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Serbia Day held in Moscow dedicated to Kosovo

Belgrade/Moscow, 29 May 2008

Last night Serbia Day, dedicated to Kosovo-Metohija was held at the Serbian embassy in Moscow, as part of the 17th Golden Knight international film festival.

Moscow

Speaking to guests at the Serbian embassy in Moscow, Serbian ambassador Stanimir Vukicevic said that Serbia will never recognise Kosovo’s independence, and thanked them for supporting Serbia.

Director and producer Ninoslav Randjelovic presented the Serbian ambassador with a compilation of his six films on 100 CDs about Kosovo-Metohjia, prepared for the Russian media, which will be aired on Russian television and presented to members of the Russian State Duma.

The persecution and suffering of people in Kosovo-Metohija is a little known fact which is not mentioned frequently and this is why it is important to show films on this subject at a film festival like this, said Randjelovic, who has travelled to Russia at the invitation of the Russian Duma.

The films were made with the help of the Serbian ministries for Kosovo-Metohija, religion and culture, and document events from the beginning of the conflict in Kosovo, during 1998, preceding the NATO military action in 1999, up to 2007.

Randjelovic said that preparations are underway to launch an initiative to show one of his films in New York, in September, with translations in all official UN languages.

Playwright Sinisa Kovacevic said in his speech that all that is beautiful in the Serbian culture and tradition was born in Kosovo.

Our love for Kosovo will increase with the passage of time, as more attempts are made to take it away from us, said Kovacevic, and expressed gratitude to all those who support the Serbian people.

An episode from a TV series of the Russian TV channel Rusija Planeta Pravoslavlja (Planet Orthodox), which is part of a series of documentaries by script writer Valery Balayan, presented by festival director Nikolai Burlyayev, was shown in the cinema hall of the embassy.

The festival is being held under the auspices of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexey II, Russian Presidential Plenipotentiary to the Central Federal District Georgy Poltavchenko, State Duma Vice-speaker Lubov Sliska and President of Russia’s Culture Fund film director Nikita Mikhalkov. A statement by the Patriarch was emitted during the film in which he says that the destiny of Kosovo is being decided by people who are strangers to Kosovo.

Addressing guests at the Serbian embassy, Burlyayev said that Kosovo’s independence will never be recognised, and participants of the festival signed a joint statement addressed to the UN that Security Council Resolution 1244 cannot be revised.

Bulgarian director Margarit Nikolov read out a letter signed by Bulgarian scholars condemning Bulgaria’s move to recognise the unilateral independence of Kosovo.

The entire Bulgarian nation stands behind this letter, said Nikolov.

In their letter to politicians, Bulgarian scholars state that recognising the criminally created state of Kosovo, which is like a “time bomb”, entails historical responsibility.

Nikolov also read out an open letter by participants of the Golden Knight festival, which states that Security Council Resolution 1244 is the basis for peace in the Balkans.

Any violation of Resolution 1244 can be considered a terrorist act which will have global consequences, and recognising Kosovo is wrong and a legally meaningless violation of Resolution 1244 and the UN Charter, states the declaration which was signed by festival participants from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Serbia.