At Fabled Battle Site, Serbian Church Leaders Decry World’s Indifference

Serbian Orthodox Church leaders marked the anniversary of a mythic battle Monday by lighting candles, chanting prayers and condemning the international community for failing to stem a steady exodus of Serbs from Kosovo.

Fearing retribution at the hands of returning ethnic Albanian refugees, nearly 80,000 Serbs are believed to have fled Kosovo since international peacekeepers replaced Serbian police forces in the province less than three weeks ago.

“We cannot allow uncontrolled and enraged crowds to bring justice,” Serbian Orthodox Bishop Artemije Radosavljevic told a news conference. “That would only be a new crime, and this time under the eyes of the international community.”

Radosavljevic made his remarks on the 610th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo Polje, which Serbs lost to Turks. The battle ushered in centuries of domination of the Serbs by the Ottoman Empire.

Kosovo was the center of the Serbs’ medieval kingdom, and centuries later it still holds a special place in the hearts of many Serbs.

The battleground is also the site of a now-famous speech given by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who used the occasion to exploit nationalist sentiments and cement his hold on power.

On Monday, however, only a few dozen Serbs, mostly Orthodox priests, showed up to mark the battle, and no mention was made of the vow that Milosevic made to preserve the Serbian nation.

Instead, Milosevic came under criticism. Because of him, Radosavljevic said, Serbs had previously been driven from parts of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and had endured a NATO bombing campaign and years of economic sanctions.

Momcilo Trajkovic, a Milosevic critic and president of the Serbian Resistance Movement, said few Serbs attended the gathering at Kosovo Polje because of the risk.

“They know it’s not safe enough for them to be here,” he said. “A lot of them are trying to save their cars and their apartments.”

Members of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army, meanwhile, began turning in their weapons and abandoning their former battle posts Monday to meet a midnight deadline called for in a disarmament agreement with NATO.

“The impression is that everything has gone very smoothly so far,” said Dutch Maj. Jan Joosten, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force, known as KFOR. “A lot of people had decided to demilitarize already.

“In the French sector, for example, half the KLA members there have demilitarized because they’re mostly farmers and they needed to get back to their fields.”

The first stage of the disarmament agreement called for the KLA to establish 17 weapons storage sites to be verified and registered by international peacekeepers. It also bans KLA members from wearing uniforms with their insignia and from carrying weapons outside their 47 designated assembly areas, ranging from small villages to barracks.

The peacekeepers reported early today that hundreds of KLA members had gathered at the assembly sites, an indication that they wanted to remain part of the force. KLA leaders hope it will eventually become a national guard.

As the KLA disarmed, the first busloads of refugees organized by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees pulled into Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.

For weeks now, officials of the refugee agency have sought to control the spontaneous return of refugees, citing shortages of food and water, inadequate housing and the ever-present danger of land mines.

The caravan of buses provided by the U.N. agency marked the beginning of the refugees’ organized return home, with emphasis given to those returning to large cities, where the most services are available to them. Agency officials now estimate that more than half of the million or so refugees who fled Kosovo during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s air war have gone back.

U.N. officials also announced Monday the appointment of seven legal experts to pick judges for the province as the international community begins the complex process of creating a new civilian government virtually from scratch.

At the United Nations, preparations were underway for a meeting Wednesday of 15 nations, at least eight represented by foreign ministers, to discuss Kosovo, a province of the main Yugoslav republic, Serbia. The conference was called by Secretary-General Kofi Annan because serious problems have arisen in implementing the U.N.’s mandate to oversee the civilian governance of the province.

“It is pretty obvious he [Annan] needs to appeal to them and through them to other governments for police, civilian administrators and money for the trust funds in order to pay the civil service in Kosovo,” said spokesman Fred Eckhard.

Thirty-five unarmed police officers from countries including the U.S., Argentina, Canada and Britain have begun training the peace force on the basics of policing, since its members are playing the dual roles of peacekeepers and police officers. The international police officers will eventually help train recruits for a future Kosovo Police Department.

While the international peace force sought to extend its control, the Serbian Orthodox clergy marked the ancient defeat at Kosovo Polje in 1389.

Dressed in dark robes topped by ornate gold and red vests, the priests lighted pencil-size green candles as they chanted prayers in archaic Serbian praising the fighters who lost their lives in the historic conflict.

They then sped off to a monastery in nearby Gracanica, where church leaders, joined by Trajkovic, renewed their criticism of Milosevic during a news conference.

Patriarch Pavle, head of the Serbian church, said he disapproved of the use of crime to achieve Serbian goals.

“If the only way to create a Greater Serbia is by crime, I don’t accept it,” he said. “Let Serbia disappear.”

Radosavljevic sought to portray Serbs as the true victims of Milosevic’s policies.

“He has done a lot of evil to all, but the most evil he’s done to Serbian people,” the bishop said.

Radosavljevic later released a letter warning Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. interim administrator for Kosovo, that the province is in danger of being emptied of Serbs because of revenge attacks against them by ethnic Albanians.

“It is rather difficult to understand that despite the presence of at least 20,000 KFOR troops in the region the most dreadful crimes against civilians are being carried on at an unabated rate, especially in the cities,” read the letter, which was signed by Radosavljevic, Patriarch Pavle and Trajkovic.

Times staff writer John J. Goldman at the United Nations contributed to this report.