Moscow, June 29, 2013
Statement of the Communication Service of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations.
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The helpless children were hit by a flow of stones. Three young pilgrims were seriously injured. The Kosovo police failed to apprehend the attackers.
We regret to state that similar incidents happen in Kosovo and Metohija almost annually. Thus, in 2012, over 50 young people, who came from Serbia for Vidovdan, were injured during an attack in which petrol bombs were used and some of them were hospitalized with gunshot wounds.
The extremists seek to mark Vidovdan with violence against Orthodox Serbs to intimidate and make them reject their own history linked with the Kosovo region. The attack against Serbian schoolchildren should be resolutely condemned by the international community.
This incident is evidence raising again the doubt that the Kosovo authorities are capable of overcoming ethnic tension and give real guarantees of safety to the Orthodox Serbian population of the region.
