Serbian Orthodox bishops marked the occasion of the Serbs' epic defeat by Turks 610 years ago yesterday with a plea to the international community to prevent them being run out of Kosovo.
"Serbs have not decided to leave Kosovo but they are being forced to - and it is all happening under the protection of the United Nations," Bishop Artemije of Kosovo said on the anniversary of the battle between the Turks and the Serbs on the "field of blackbirds" just outside the provincial capital, Pristina.
He said that with Serbs being murdered, churches ransacked and priests threatened, the Serbs were now the ones being "ethnically cleansed".
Bishop Artemije spoke at a news conference after he, Patriarch Pavle and other bishops celebrated mass at a towering monument on the field where Turks and Serbs fought a battle in 1389 which ended with the leaders of both sides dead and the Turks victorious.
Under a baking sun, Patriarch Pavle celebrated mass for a handful of Serbs and about 100 journalists and cameramen at the same monument where a decade ago then-Serbian and now Yugoslav President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, drew an estimated million people to hear him call for an end to ethnic Albanians' autonomy in Kosovo.
The decision to revoke that autonomy fuelled the rebellion leading to the armed struggle between ethnic Albanians and Serbs for control of the province.
Although effectively a defeat, the battle was a defining moment in Serbian history, leading to the notion that the Serbs were "the heavenly people".
The church, which has grown increasingly critical of Mr Milosevic and has called for him to leave office, used the occasion of the anniversary to try to convince the world that now that the Serbs have stopped their oppression of Kosovo Albanians, the shoe is on the other foot and Serbs are being "ethnically cleansed" from the province.
"Thanks to his [Milosevic's] policies, there are no more Serbs in Krajina [Croatia], there are no more Serbs in Slavonia [eastern Croatia] there are no more Serbs in western Bosnia and Serbia has received about 600,000 refugees who are still not being well cared for in Serbia," Bishop Artemije said.
"The Serbian people are oppressed by sanctions and he is responsible for the bombing by NATO . . . "
The church officials said at least four churches had been looted or destroyed and that at least one priest was kidnapped and another had been threatened with having his throat slit if he did not leave his parish in Pec by 6 p.m. yesterday.
An increase in such incidents has prompted the church to send a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, and other international officials pleading with them to improve security for Serbs.
"It is rather difficult to understand that despite the presence of at least 20,000 Kfor [Kosovo peacekeeping] troops in the region, the most dreadful crimes against civilians are being carried on at unabated rate, especially in the cities," said an English text of the letter. "The failure of Kfor to take more active and robust measures against the perpetrators of these crimes is understood as an encouragement to various gangs of robbers and murders, especially in the western part of the province," the letter said.