hospitals, particularly pregnant women, because male Serbian children do not survive birth there.
   
    Serbian medical doctor accepts mission medical kits from William J. Murray On the other hand he showed me records of a number of Albanian Muslim children who had been treated at his clinic in emergencies. When he opened the boxes and saw the supplies we delivered he said that it “...was a gift from God.” Across the street from the clinic, refugees from the March attacks live in tents with no hope of returning to their destroyed homes.
    One member of our delegation, Rev. Michael Faulkner, pastor of the Central Baptist Church in Manhattan, New York was so touched that he has decided to lead his church to rebuild one of the churches destroyed in the March pogrom.
    I am preparing a complete white paper on the trip which includes all details of the fact finding mission including my conversations with the President of Serbia. Because of its size I cannot send it out free of charge, but will send a copy to anyone contributing to our projects in Kosovo.
    A final word ... We did not raise all the funds needed for our participation in the Brussels Conference and the mission to Kosovo. If you can, please help the Religious Freedom Coalition financially this month.
   
    William J. Murray, Chairman
    Religious Freedom Coalition, Washington, DC
   
    TOP ERPKIM News Archive Index NEWS ARCHIVE 2004
   

God Almighty
Just Think, " a zillion billion years after ETERNITY has begun with JESUS,
we will still have FOREVER ahead of us to look forward to " .
  And halfway through FOREVERS ETERNITY, around a hundred billion zillion trillion years from now, we will still not know the height, the length, the depth, the breadth or the furthest extent of our Lords Love, Kindness, Mercy, or Joy. And we'll see there is no way to reach halfway becuse there simply is no end.
  The nature of forever is such that in the hundred billionth eon of minilliums, we will,,,, still,,, be able to say that, "eye has not yet seen, nor ear heard, nor ever, entered into the heart of God's creations, the things that God has instore for those who love Him".
  His ways in a zillion years, will still be past finding out ! And the quadrillion new and wonderous things that He will do every second will never cease to AMAZE and Astonish US ALL.
  And just think, God is so far above and beyond us that if all the souls of mankind grew in love and power and ability for eternity. Our combined love would never even catch up to where God is right now!
   Thats why the Angels cry "Holy, Holy, Holy". Each time they say it, it's for the first time. They have just seen more about God that amazes them then ever before. They never say Holy the same way twice. Each time is a creshendo of higher realization of more about God they didn't know before.
  What could ever be said to describe Him. That's why we have eternal life, so we will have enough time to really appreciate and love our Everlasting Father. He is simply God, Almighty !!!!!


  God gave me this debate answer when handing out tracts on Hollywood blvd. I got into a debate with a nuclear physists who had mocked me while he was standing in line to see a movie at Gramens Chinese Theater. It was "Airport 70". He said heaven would be boring. I said it's just the opposit. Then God inspired me to preach, the paragraph above is what the Lord gave me to start my message with. We had a number step out of line to pray with us. We then went and bible studied with them in the coffee shop on the corner of Hollywood Bl. and Highland.