Kosovo: State Department International Religious Freedom Report 2006

I love Peace

Raporti per Lirine Fetare ne Kosove per vitin 2006 i
bere nga State Department-i.


KOSOVO

Kosovo continued to be administered under the civil
authority of the U.N. Interim Administrative Mission
in Kosovo (UNMIK), pursuant to U.N. Security Council
Resolution (UNSCR) 1244. UNMIK and its chief
administrator, the Special Representative of the
Secretary General (SRSG), established a civil
administration in 1999, following the conclusion of
the NATO military campaign that forced the withdrawal
of Yugoslav and Serbian forces from Kosovo. Since that
time, the SRSG and UNMIK, with the assistance of the
international community, have worked with local
leaders to build the institutions and expertise
necessary for self-government under UNSCR 1244. UNSCR
1244 also authorized an international peacekeeping
force in Kosovo (KFOR) to provide a safe and secure
environment.

The UNMIK-promulgated Constitutional Framework for the
Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) in
Kosovo provides for freedom of religion, as does UNMIK
Regulation 1999/24 on applicable law in Kosovo; UNMIK
and the provisional institutions of self-government
generally respected this right in practice. Attacks by
Kosovo Albanians against Kosovo Serbs peaked following
the NATO campaign in 1999, and again in March 2004,
when violence perpetrated by Kosovo Albanians resulted
in the deaths of 19 persons (11 Kosovo Albanians and 8
Kosovo Serbs), 954 injuries, and widespread property
damage, including 30 Serbian Orthodox churches,
monasteries, cemeteries and more than 900 homes.

Respect for religious freedom increased during the
period covered by this report and government policy
continued to contribute to the generally free practice
of religion. Historically, tensions between Kosovo's
Albanian and Serb populations have been largely rooted
in ethnic, rather than religious, bias. Roman Catholic
institutions were not targets. Attacks on Orthodox
religious sites significantly decreased after the
March 2004 riots, although some minor vandalism
occurred during the period covered by this report.

The violent events of March 2004 slowed the transfer
of responsibility for the protection of Serbian
Orthodox churches and other religious symbols from the
NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) to U.N. international
police (CIVPOL) and the Kosovo Police Service (KPS).
KFOR halted the process immediately following the
March 2004 riots and increased the number of
checkpoints near Serbian Orthodox churches,
monasteries, and patrimonial sites; however, the
transfer process has since continued. For example,
KFOR relaxed its two fixed checkpoints on either side
of the main road to Decani monastery on April 27,
2006. Kosovo leaders, with the acceptance of the
Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), sought to address the
concerns of persons displaced by the violence,
reconstructed all but a handful of houses damaged, and
funded and finished preliminary assessments on thirty
religious sites damaged in March 2004.

The U.S. government discusses religious freedom issues
with UNMIK, the PISG, and religious representatives in
Kosovo as part of its overall policy to promote human
rights. The U.S. government has contributed to the
continued safekeeping of Islamic manuscripts,
refurbished through U.S. government funds. After six
years of international community assistance, the PISG
must still fully address interethnic reconciliation
and make further progress on implementing the
"Standards for Kosovo," which help provide the
framework for establishing a multiethnic, sustainable
democratic society. In October 2005, the U.N. Security
Council endorsed the U.N. secretary general's
intention to begin status negotiations for Kosovo,
which include discussions on the protection of
cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo. As a member
of the Contact Group and contributor to the NATO-led
Kosovo Force, the United States remains fully involved
in all aspects of peacekeeping and democratization in
Kosovo. The U.S. government also supports UNMIK and
KFOR in their security and protection arrangements for
churches and patrimonial sites. In December 2004, the
SRSG and KFOR commander signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOU), which specifies response
mechanisms and cooperation between the KPS and KFOR to
maintain order. Contingency plans for riot control
have been revised to include an operational presence
in municipalities and permanent contact among local
police, UNMIK, communities, village leaders, and local
authorities.

