From commendation to decoration: Serbian Church's Access to War Criminals

From praise to decoration and saintliness.

There are many examples of such an approach by the Serbian Orthodox Church and its representatives to convicted war criminals from the nearest and most distant past.

“Kisha sees history through an ethnofiletist prim [nationalist], in which the Serbian side is represented as a permanent victim”, says historian Vladimir Velkoviq.

In this context, he adds, revisionism of the wars of the 1990s can also be interpreted by World War II.

Because the wars of the 1990s are interpreted as inevitable conflict between different ethnic groups, then even in history they return to the movements, figures, and conflicts that precede those wars. In both cases the role and responsibility of church figures” avoids, Velkovic points out.

The Serbian Orthodox Church has not returned answers to Radio Europe Free Radio questions about its attitude towards war criminals from World War II and wars in the former Yugoslavia's spaces during the 1990s.

Church's approach to invaders' collaborators

Montenegro's mitropolite statement, Ionnikije, which described Turkish Canadian Commander Pavlle Djurisk as “a great hero with invincible character”, is just one of many that have caused severe public reactions.

Djurisic forces were responsible for the massacre against Muslim civilians in northern Montenegro, Sandzak and eastern Bosnia during World War II. It was decorated by Hitler with the Iron Cross for <x0-virtual military”.

This is what is called anti-anti-antiphasismʹ, for which sociologist Todor Kuliq é where fascism is not a problem because of ideology, but only when the victims are”, says Branimir Djurovic of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.

Historian Velkovisk also mentions cases of bishops who have been declared saints, although they have cooperated with invaders during World War II. One of them is Irinej Kyric, who was declared a saint in 2022 with the blessing of Patriarch Porphire.

The church claims he saved 3,000 pregnant women, children and mothers with babies from the Hungarian exile camp in Sharvar, taking them to 55 parishes in Vojvodina. But, according to Velkovic, it conceals the fact that Kyric was an associate of Miklos Horthyt's Hungarian regime, which appointed him as a member of the Hungarian Parliament's Upper Chamber after the war.

Velkovic points out that there are even more serious examples in Montenegro. One of them is Milorad Vukojic, a member of the deethnic movement, who was sentenced and executed for war crimes in Montenegro. He was declared a saint in 2005.

That same year, priest Slobodan Shillak, executed in 1943 for serious crimes against the population at Pleleve, was declared. Victims' families protested, but the Church denied that they were war criminals.

“Praise of crimes from World War II and those from the 1990s is part of an ideology that has never been interrupted”, Djurovic says.

Church's Role in the Wars of the 1990s

Historian Velkovic points out that the Church played an important role in the ideological preparation of wars since the late '80s. During the conflicts, the church was involved in nationalist propaganda, and its representatives publicly supported the military goals of Slobodan Milosevic's regime.

One of the most popular examples is the video where a priest blesses the paramilitary formation “Scorpions” before executing six civilians from Srebrenica in Trnovo in July 1995.

Some of the bishops were fully identified with the Serbian side, justifying it, no matter what he did. There is a video where Bishop Vasilije Kacavenda goes to Srebrenica in July 1995”, Velkovic recalls.

Kacavenda had close ties with Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic convicted of genocide and war crimes at The Hague. In a video from Mladic's trial, commander Milenko Zivanovic is seen informing Kacavend of the Srebrenica “operment <x0x1>, while the latter smiles when he hears that the mosque minaret is “crate”.

The cacavenda greeted the bold general and Serbian Tbilisi “, adding: “The day is approaching when the Serbian state will be rebuilt after the Kosovo battle. ”

His position in Church was never questioned. He resigned in 2013 for health reasons, just when charges of the pedophile were brought against him.

Similar charges were made against the other bishop, Filaret, who in the 1990s posed with automatic weapons and a skull for which he claimed to be of a Serb child killed by Croatian soldiers. He left in 2015, but the church never gave a reason for his dismissal.

Decories for Condemned Criminals

Before leaving, Filaret decorated with “Vojislav Seselj, sentenced by The Hague tribunal to 10 years in prison for inciting persecution and expulsion of Croats from Hrtkovci in 1992.

God gave you the strength to clear the stain of the Serb people. We follow you and congratulate you on your brave and heroic fight”, Filaret told the award delivery in 2015.

Seshel, the ideologist of the “Greater Serbia” project and the organiser of the paramilitary units, received another decoration from Montenegro's Mitropolite, Amfilohije.

“We are living in times of great injustice that falls on the Serbian people. You, Mr. Seshel, are one of the defenders of divine law”, told Amfilohije to hand over the decoration.

Amfilohije, who died in 2020, was known for his open support of Serbian forces in Croatia and Bosnia during the wars. In January 1992, he opened the gates of Cetinje's monastery for notorious commander Zeljko Rzhnatovic étik and his armed unit.

Seshel received the third decoration in 2022 by Bishop Irinej, representative of the Diocese of Novogracanica and Central and Western America.

That same year, General Vladimir Lazarevic, convicted in The Hague of crimes against humanity against Kosovo Albanians, was also decorated. He received decorations for <x0).

I was in line with power

“Today follows the practices of denial and revisionism, which are led by state institutions, but have roots in the role that the church played in the wars of the years, says Djurovic.

Both power and church deny genocide against more than 8,000 Bosniaks in Srebrenica and other crimes of Serb forces.

Before heading to the UN General Assembly in 2024, Serbia's president received “The patriarch's” blessings to counter Resolution for Srebrenica.

Even after the war in Kosovo, the church supports the state policy of not recognising Kosovo's independence. Former patriarch Irinej has said that Serbia's “heritage should be protected with good or by force”. While current Patriarch Porfirije declared in 2024 that the Serbian Orthodox Church cannot be part of negotiations or political agreements for Kosovo”.

The position of the church is part of the agreement on normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia, mediated by the European Union in 2023.

The same year, the church faced charges that smuggled weapons were stored at its Kosovo facilities.

Following the armed attack on the Kosovo Police in September 2023, a group of armed Serbs, led by Milan Radojic, fled at the Banjska Monastery.

The diocese of the Prizren Race then issued a statement expressing concern over the intervention of a armed and armoured group that broke the monastery's closed gate”.

The church rejected the Kosovo institutions' offer to finance damage repair in the monastery. / REL/Periscopi/