Here are some pictures from the Greek Orthodox Monastery in Serbian populated town of Orahovac, Kosovo. I visited it this past week with a group of international officers form KFOR J1. This facility is being guarded by the German Army in the Mutli-National Brigade-South. We toured the grounds on 6 SEP 01. The priest and the interpreter/school teacher served as tour guides. This monastery was constructed sometime in the 14th century. It has its own working winery which is how the monks raise funds to support themselves.

During the recent war in Kosovo one of the churches (built in the 16th century) in the town next to the monastery was destroyed by Albanian fighters. KFOR was sent in to protect the town and monastery from further destruction. The Priest (Father Malenko) kept repeating how grateful he was for the soldiers to be in the town and protecting the village and church. He told us he believed God sent the soldiers to the town when He did. He told us the day the KFOR soldiers arrived the streets were lined with refugees fleeing the Albanian fighters who were out to kill any Serbian and destroy anything to do with the church.

I have been told that even today that Albanian rebels will be paid a $7,500 bounty for any church they destroy. This is why most of the surviving churches in Kosovo are protected sites by KFOR as are many of the Muslim Mosques. Because the Serbs did, and will do, much the same thing to the Muslims. The really odd part about this destruction is not that these people hold strong beliefs about their own religions, but rather these religious institutions represent symbols of the other's culture and ethnicity. It is ethnic hatred that drives them, not religion. Yet religious artifacts are what they target because they see it as hitting something that is held sacred by the other side.