[ad_1]
In a confidential letter in 2002, Joseph Biden asked Ramush Haradinaj to preserve the Visoki Decani monastery. He claims he kept his promise, and the fact that Decani is one of the few Serbian Orthodox monasteries preserved in the March violence two years later served as proof for Biden. These accusations were made by Biden himself in the US Congress in 2005, reports KoSSev.
Joseph Biden was congratulated as the 46th President of the United States.
He is one of the most popular American politicians among Kosovo Albanians, because during the 1990s he played a very active role in defending their political goals and the right to “self-determination.” On the other hand, the Serbian public of that period left the impression that he was a politician with an “anti-Serbian” mood, KoSSev writes.
Little is known about the fact that Biden visited Visoke Decane twice after the war, and that he personally asked the Kosovar Albanians for the protection of this monastery. When he visited Kosovo and Metohija and Visoki Decani Monastery for the first time in January 2001, he experienced it, in his own words, as a “masterpiece”.
The monastery will be under UNESCO protection in 2004/2005, but the monks will remain concerned about the sanctuary’s safety. That same year, 2005, Biden recalled his first time at the investiture of St. The King.
“During that trip, I flew by helicopter to west Kosovo, where I visited the Serbian Orthodox Visoki Decani Monastery, a 14th-century architectural masterpiece, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site last year.”
He recalled the role of Orthodox monks during the 1999 war, who, as Biden testified in the US Senate, “saved Kosovar Albanians from persecution by Serbian forces.”
“Let me repeat, it was the Serbian Orthodox monks who most saved Kosovar Albanians, mostly Muslims, from persecution by Serbian forces,” reads the transcript of Biden’s testimony in the US Congress in 2005, he writes. KoSSev.
At the same time, during his first visit, he spoke with Ramush Haradinaj. Describing him as “a tough, tough guy who could pull an ox out of a ditch,” he had the impression that he “sincerely acknowledged” that it was “the only way forward for the future of Kosovo”, that “Serbs and communities Kosovo minorities guarantee rights “. However, almost two years later, during a new visit to the monastery, Father Sava and other monks of the US official warned that they were “in great danger.”
“In fact, the Italian KFOR armored personnel carriers were lined up in the snow directly in front of the stone walls of the monastery to distract themselves. Knowing that the area around Decani was Mr. Haradinaj’s political base, I sent him a letter confidential after my return to Washington. “I am counting on him to personally guarantee and protect the Serbian Orthodox monastery I just visited,” Biden told his American colleagues 15 years ago.
“In March 2004, serious riots broke out across Kosovo against Serbs and other non-Albanian minorities. Hundreds of houses were destroyed and many medieval Orthodox Serbian churches and monasteries were burned. KFOR proved unable or unwilling to prevent the riot. “In several cases, the attacks took place while European KFOR troops were waiting. One of the few vulnerable monasteries that remained intact was Visoki Decani. Mr. Haradinaj kept his promise, “Biden observed in Decani. He” survived “the March pogrom, writes KoSSev.
Biden made the accusations on March 9, 2005, the day of Ramush Haradinaj’s departure for the Netherlands, following the indictment by the Hague court against the former Yugoslavia for war crimes in Kosovo. In fact, he paid tribute to him for, he saw, calming the situation and, at the same time, according to the claims of other actors at the time, he had results in the position of prime minister.
“Until yesterday, he was Prime Minister of Kosovo. He was accused of war crimes in Kosovo during 1998 and 1999. Mr. Haradinaj has pleaded completely innocent, but resigned as Prime Minister, voluntarily surrendered and today he flew to the Netherlands to surrender He also did something extremely unusual in the Balkans. He made a statement calling for peace in Kosovo. ”
Biden saw the call as Haradinaj’s knowledge that a repeat of the “violence of March 2004 would deal a fatal blow to the hopes of the Kosovars that the process of negotiating the final status of Kosovo could begin later this year ( 2005) “, but also as the complete opposite of behavior. Ante Gotovina, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.
Biden also paid tribute to then-prosecutor Carla del Ponte, expressing confidence that Haradinaj would get a “fair trial.”
Ramush Haradinaj, by the way, is now facing an effort to become the new president of Kosovo, after his predecessor left for The Hague, but also an open question about his own role in the new specialized councils in The Hague. , given that he was interrogated in September last year. as a suspect, when he also resigned as prime minister.
The Implementation and Monitoring Council, a body made up of representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Kosovo government and international representatives in charge of implementing the Special Protected Areas Law (ZZZZ), agreed this week to protect the Visoki Decani Monastery from construction of an international highway. for years they tried to build despite the law and what the monks were against.
The road will go through a bypass outside the protected area, while on the other hand, the rehabilitation of the existing road through the area will be enabled for local use by the inhabitants of Decani. The decision was welcomed by the ambassadors of the main countries in Pristina.
[ad_2]
