Bishop Artemije

UN Security Council, UNMIK, KFOR, UNHCR, OSCE, the Governments of NATO countries and the United States and other international organizations

I would like to address all of you who are present in Kosovo and Metohija and engaged in all capacities on behalf of the International Community and in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

Ladies and gentlemen, you have been in Kosovo for more than two years now. We have met, spoken and worked together on many occasions. It is probably better if we do not examine the results of our "work together" at this moment in time. What I wanted to emphasize in this short letter is the following:

In the past several months, every one of our contacts and all your communications with us have been reducible to just one thing: an invitation to the Kosovo Serbs to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for November 17 of this year.

To all these invitations, recommendations and supporting arguments, we, that is, the Serb National Council of Kosovo and Metohija, respond in the name of the Kosovo and Metohija Serbs (both those remaining in Kosovo and those expelled from Kosovo as follows: Ladies and gentlemen, you do not need to INVITE the Serbs to participate in elections; you need to make it POSSIBLE for the Serbs to participate in elections. This is your duty and the obligation which you took upon yourselves in accordance with Resolution 1244. We therefore ask you to fulfil your obligations and your promises toward the Serbs, so that the Serbs will able to meet your expectations with respect to their participation in the elections. Without the former (the providing of conditions), you cannot expect the later (the desired results). We ask you to please understand that it is pointless for you to keep repeating your demands to the Serbs until you have fulfilled your obligations toward them.

1. To enable us to have freedom of movement;
2. To enable the return of all expelled and displaced persons to their homes;
3. To enable us to earn a living and to live in a dignified manner from our earnings;
4. To discover and advise us of the truth regarding 1,300 Serbs kidnapped during your mandate here;
5. To discover the criminals responsible for the murder of over 1,000 Serbs, the destruction of tens of thousands of Serbiann houses, the razing of hundreds of Serbian villages, and the demolition of over a hundred churches and monasteries of global significance; and
6. To work with the Belgrade government to conduct a census (registration) of all Kosovo Serbs, both those presently in Kosovo and those who have been expelled from Kosovo and Metohija since your deployment here, in accordance with OSCE criteria in order to establish an exact count of the Serbian Kosovo population.

Once these obligations have been fulfilled, we will participate in the elections. Until these obligations have been fulfilled, we cannot participate in the elections.

We have been expecting and asking you to fulfil everything listed above for two full years as part of your duties and obligations towards all residents of Kosovo, including the Serbs.

Unfortunately, there have been no results except for promises. In our opinion, the time has come for words to be replaced with deeds. Otherwise, nothing will come of our working together nor participation in the elections. Under the conditions we are living in now, we are not able to do anything more. If you fail to meet your obligations towards the Serbian community in Kosovo, you do not have the right to call the Serbs' failure to participate in the elections a "boycott" because it will be, in fact, the result of our inability to participate in the elections.

With all due respect and the sincere hope that our words will not remain (like so many before them) "a voice crying in the wilderness", my sincere greetings to you on behalf of the Serb National Council of Kosovo and Metohija.