"The Church Is Gone, Macedonians Have No Business Here Anymore"

Journalists were welcomed with these words in the village where recently the church of St. George was set on fire

by Zana P. BOZINOVSKA and Dejan NIKOLOVSKI

Dnevnik, Skopje, Macedonia, December 11, 2001

Residents of the village of Recica, near Tetovo, do not want ethnic Macedonians in their village since, as they say, the church is gone and Macedonians have no more business there. Yesterday, a Dnevnik team, together with journalists from several other media, made an unannounced visit to the church of St. George in the village of Golema Recica, which was deliberately set on fire a few days ago. The visit was organized by the OSCE, at the insistence of the journalists. Representatives of the OSCE warned us that the area around the church was "completely unsafe". Due to icy roads, some journalists did not make it all the way to the church, but remained in the foothills of the Sara mountain.

It was obvious that the local population got quite agitated because of the unannounced visit by journalists. Young men, aged about 25, started gathering and circling around cars and peeking inside once they noticed that vehicles had number plates. A vehicle with number plates hasn't been seen in the village for ages [ethnic Albanians often refuse to register their vehicles and drive without number plates]. An Albanian flag was flying at the entrance to the village. Gathered men approached the vehicles and demanded to be told what we were doing there. After we told them we were journalists, they said that we had no business in the village, since the church was gone.

"You have five minutes to get lost," some of them threatened. After that they mumbled something in Albanian and disappeared in the nearby houses. Fortunately, the other group of journalists, who went to the church with OSCE escort, returned at that point. Soon afterwards, we left the village.

A few hours before the journalists, two priests from the Tetovo eparchy, also with OSCE escort, visited the church and picked up the undamaged objects. OSCE representatives said that they took a few icons and candle holders. There was nothing else left in the church as the fire had destroyed everything but the walls. The fire was a work of arsonists, probably residents of the village. The building next to the church, next to the kitchen, was also set on fire. According to the OSCE representatives, they came to the village together with the fire brigade around 6:30 pm. At that point the kitchen had already been burnt, while the front part of the church was still in flames. The following day, arsonists set another fire in the church residence hall, but it died out on its own. It was obvious that the front door of the church had been broken and that something incendiary had been thrown inside. While journalists and OSCE representatives inspected the remains of the church, a group of ethnic Albanians carefully observed from the side.

Jovan Kondijanov, the director of the State Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, is convinced that the destruction of the church on the St. George day is obviously a provocation.

"This is not the first incident of this sort. The church in Lesok was destroyed. This is happening at the time when a UNESCO delegation is visiting the country. Today, they visited the Lesok monastery, and will also, most likely, visit the church of St. George. A destruction of a religious object is a direct attack on the feeling of the population and must not be tolerated," Kondijanov says.

According to Klime Korobar, president of IKON, a non-governmental organization for the promotion of cultural heritage, this was a barbaric act.

"In this region Christianity and Islam have been intertwined for many years. However, even during the five centuries of Ottoman rule, not a single church was burnt or destroyed. This is an act of vandals. They are destroying our roots. Christians and Muslims lived there together, and created and developed a joint culture, for centuries. When they set buildings on fire or destroy them, they destroy a part of their own past, regardless of their religious affiliation," Korobar says.

Translated on October 25, 2002