Over the course of the period covered by this report,
the UNMIK police community policing initiative
completed phased deployment of 350 international
police officers to 30 locations in the region that are
considered sites for potential return of displaced
persons and those inhabited by minority communities.

Section I. Religious Demography

Kosovo has an area of approximately 4,211 square miles
and a population of approximately 2 million, although
the last credible census was taken in the 1980s. Islam
was the predominant faith, professed by most of the
majority ethnic Albanian population, the Bosniak,
Gorani, and Turkish communities, and some in the
Roma/Ashkali/ Egyptian community, although religion was
not a significant factor in public life. Religious
rhetoric was largely absent from public discourse,
mosque attendance was low, and public displays of
conservative Islamic dress and culture were minimal.
The present Serb population in Kosovo, which was
estimated at 100,000 to 120,000 persons, was largely
Serbian Orthodox. Approximately 3 percent of ethnic
Albanians were Roman Catholic. Protestants made up
less than 1 percent of the population and had
thirty-six churches and small populations in most of
Kosovo's cities, the largest concentration located in
Kosovo's capital of Pristina. Approximately forty
persons from two families in Prizren had some Jewish
roots, but there were no synagogues or Jewish
institutions. Estimates of atheists or those who did
not practice any religion were difficult to determine
and/or largely unreliable.

Foreign clergy actively practiced and proselytized.
There were Muslim, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and
Protestant missionaries active in Kosovo. Roman
Catholic communities were concentrated around Catholic
churches in Prizren and Pristina. UNMIK estimated that
seventy-one faith-based or religious organizations,
which listed their goals as providing humanitarian
assistance or faith-based outreach, worked in Kosovo.
In March, UNMIK transferred the tracking of such
organizations to the Ministry of Public Services, but
the ministry had not provided any new information by
the end of the period covered by this report.

Section II. Status of Religious Freedom

Legal/Policy Framework

In 2001, UNMIK promulgated the Constitutional
Framework for Provisional Self-Government in Kosovo
(the "Constitutional Framework"), which established
the PISG and replaced the UNMIK-imposed Joint Interim
Administrative Structure. Following November 2001
central elections, the 120-member Kosovo Assembly held
its inaugural session in late 2001. In 2002, the
Assembly selected Kosovo's first president, prime
minister, and government. Kosovo's latest government
was formed after the Kosovo Assembly elected Fatmir
Sejdiu as Kosovo's president on February 10, 2006, and
Agim Ceku as Kosovo's prime minister on March 10,
2006. UNMIK had transferred most of the authority
authorized by the Constitutional Framework to the
PISG, and, while it transferred some competencies to
the Ministries of Justice and Interior in February
2006, UNMIK and NATO retained ultimate authority in
such areas as security and protection of communities.

Kosovo's Constitutional Framework incorporates
international human rights conventions and treaties,
including those provisions that protect religious
freedom and prohibit discrimination based on religion
and ethnicity; UNMIK and the PISG generally respected
this right in practice. UNMIK, the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the
PISG officially promote respect for religious freedom
and tolerance in administering Kosovo and in carrying
out programs for its reconstruction and development.
UNMIK, as Kosovo's final administrative
decision-maker, sought to protect religious freedom in
full.

UNMIK recognizes as official holidays some, but not
all, holy days of the Muslim, Roman Catholic, and
Orthodox religious groups. UNMIK recognizes the major
religious Orthodox and Islamic holy days of Orthodox
Christmas, Eid-al-Adha, Orthodox Easter Monday,
Orthodox Assumption Day, the beginning of Ramadan, Eid
al-Fitr, and western Christmas.

There are no mandatory registration regulations with
regard to religious groups; however, to purchase
property or receive funding from UNMIK or other
international organizations, religious organizations
must register with the Ministry of Public Services as
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Religious
leaders have complained that they should have special
status apart from that of NGOs. Protestant evangelical
community representatives have complained that they
cannot receive documentation proving religious or NGO
status in Kosovo because the Ministry of Public
Services requires that they be a documented entity for
at least five years before they can be legally
registered as an NGO.

