Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Charity reception to collect aid for Kosovo Serbs held

Belgrade, 11 January 2005

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said late on Monday that apart from funds which the Serbian government sets aside for the assistance to Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, it is necessary that all citizens and businessmen in Serbia and the Diaspora, according to their possibilities, give contribution to the Fund for Kosovo-Metohija.

Charity reception to collect aid for Kosovo Serbs held

Speaking before 600 guests at the charity Christmas and New Year's reception held at Topcider with the aim of raising funds for the assistance to Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, Kostunica said that a personal contribution to the Fund is an expression of the feeling of national responsibility.

The official web site of the Serbian government brings the speech of Prime Minister Kostunica, who hosted the reception.

"Your Holiness, Mister President, Your Excellencies, respected friends, dear guests, thank you for accepting my invitation and welcome. First of all, I am honoured to express my thanks to His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle and through him to the clergy and the monks of the Serbian Orthodox Church, for accepting to be the honorary president of the state Fund for Kosovo-Metohija. I express thanks to His Holiness on his personal contribution which is the first contribution to the Fund. Following the example of the Patriarch, I will also give my contribution to this Fund, convinced that many donors will do the same this evening and in the days to come.

In the last period, respected guests, many said that this year will be decisive for our people and state. That is true in many respects, and especially when it comes to Kosovo-Metohija.

The state of jeopardy of our southern province is very well known. Our fellow-countrymen there are exposed to violence and expulsions, their homes and sacred sites are being burnt, and their human rights and freedoms are taken away. Those who rule in Kosovo-Metohija today have not secured the return of the expelled, and ethnic Albanian extremists keep expelling the remaining Serbs. We must seriously and constantly call for the true justice and impartiality of the international community and thus help it in its mission of the implementation of the Resolution 1244.

We all know that many documents on Kosovo-Metohija have been written and many words said, but we also know that it has not been of much help. Respected friends, the time has come for us to gather and without daily political calculations and inter-party struggles to do what we can to help ourselves. The words of His Holiness that today it is possible to survive in Kosovo-Metohija only with the Lord, we should understand as an encouragement to show our readiness to respect God's and human laws in this crucial moment.

In order to be able to say tomorrow in clear conscience that we helped when it was needed and when there was still time to help, we must support the idea of the Kosovo-Metohija in an efficient way. The Republic of Serbia gives as much as it can through the budget to help Kosovo Serbs, but that is still not enough to secure elementary conditions for survival, safe living and especially the return of the expelled.

For that reason, the government that is headed by me decided to establish the Fund for Kosovo-Metohija, and the funding of its activities must be secured through donations, legacies and contributions of every kind. The fundamental human and patriotic obligation of each one of us is to contribute to the Fund according to his possibilities. The same was said long time ago: ‘The one who does what he can, has done everything’.

Dear friends, the contribution that we give is a help to endangered Serbs and an expression of the feeling of national responsibility. Ultimately, in a higher sense, that is an investment in the future. Don't take it amiss that I finish this speech not with my one thought, but with the words of His Holiness Patriarch Pavle: ‘Let's not allow that one day when we meet our ancestors we get ashamed of them, and they of us’. Thank you all for your good will, generosity and attention,” the Prime Minister said.

His Holiness Patriarch Pavle, who is an honorary president of the Fund and its first donor, said that the destiny of Serbs in the province depends "on all of us and the people of good will from around the world".

“I was a bishop in Kosovo-Metohija for 34 years and the situation there is familiar to me. I think that if we are humane, the life there, which has been interrupted by war, can be continued. That is why we should do what we can”, said Patriarch Pavle.

The number of account on which contributions for the Fund for Kosovo-Metohija can be paid is 840-1267721-44.