Serbian patriarch urges rights for Kosovo-Metohija Serbs

BELGRADE - Patriarch Porfirije and all archbishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church on Thursday urged the international community to ensure to Kosovo-Metohija Serbs the same universal freedoms that ethnic Albanians and all other people in the world have.

"We remind all responsible factors that universal human rights and freedoms that apply to (ethnic) Albanians and all other people in the world need to apply to Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, too. Personal safety and safety of property and freedom of movement belong to everyone to the same extent and, as such, must be undisputed," the patriarch said in a message ahead of Orthodox Christmas and the Orthodox New Year.

He noted that, since mid-2022, "in our covenant land of birth, in Kosovo-Metohija, those who have been our neighbours for centuries, have been issuing ultimatums, provoking, wreaking terror and constantly threatening the remaining, unprotected Serbs with persecution and oppression, with ominous silence or, as it seems, tacit support from some powerful states."

He urged that, in the days of Christmas joy, peace and family warmth, "those between whom the fire of war is blazing also be in our prayers, above all, the brothers and sisters from Ukraine and Russia who are of the same faith."

"It is with sadness that we watch the conflicts and victims of war, in which, publicly or secretly, various actors are involved. The consequences of the tragic, fratricidal Russian-Ukrainian conflict, spurred on from the outside every day, are terrible, and, like never before, the fire of war is threatening the entire world," Patriarch Porfirije said.