In response to the complaint that religious
communities should have special status other than that
of NGOs, the Kosovo Prime Minister's Office
established a working group to draft a law on
religious freedom and the legal status of religious
communities in 2003. The group consisted of
representatives of the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and
Islamic religious groups in Kosovo; Serbian Orthodox
representatives declined to participate. Nonetheless,
the working group continued to provide Serbian
Orthodox representatives with drafts of the law.

On May 20, 2005, the Kosovo Assembly passed the first
reading of the draft law on Religious Freedom and the
Legal Status of Religious Communities in Kosovo, which
would further protect the rights of religious
communities and individuals.

Before the draft law's first reading in May 2005, the
Islamic community and Roman Catholic leadership
proposed new amendments to this draft, which included:
labeling the Islamic community the "only
representative" of Kosovo Muslims; establishing a
ministry of religion; and exempting religious
communities from paying utilities. The assembly
committee did not add these provisions to the draft
law. After the first reading in the Assembly, the law
went back to parliamentary committee for further
debate. The Islamic community lobbied local political
leadership for inclusion of amendments which continue
to require a minimum number of adherents before a
religious group can be registered as a "special
status" religion and in a "special relationship with
the Government," which Protestant religious groups in
Kosovo believe would pave the way for the teaching of
religion in public schools. In December 2005, a group
of religious leaders from the Serbian Orthodox Church,
the Islamic Community, the Roman Catholic community,
and the Jewish community (in Serbia), as well as
working-level PISG representatives in Vienna, drafted
these changes as amendments to the law, but the
assembly committee did not add these elements into the
law sent to the Government for approval. By the end of
the period covered by this report, the Contact Group
named this law among three pieces of priority
legislation that the PISG is to pass in 2006. The law
had not been given a second reading in the assembly at
the end of the period covered by this report. The
contentious provisions that met with objections from
the Protestant community were excluded from the draft
law approved by the Kosovo Assembly and would likely
be addressed in subsequent legislation. The most
recent draft law enshrined the right to believe and
worship freely in Kosovo.

In April 2006, ethnic Albanian President Fatmir Sejdiu
visited Decani monastery for Orthodox Easter and spoke
in Serbian while conversing with the clergy, marking
the first time a president of Kosovo received and
accepted such an invitation. Veton Surroi, leader of
Reform Party Ora (PRO), visited the SOC's Decani
monastery twice during the reporting period, in an
effort to hear SOC concerns pertaining to Kosovo's
final status negotiations. Central and local
government officials participated in a landmark
interfaith conference hosted by the Pec Patriarchate
from May 2 to May 4, 2006, which included a visit to
the Decani monastery, a nearby mosque, and a Roman
Catholic church.

Restrictions on Religious Freedom

UNMIK, the PISG, and KFOR policy and practice
contributed to the generally free practice of
religion; however, the Kosovo Islamic Community at
times publicly alleged that Kosovo lacked genuine
religious freedom, citing as examples UNMIK's refusal
to provide radio frequencies for an Islamic radio
station and the closing of a prayer room in the
National Library by the Ministry of Education,
Science, and Technology in 2004. The same community
also alleged that, although thirty-two acres of
municipal land were allocated and the cornerstone was
laid August 28, 2005, for a Roman Catholic cathedral
in Pristina dedicated to Mother Theresa, a Catholic
nun of Albanian ethnicity, the Pristina Municipal
Assembly refused its request to allocate space for new
mosques for what the Islamic community claimed was a
growing Muslim population in Pristina. Some Kosovo
Muslim leaders complained that they were not consulted
prior to registration of foreign Islamic NGOs with
UNMIK.

