This is a universe of pain

http://www.kosovo.net/news/archive/2006/April_28/2.html

KiM Info Newsletter 28-04-06

Serbian, foreign writers and artists visit Metohija and Visoki Decani MonasteryBishop Teodosije sincerely thanked the participants in the "Pilgrimage and Brotherly Love" campaign who came to encourage the faithful of Metohija during these paschal holidays. He especially thanked Austrian writer and dramatist Peter Handke for the solidarity he has shown for years toward the suffering Serbian people from Krajina and Bosnia to Kosovo and Metohija. The visit to Orahovac, Velika Hoca, Zociste, Visoki Decani Monastery and the Pec Patriarchate was organized on the occasion of the paschal holidays by the Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija and the Association of Writers of Kosovo and MetohijaKIM Info ServiceApril 27, 2006On Tuesday, April 25, a group of Serbian and foreign writers and artists visited Visoki Decani Monastery together with several displaced Serbs from the Orahovac region. They have been visiting Metohija for the past two days as part of a campaign called "Pilgrimage and Brotherly Love".Prior to stopping at Visoki Decani Monastery participants in this noble campaign visited the village of Retimlje near Orahovac where a number of Serbs were kidnapped and killed during the course of 1998. Together with members of the Kostic family, which lost 14 of its members during the war, the writers and artists lit candles at the Orthodox cemetery now completely overgrown with weeds. On that occasion the group of writers was exposed to verbal attacks by local Albanians. The members of the Kostic family visited their native villages of Opterusa and Retimlje for the first time in almost eight years. Protosingel Petar, the chief priest of Zociste Monastery, served a memorial service at the cemetery in Retimlje for all Orthodox Serbs buried there and those whose bodies have not yet been found.The visit to Orahovac, Velika Hoca, Zociste, Visoki Decani Monastery and the Pec Patriarchate was organized on the occasion of the paschal holidays by the Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija and the Association of Writers of Kosovo and Metohija. In Visoki Decani Monastery the poets read poems dedicated to the Serbian holy shrines in Kosovo and Metohija and Svetlana Stevic sang an old song originating in the Metohija region. The guests were especially delighted by the brothers Marko (12) and Nikola Maksimovic (13), guests of the monastery from Kraljevo, who performed several traditional Serbian melodies on the flute together with Decani monk Jovan.Bishop Teodosije sincerely thanked the participants in the "Pilgrimage and Brotherly Love" campaign who came to encourage the faithful of Metohija during these paschal holidays. He especially thanked Austrian writer and dramatist Peter Handke for the solidarity he has shown for years toward the suffering Serbian people from Krajina and Bosnia to Kosovo and Metohija.Upon entering the town of Decani as well as upon departing from it on their way to Pec, the bus transporting the writers was showered by stones by the local Albanians, whose whistled in disapproval when the bus carrying Serbs passed. According to poet Ranko Djinovic there was some damage to the vehicle but no one was injured. Despite the unpleasant experience, the writers and artists said that they would always respond to words of derision and rocks with songs and forgiveness, recalling the words of the Gospels: "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do."The delegation of foreign writers also included Kurt K�pruner, Thomas Diechmann and several of their colleagues from Austria, Germany and Russia. The delegation completed its visit to Metohija with a tour of the Pec Patriarchate...................http://www.blic.co.yu/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#9Blic (Serbia and Montenegro)April 28, 2006Austrian writer Peter Handke in KosovoThis is a universe of painStanding on the side of justice, as he said, and always with the victims, Austrian writer Peter Handke visited Kosovo several days ago.Standing at burnt homes of the Nikolices, Kostices, Bozanices and Bandices in the villages of Retimlje and Opterusa near Orahovac, Handke said: 'These are universes of pain. I do not have the right to speak. I shall keep silent, I have to keep silent. Thank you for making it possible for me to see this horror personally. This is not the 21st century'.Together with a group of domestic and foreign writers, Handke visited the most jeopardized locations in Kosovo under patronage of the Coordination Center.'He was speechless but he promised to tell in his way the horror that Kosovo Serbs are exposed to', organizer of the visit Ranko Djinovic said.'Feeling terrible that a mother cannot find her son's grave in a destroyed cemetery in Retimlje, Hendke defended a Serb woman who at that moment was verbally attacked by Albanians. He managed to get from Austrian KFOR commander a helicopter escort in continuation of the visit but was astonished to witness stoning of the convoy downtown Decani in spite of escort and a minute later while approaching the Monastery of Visoki Decani', Djinovic said.Handke left yesterday but promised to return soon with far larger number of writers having world reputation in spite of the threats he received 'in order to awake the world that has fallen asleep'.