Church urges Serbs to keep Kosovo roadblocks in place

Oct 14, 2011, 15:55 GMT

Belgrade - The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), Patriarch Irinej, on Friday urged his compatriots in Kosovo to maintain the barricades - despite orders from NATO peacekeepers, Beta news agency reported.

Serbs, vastly outnumbered by Albanians in Kosovo but dominant in the north, barricaded the roads in that area to hamper an attempt of the Kosovo government to assert control over their enclave.

The Serbs have maintained the roadblocks almost without an interruption throughout northern Kosovo since late July.

'Weather the storm until the powerful realize that Serbs are defending their soil and that the barricades are on their soil to protect the homes they lived in across centuries,' Irinej said during service in the Patriarchate in Pec, in western Kosovo.

The monastery in Pec is the medieval seat of the Serbian church.

NATO peacekeepers (KFOR) and the European Union's law enforcing mission (EULEX) warned Serbs that the barricades are an illegal barrier to the freedom of movement and must be dismantled.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Kosovan Serbs refuse to accept that and resist Pristina's rule in the north, with the help of Belgrade.

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