Kosovo education legislation and regulation provide
for a separation between religious and public spheres.
In May 2005, a principal suspended a public school
teacher for wearing a headscarf to class, citing a
provision of Kosovo's law on education which obligates
public institutions to adopt a neutral attitude
towards religion when providing education. On May 29,
Pristina Municipality' s Department of Education
dismissed the teacher, a decision the Ombudsperson' s
Institution supported when the investigation revealed
the teacher was found to have been proselytizing
during class time. A male student filed a complaint
with the Ombudsperson' s Institution alleging he was
expelled from school for wearing a beard; school
officials told the Ombudsperson Institution that the
student was not expelled, but only prevented from
returning to class while he wore a beard. Another case
from April 2005, which was under investigation at the
end of the reporting period, involved a primary school
student who was dismissed from class for wearing a
headscarf. A similar case resulted in a June 2004
non-binding opinion from the ombudsperson that the
ministry's interpretation should only apply to school
teachers and officials, not students. All parties
filed petitions with the Ministry of Education and
formal complaints with Kosovo's ombudsperson.

Protestants continued to report that they experience
discrimination in media access, particularly by the
public Radio and Television Kosovo (RTK). Protestants
also reported that Decani municipality denied them
permission to build a church facility on privately
owned land they had purchased, citing negative
reaction from local citizens, and that the Ministry of
Environment and Spatial Planning upheld the decision.
Decani municipal authorities responded that their
donation of time in the shared municipal convention
center afforded Protestants adequate space.

There were no reports of religious prisoners or
detainees in the country.

Abuses of Religious Freedom

On January 17, 2006, the SOC alleged that the
Association of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) War
Veterans, in cooperation with Gjakova municipality,
had erected a monument honoring KLA veterans on church
property. On February 2, the SOC announced that UNMIK
promised, in cooperation with the PISG, to "work to
protect this church property." The monument remained
in place at the end of the reporting period.

Forced Religious Conversion

There were no reports of forced religious conversion,
including of minor U.S. citizens who had been abducted
or illegally removed from the United States, or of the
refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the
United States.

Improvements and Positive Developments in Respect for
Religious Freedom

During the period covered by this report, Kosovo
political leaders- including government and political
party officials- increasingly called for religious
tolerance and participated in milestone interfaith
events. Kosovo officials also constructively engaged
in several rounds of U.N.-led negotiations this year
with Serbian officials to reach agreement as part of
the Kosovo status talks on ways to better protect
religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo. Talks were
ongoing at the end of the period covered by the
report.

During a January 6, 2006, visit to the Serb residents
in Pristina on Orthodox Christmas, the then-Prime
Minister Bajram Kosumi said that Kosovo was not only
his home, but the home of all Kosovo's residents,
irrespective of ethnicity and religion.

Serbian Orthodox clergy reported constraints on
freedom of movement that prohibited adherents from
freely attending worship services, but reported that
they themselves were able to move freely around Kosovo
with little incident. On March 22, 2006, UNMIK Chief
Soren Jessen-Petersen and Kosovo President Fatmir
Sejdiu paid a visit to Rahovec municipality. In two
separate meetings with members of Serb and Albanian
communities, Sejdiu and Jessen-Petersen called on
citizens of Rahovec to work together to achieve full
human rights for all Kosovars.

On March 28, 2006, Veton Surroi convened the
Communities Consultative Council in Durres, Albania,
bringing together political leadership from Kosovo
Serbs and Kosovo's other minority communities to
openly discuss their ideas for the Kosovo status
talks.

On April 19, 2006, the SRSG urged internally displaced
persons (IDPs) and IDP associations to participate
actively in the ongoing returns efforts. In his
meeting with members of IDP associations, the SRSG
said that the PISG and UNMIK, in active collaboration
with IDP associations and minority groups, had revised
the returns manual to ensure direct participation of
IDPs themselves in decision-making processes.

One challenge facing the international community and
the PISG has been reducing and preventing ethnically
motivated attacks on Serbian Orthodox churches and
shrines and on the Serbian Orthodox population of
Kosovo. Since the riots of March 2004, during which 30
Orthodox religious sites and more than 900 homes and
businesses of ethnic minorities were burned or
damaged, the number of attacks on Serbian Orthodox
churches has decreased. Members of the PISG and some
political leaders, who made efforts to communicate
with Kosovo Serbs and Serbian Orthodox officials after
the riots and during the period covered by this
report, continued to express a public commitment to
assist in their return and the reconstruction of
damaged or destroyed churches.

