The Ministry of Culture of Serbia called on international actors to condemn the attack on the church of St. John

The Ministry of Culture of Serbia condemned the attack on the church of St. John in Velika Hoca, which belongs to the monastery of Visoki Decani, and pointed out that such vandalism incidents, based on hatred towards the Serbs, endangered not only the cultural heritage in the area of Kosovo and Metohija but that at the same time, they openly threatened security and survival of the Serbs.

The Ministry of Culture indicated that this, the latest in a series of attacks on the facilities of the Serbian Orthodox Church, showed a high degree of threat to the Serbian religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija.

"Such incidents of vandalism, based on hatred towards the Serbs, threaten not only the cultural heritage of Kosovo and Metohija but also openly threaten the safety and survival of the Serbs. The extremists' obvious intention is to instill fear among the Serbs, who want to remain in their centuries-old hearths, by sowing intolerance and violence. It is particularly worrying that Pristina does not make the slightest effort to protect the cultural and religious heritage, but on the contrary, carries out an aggressive campaign of abuse and instrumentalization, with the sole aim of erasing the Serbian cultural heritage or drowning it in the so-called cultural the legacy of "Kosovo" by falsifying the past and deliberately ignoring historical facts," the statement said.

The Ministry called on all international actors to condemn such obvious examples of extremism and vandalism within its mandate to protect the rights and freedoms of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as cultural and religious heritage from continuous attacks and assaults.

Visoki Decani Monastery announced yesterday that on the night between April 7 and 8, unknown persons had broken into the dormitory of the church of St. John, which belonged to the metochion of the monastery, and that the inventory had been ransacked in the dormitory, that cables had been taken and electrical wiring had been cut.