July 25, - Peace for neither the dead nor the living
Today we received news that a Serb convoy was stoned near Milosevo close to Pristina and that several vehicles were damaged. Fortunately, no one was injured. Only a month ago in the same village, the priest from Babin Most accompanied a group of visitors on All Souls' Day and they found almost all the graves had been vandalized. These incidents are not considered significant by the international forces in Kosovo and Metohija and are usually not reported in official press reports. It seems that it is necessary for someone to be murdered for the news to make it to the front page. The desecration of graves, the stoning of nuns, and fragile, elderly women are regular occurances tolerated daily in order to put pressure on the remaining Serbs to depart from Kosovo and Metohija.
The desecration of graves is a frequent occurence in our region of Metohija. Not far from Pec, in the villages of Brestovik and Siga, almost all the Serb graves were found dug up and the bones of the deceased were literally scattered around the cemetery. Father Radivoje Panic and Dr. Gordana Subaric filmed a shocking documentary film regarding this incident called "The Wind from the Grave". Despite all appeals to the international authorities, this horrible act of barbarism is being repeated at other cemeteries. I ask myself what the living Serbs have to hope for when even the dead have no peace.
July 26, - The miracle of Holy Archangels
We finally greeted the 650th anniversary of the founding of the Holy Archangels Monastery near Prizren. I remained in Decani this time, impatiently awaiting the arrival of the brethren and the bishop, who were scheduled to come to the monastery with their escorts after the festivities. The bishop arrived late because the UNMIK police driving him in an armored vehicle took a wrong turn at Djakovica and apparently went as far as the Albanian border. I would not be surprised to learn that they entered Albania proper undetected since there is no longer any border between the province of Kosovo and Albania. Abbot Teodosije arrived with the Decani brethren only four hours later because Italian military transporters took them on an alternate route by way of Brezovica and Pristina due to the anti-Serb demonstrations in Prizren. We gathered together that evening and exchanged impressions from the celebration which, despite the rain, took place with great dignity and spiritual joy.
Especially noteworthy were comments regarding the explosion heard in the Holy Archangels Monastery immediately after liturgy as many people still hovered in the church entrance. Later we learned that the Albanians had planted strong explosives some one hundred meters above the monastery in order to invoke the collapse of a part of the hill with a huge cliff directly on the monastery yard, thus burying the attendants. It is not difficult to imagine the extent of the tragedy had more than a mere one hundred grams of the total of 9 kilos of highly volatile explosives planted on the hillside actually detonated. We praised God who, in answer to the prayers of the Holy Archangels, prevented yet another tragedy and spared many human lives.
August 4, 2002 - Another "working" Sunday
Yet another typical Sunday in Decani. Father Ezechiel and Father Serapion are busy all day with numerous visitors who come to visit the church and our iconography studio. The majority of them are foreign officers and their friends who come to visit them. I sit on the terrace and talk with a group of foreigners. They are amazed and simply cannot believe what I am saying, because from the international perspective the situation in Kosovo is "showing signs of significant improvement". Today, they say, an occasional Serb can safely venture down the main Pristina street of Mother Theresa. Of course, the foreigners do see the crowded Pristina streets and cafes and frequently, as a result of all the noise and clamor, they miss out on the story of the remaining 200 Pristina Serbs, living in complete isolation as if they were in catacombs.