Prompted by the international community after the
March 2004 riots, Kosovo leaders sought to address the
concerns of the Serbian Orthodox Church and persons
displaced by the violence and agreed to fund and
cooperate with local religious officials and
international experts in rebuilding the damaged
property. On the basis of a Council of Europe damage
assessment, the PISG allocated $5.3 million (4.2
million euros) for the initial phase of the
reconstruction of churches and monasteries damaged in
the March riots. The PISG completed the first phase of
emergency repairs in full cooperation with the SOC
during the period covered by this report.

In a May 2006 report to the UNSC, UNMIK stated that
most of the criminal cases related to March 2004 riots
were handled by the local judiciary: charges were
pressed against 426 people, resulting in 217
convictions, 14 acquittals, 89 pending cases, and 106
cases dropped for lack of evidence. International
prosecutors conducted forty-four of the most serious
riot-related cases, resulting in thirteen convictions,
with punishments ranging from suspended sentences to
eighteen years in prison for attempted murder.

General crime statistics as reported by UNMIK on May
24, 2006, revealed a decline in potentially
ethnically-motivate d crimes. Compared to the
seventy-two incidents recorded from January to March
2005, nineteen such cases were reported during the
same time period in 2006. UNMIK police reported that
of the 1,408 Kosovo Serb convoys escorted by the KPS
from January to early May 2006, there were only 6
incidents of stone throwing, leading to 5 arrests by
the KPS. In response to reports in the Serb media of
increasing security concerns among Kosovo Serbs, UNMIK
and KPS began twenty-four- hour foot patrols in
majority ethnic Serb areas of Kosovo in May 2006.

On May 16, 2006, ethnic Albanian students from a
secondary school in Decan municipality, accompanied by
the director and four teachers, visited the Decani
monastery, marking the first nonofficial visit of
ethnic Albanian Kosovo residents to the monastery
since the end of the conflict in 1999. Father Sava
Janjic welcomed and guided the group through a tour of
the site; both sides expressed positive impressions,
and Father Sava told the group he would welcome more
such visits in the future.

On April 14, 2006, UNMIK, for the third time, renewed
a six-month protection zone for 800 hectares
surrounding Decani monastery, which prevents
commercial development on protected property.

The municipal assembly of Rahovec/Orahovac passed a
resolution on June 19, 2006, allowing the monks of
Zociste/Zocishte monastery to regularly use their
church bell. Until June 19, as directed by German
KFOR, the monks rang the bell only for important
church holidays.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and a large
Serbian delegation traveled to Kosovo on June 26-28 to
commemorate the 650th anniversary of the death of King
Dusan at the Holy Archangels Monastery in Prizren, and
the annual Vidovdan commemoration of the defeat of the
Serbs and their allies by the Turks in the Battle of
Kosovo Polje in 1389. The visit, a possible
flashpoint, went without incident.

Section III. Societal Abuses and Discrimination

Ethnicity and religion were inextricably linked in
Kosovo and made it difficult to determine if societal
discrimination and violence were religiously or
ethnically motivated. While most Kosovo Albanians
identified themselves as Muslim, the designation had
more of a cultural than religious connotation. Kosovo
Serbs identified themselves with the SOC, which
defined not only their religious but also their
cultural and historical perspectives. During and after
the 1999 conflict, some Serbian Orthodox leaders
played a moderating political role, while others
withdrew from constructive discussion. Most Kosovo
Serb politicians continued their three-year boycott of
participation in government institutions.

