A special prayer service (Molieben) for Orthodox Christians in Kosovo was held at St Thomas;’s Serbian Orthodox Church in Johannesburg, and those present signed a petition requesting the South African government not to recognise the unilateral declaration of independence made in Kosovo last weekend.
The service was led by Fr Pentelejmon Jovanovic, Rector of the St Thomas parish, assisted by South African, Russian, Romanian and other Orthodox clergy. People carried Serbian, South African, Russian, Greek, Cypriot, Romanian and other flags and church banners in procession around the church. There were displays of churches and ikons that have been vandalised and destroyed by the UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army) that made the independence declaration last weekend.
At the end of the service members of the congregation signed the following petition to the South African government:
Appeal of South African Orthodox Christians to the South African President and SA Government
Honourable Mr. President and members of South African Government:
We write to you on behalf of South African Orthodox Christians (Greeks, Russians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Orthodox South Africans and the substantial, patriotic Serbian community in South Africa) to urge you and the South African Government to reject recognition of Kosovo’s unilateral secession from the Republic of Serbia.
Kosovo and Metohija is Serbia’s spiritual Jerusalem and the very cradle of the Serbian nation. Kosovo is and remains an integral province within the sovereign Republic of Serbia in accordance with The Charter of The United Nations, Security Council Resolution 1244, as well as all relevant international conventions on human rights, the rights of peoples and on the inviolability of internationally recognised borders. Therefore, the recognition of Kosovo as an independent entity violates every established norm of International Law concerned with state creation.
First, customary International Law, for very good reasons, holds that secession from a recognised state can only be granted if it has the consent of the host state, in this case Serbia. As the former Secretary-General of the United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali observed in 1992: “If every ethnic, religious or linguistic group claimed statehood, there would be no limit to fragmentation, and peace, security and economic well-being for all would become ever more difficult to achieve”.
Second, the putative state of Kosovo fails to meet the essential criteria of statehood set out in the Montevideo Convention of 1933. In particular, Kosovo’s present situation of effectively being an international protectorate renders it incapable of satisfying the requirement that a state should be possessed of a government and capacity to enter relations with other states. Kosovo simply does not meet the threshold of independence required by International Law.
Thirdly, recognition of Kosovo violates the European Union’s Guidelines on Recognition in relation to states emerging from the former USSR and Yugoslavia issued in 1991. In particular, prospective states had to establish that they respected and guaranteed various international law norms relating to human rights and the rights of ethnic and national minorities. The situation of the remaining Serbian population in Kosovo, which is segregated behind barbed wire and protected only by the presence of international forces on the ground, is a horrific demonstration of the violation of these requirements in Kosovo.
It is in South Africa’s interest, considering many similar problems on African continent, such as separatist movements, not to recognise a false state of Kosovo in circumstances where to do so would be to ignore fundamental norms of International Law. As the war in Iraq has led to massive instability in the region and exacerbated the growth of terrorism, in like manner the precipitate recognition of Kosovo will lead to the same consequences in the Balkans.
During the apartheid period in South Africa no country in the world recognised the independence of ethnic “homelands” such as Transkei, Ciskei, Venda and Bophuthatswana, nor did any government recognise the unilateral declaration of independence by the Smith regime in Rhodesia. As in these cases, to recognise the independence of Kosovo would be to recognise the principle of apartheid. In the period immediately preceding South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994 there was a similar movement of secession in what is now the province of KwaZulu-Natal, with more than 700 people being killed, and some groups initially refused to participate in the elections. We believe that recognition of the secession of Kosovo would be similar to the recognition of that movement.
For all of these reasons, Honourable Mr. President and members of South African Government, we urge you to condemn the declaration of Kosovo independence, and further, to use South Africa’s standing as a good international citizen that respects the Rule of Law to impress upon all interested parties that the only way to resolve the status of Kosovo is through equitable, constructive dialogue and peaceful negotiations.
Yours sincerely,
+ Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria Seraphim
Rev. Hieromonk Pantelejmon - Rector of Serbian parish in Johannesburg
The picture shows the Serbian Ambassador eddressing the congregation after the service. With him is Fr John Lapidus of St Sergius Russian Orthodox Church, Midrand.
1 Comment
25 February 2008 at 4:31 am
Thank you for posting this letter!
May God have mercy on and save all in Kosovo.
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