www.cdcs.org.rs: Regarding the latest incident in connection with the position of the Romanian Orthodox Church

Dear Madam/Sir,
Please find in the text below the announcement of the Center for Development of Civil Society (CDCS) regarding the latest incident in connection with the position of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Yours faithfully,

Predrag Pavlov
Office Administrator

The Center for Development of Civil Society (CDCS) draws with utmost concern the attention of the public to the continuous, tacit, but efficient censorship of information about Romanians/Vlahs in East Serbia not being able to exercise their rights. It is an open question which burdens the relations between Belgrade and Bucharest more than any other political or economic issue.

Considering the repeated incidents, it is highly necessary to inform the public of Serbia about them and let it take an attitude in a democratic way towards relations between these two friendly countries. This could help the authorities transparently advance their bilateral cooperation with Romania and improve the position of Romanian/Vlah national minority living south of the Danube in Serbia.

As for the latest incident, apart from Večernje novosti, it has been difficult to find a single news that the leaders of Romanians/Vlahs from East Serbia requested an intervention from the Romanian Senate because of the recent decision reached by the construction inspection office in which demolition of Romanian Orthodox Church steeple in the village of Šipikovo (municipality of Zaječar) was ordered.

This clearly follows the media invisibility of this problem. For instance, when the Romanian MPs in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe initiated to put Serbia under special monitoring due to a real or alleged violation of minority rights of members of this community in March 2010, the public of Serbia could only be informed about it through news agency reports.

None of the print or electronic media in Serbia released the news that in April 2010 the Romanian ambassador in Belgrade delivered a protest note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia for unequal treatment of Romanian national minority in Banat and Timočka Krajina.

The media do not inform the public about obligations which the FR of Yugoslavia and Serbia have undertaken during the talks between Serbian presidents Koštunica and Tadić and Romanian presidents Iliescu and Băsescu.

The citizens of Serbia remain uninformed about demonstrations held in Bucharest in front of the Serbian embassy caused by the position of minority population in East Serbia.

As for the latest incident related to the status of Romanian Orthodox Church, the citizens of Serbia obviously do not know about the objections sent by the Council of Europe and other international organizations to the Government of Serbia on the provision found in the Rule book on the content and manner of keeping the Register of churches and religious communities, according to which „with the consent of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Romanian Orthodox Church's organizational unit of Banat shall be entered in the register."

The CDCS demands that the unofficial efficient censorship of the news about these issues stop and that the process of solving this issue begin before the public eye.

For the CDCS
Dr Vladimir Ilić
Executive Director

Centar za razvoj civilnog drustva
Center for Development of Civil Society
Makedonska 11, Zrenjanin
tel/fax: 023 511 066
e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
www.cdcs.org.rs

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