Societal violence continued and increased marginally
from the last reporting period. Three high-profile
killings of ethnic Serbs occurred during the reporting
period: on August 27, 2005, two young men were fatally
shot while driving, and a third was stabbed in March
on the flashpoint bridge separating ethnic Serb
majority north Mitrovica municipality from ethnic
Albanian majority south Mitrovica. The first crime had
not been solved, but police authorities reacted
quickly to arrest suspects in the second case, one of
whom was released and was awaiting trial. On May 6,
2006, Kosovo Serb media reported that unknown
attackers shot at a car driven by Serbian Orthodox
priest Srjdan Stankovic in Zvecan municipality; UNMIK
charged an ethnic Serb Kosovo Police Service officer
in connection with the incident for "brandishing a
firearm." One other high profile shooting occurred at
a gas station; no one had been charged for this
incident by the end of the period covered by this
report. Although tension between communities remained
high, the prevailing crime trend continued to be
against property instead of persons. In 2005, however,
57 percent of potential ethnically motivated incidents
were assault and intimidation- related, not necessarily
property-related offences, as in the previous
reporting period. There were some reported incidents
of rock-throwing and other assaults against Serbian
buses and Serbian Orthodox clergy as they traveled
outside of their monasteries, and monks and nuns at
some monasteries reportedly did not use parts of the
monasteries' properties because of concerns about
safety.

Security concerns continued to affect the Serb
community and also affected its freedom to worship,
particularly after the March 2004 riots. Some Kosovo
Serbs asserted that they were not able to travel
freely to practice their faith. Father Sava Janjic of
Decani monastery told USOP that, since KFOR stopped
escorting non-clergy parishioners to religious sites
in April 2005, he noticed a decline in attendance at
services. Sava also reported that, when traveling
through Kosovo, clergy transit vans were sometimes
pelted with stones and verbal insults, although he and
his co-religious generally traveled freely and without
incident on Kosovo's main highways during the period
covered by this report. Father Sava and Bishop
Teodosije (Sibalic) of Lipljan both traveled with an
escort to USOP on occasion without incident, including
on July 1, 2005, for a Fourth of July celebration. On
April 21, 2005, KFOR withdrew its last two armored
vehicles from the bridge connecting majority
Serb-inhabited north Mitrovica and Kosovo Albanian
dominated south Mitrovica and, on April 29, 2005,
opened twenty-four- hour passage on the bridge;
however, following the stabbing incident near the
northern side of the bridge, civilian passage was
again temporarily halted. KFOR maintained a nearby
presence.

Problems at Serbian Orthodox religious sites continued
during the period covered by this report, such as an
abundance of garbage at a cemetery near the Pec/Peja
Patriarchate. Local Serb radio reported on May 12,
2006, that unknown attackers broke newly fitted doors
and several new windows added to the SOC's Church of
Saint Ilija, in Podujeve/Podujevo municipality, by the
PISG as part of the renovation of March 2004
riot-related damage. The SOC told the media that
unknown attackers vandalized the Church of the Birth
of the Mother of God (Theotokos) in Obiliq/Obilic on
June 19, 2006, by taking at least two crosses from the
church's domes and a portion of the lead roof. This
church was built in 1998, damaged in the March 2004
riots, and placed on the list of sites to be
reconstructed using money from the PISG.

The Kosovo Police Service reported on June 20, 2006,
that unknown attackers vandalized sixteen tombstones
in a Serbian Orthodox cemetery located in the ethnic
Serb majority village of Staro Gracko/Starogracke in
Lipljan municipality. KFOR had reportedly cordoned off
the cemetery on June 9 when visitors discovered a
landmine there. Investigations were ongoing at the end
of the period covered by this report. On June 21, Serb
media reported that the Serbian Orthodox Church of St.
Andrew in Podujeve/Podujevo municipality was
vandalized as well.

Many of the churches and monasteries burned in the
March 2004 riots were constructed in the 14th century
and are considered part of Kosovo's cultural and
religious heritage. Father Sava Janjic provided a
comprehensive list of religious sites destroyed or
damaged between March 17 and 19, 2004. The list
included thirty sites altogether in the following
fourteen locations: Prizren, Rahovec, Gjakova,
Skenderaj, Peja, Ferizaj, Kamenica, Shtime, Pristina,
Fushe Kosove, Vushtrri, Obiliq, Mitrovica, and
Podujevo.

