HAGUE PROSECUTOR WANTS TO LYNCH SERBIAN CHURCH

HAGUE PROSECUTOR WANTS "LYNCHING" OF OUR CHURCH - MONTENEGRIN BISHOP
BBC Monitoring International Reports - February 3, 2005

Excerpt from N.M. and R.R. report entitled "Carla calling for new lynching of the church" published by the Montenegrin newspaper Dan on 3 February

In an interview she gave to the Podgorica-based Monitor weekly Hague tribunal chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said that "she had new reports about places where (former Bosnian Serb leader) Radovan Karadzic was hiding". She pointed out that they decided not to publish locations of hideouts of Karadzic and (former Bosnian Serb commander) Ratko Mladic and she also warned the Montenegrin government that "it should know what is happening in the church".

"It is very bad if an organization in a country, even a church, is outside anybody's control and if the government cannot touch it, particularly if that organization is involved in political activities and conceals persons accused of war crimes," Del Ponte said, indirectly accusing the (Serbian Orthodox) church of concealing Hague indictees.

On some previous occasions Del Ponte also accused the Serbian Orthodox Church of hiding Karadzic in its sacred places.

"We are sorry that we have to comment about latest claims of Carla Del Ponte. We must say that Mrs Carla Del Ponte is a woman who has grown up and has been brought up in a democratic country that cannot even imagine the violence the church has been subjected to for more than 50 years and is still being subjected to. However, she is treating the church like she is an agitprop official of the Soviet state or some secretary of the Communist Party. We really did not expect a lawyer of international reputation, awarded greatest possible honours by the United Nations, to call for a new lynching of the church and continuation of the totalitarian control over it, and all this in a society that forgot how to treat the church in any different way," Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Amfilohije told Dan.

Metropolitan Amfilohije reiterated that "our invitation to esteemed Mrs Carla Del Ponte is still valid, she can bow before the relics of St Petar of Cetinje and St Vasilije of Ostrog and see for herself what kind of 'criminals' the church is concealing".

"It saddens us to see that we used to cry out reaching for justice of European democracy, escaping the totalitarianism that plagued us, and now we ask: Where can we find justice and freedom, who do we talk to? Our only comfort and hope are words of St Peter of Cetinje 'in the name of God we find the true incorruptible justice'," Metropolitan Amfilohije concluded.

Posted for Fair Use only.