Individual donor countries began repairs to several of
the seventy-five priority cultural and religious
monuments identified at the May 13, 2005, donors'
conference in Paris.

In addition, problems continued with the unfinished
Serbian Church of Christ the Savior (only the exterior
walls stood), located on University of Pristina
grounds. During the 1990s, the Serb-dominated
administration in Pristina gave the land on which the
church sits to the SOC. In 2003, the Pristina
Municipal Assembly passed a resolution to return the
land to the university. The UNMIK representative in
the Pristina municipal government immediately
suspended this decision. In February 2005, a Christian
cross attached to the church was damaged. The SRSG
recommended that Pristina authorities abandon their
September proposal to convert the unfinished church
into an entertainment venue, such as a movie theater
or an art gallery.

In light of societal violence in Kosovo against
properties owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church and
Serbian Orthodox religious symbols, UNMIK authorities
continued to provide special security measures to
protect religious sites and to ensure that members of
all religious groups could worship safely. KFOR
deployed security contingents at religious sites
throughout Kosovo to protect them from further
destruction, such as that which had occurred
immediately after KFOR's intervention in 1999;
however, KFOR gave priority to saving persons' lives
rather than property and was unable to stop the
burning and destruction of many sites in March 2004.
Because of improving security conditions and
decreasing interethnic tensions in some areas, KFOR
removed static checkpoints from most churches and
religious sites, including relaxing checkpoints at
Decani monastery, during the period covered by this
report, relying instead on patrols by the U.N.
international police (CIVPOL) and indigenous Kosovo
Police Service (KPS). In most cases, such changes in
security measures did not result in a change in the
level of safety of, or access to, the religious sites.
During the March 2004 riots, KFOR, CIVPOL, and KPS
were involved in crowd control and protecting lives
and property. The priority was evacuating persons over
saving property, even religious property. Immediately
following the March riots, the process of transfer of
jurisdiction over local police stations from KFOR to
CIVPOL and KPS was halted; subsequently, transfer
continued, and all thirty-two jurisdictions in Kosovo
were under local KPS patrol at the end of the period
covered by this report.

Although Protestants previously reported a slight
improvement in their situation, they reported
suffering more violence and discrimination during the
period covered by this report. They reported
discrimination through verbal attacks and exclusion
from interfaith initiatives by the religious
leadership who defended their actions on the grounds
that Protestants are not considered a "traditional"
religion in Kosovo. They also stated that, while
public television station RTK as an institution did
not specifically report on the Protestant religion,
some individuals within the RTK had a more positive
approach. Protestants also reported slight
discrimination in schools where school officials
occasionally called in parents of pupils to deter
their children from being Protestant. Protestants
reported that a U.S. citizen pastor was beaten in
Decani municipality by a young man opposed to the
Protestants' building of a church there. Protestants
also reported verbal local opposition to showing a
Christian-based movie in villages throughout Kosovo,
as well as break-ins at churches and harassment of
adherents.

Roman Catholic leaders reported that they had good
relations with the Muslim community but hardly any
bilateral contact with the Serbian Orthodox Church
leadership. Roman Catholic and Serbian Orthodox church
leadership believed each other to be highly
politicized. The Muslim community made similar remarks
concerning their relationship with the Roman Catholic
leadership and lack of relationship with the Orthodox
community. On May 3, 2006, thieves stole thirteen
religious paintings from a Catholic church in Letnica
village, which was inhabited by ethnic Albanian and
Croats. The Pec/Peja Patriarchate hosted Kosovo's
first interfaith conference in two years from May 2 to
4, 2006. Participants from Islamic, Orthodox, Roman
Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant religious
communities, diplomatic liaison offices, UNMIK, and
members of the PISG's central and local governance
structures discussed religious freedom; visited a
Roman Catholic church, a mosque, and Peja/Pec's
Orthodox church, accompanied by regional municipal
leadership; visited Decani monastery; and, accompanied
by ethnic Albanian Decan/Decani mayor Nazmi Selmanaj,
walked together to the mosque in the city center. The
common statement released by the religious leaders
committed the group to hold regular meetings to
intensify interreligious dialogue and cooperation, to
promote the returns process of all displaced persons,
and to engage in the process of drafting religious
freedom legislation. Norwegian Church Aid hosted the
May 2006 conference to promote peace and dialogue
among religious groups. The Islamic community offered
to host the next meeting in October 2006.

The withdrawal of Former Republic of Yugoslavia and
Serbian troops from Kosovo in 1999 and establishment
of UNMIK administration through UNSCR 1244 resulted in
an improved situation for the majority, largely
Muslim, ethnic Albanian population, and a cessation of
attacks on their mosques and religious sites.

Islamic, some local Orthodox, and Roman Catholic
leaders have attempted to encourage tolerance and
peace in Kosovo, in both the religious and political
spheres.

Section IV. U.S. Government Policy

The U.S. government discusses religious freedom issues
with the U.N. Special Envoy for the Kosovo status
talks, UNMIK, the PISG, and religious representatives
in Kosovo as part of its overall policy to promote
human rights, and has sought to promote ethnic and
religious tolerance in Kosovo. U.S. officials also
maintained close contacts and met regularly with
religious leaders of the Serbian Orthodox, Islamic,
Roman Catholic, and Protestant communities to discuss
their concerns and to push for interfaith dialogue. A
delegation of Serbian Orthodox officials formally
visited U.S. government institutions in the United
States from March 15 to 22, 2006.

U.S. officials continued to urge dialogue between
members of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and
ethnic Albanian members of the PISG. Officials from
the United States met frequently with the heads of
major religious communities. In contrast to previous
reporting periods, United States Office Pristina
personnel attended Serbian Orthodox holiday services.
U.S. officials continued to support UNMIK and the PISG
in rebuilding religious buildings damaged in the
interethnic riots of March 2004. Officials from the
United States met frequently with the heads of the
major religious communities, provided funding to
preserve Ottoman-era transcripts in the Gazi Medhmed
Pasha library, and granted $1 million to UNESCO's
large-scale effort to preserve cultural heritage in
the country.

The United States is involved actively in UNMIK, whose
goal is to secure peace, facilitate the return of the
displaced, lay the foundations for democratic
self-government, and foster respect for human rights
regardless of ethnicity or religion.

U.S. KFOR peacekeeping troops worked to prevent ethnic
and religious violence in Kosovo and guarded religious
sites. U.S. KFOR was credited by local SOC officials
with preventing the situation from further escalation
in their sector during the March 2004 riots, and they
increased their presence within the sector they
patrol.

The U.S. government funded the remainder of a survey
of Islamic manuscripts in Kosovo to help the local
Islamic community preserve its religious heritage.

The U.S. Department of State funds a U.N.
international police (CIVPOL) advisor in Pristina and
provided $40 million (31.86 million euros) to support
KPS and CIVPOL. KPS and CIVPOL have worked to prevent
ethnic and religious violence in the country.

The U.S. Department of State provides $3.5 million in
funding for returns programs for Muslim and Orthodox
Roma, Orthodox Serbs, Muslim Bosnians, and other
minority communities.

In the wake of the March 2004 interethnic violence,
U.S. officers met with Islamic, Orthodox, and Roman
Catholic authorities to discuss ways of supporting
reconciliation and interfaith dialogue. Many
high-level U.S. government and military officials
continued to visit the country in conjunction with the
final status negotiation process and meet with both
political and religious leaders to assess the
situation and urge reconstruction and progress toward
a multiethnic Kosovo. The U.S. Office also urged the
Government to reconstruct Serb homes quickly and allow
UNESCO to take the lead on reconstruction of destroyed
and damaged religious sites in the country.

Released on September 15, 2006

I love Peace!!!