Only a short time has passed since the beginning of the restoration of the churches in Voskopoja, and now they have fallen prey to robbery, and this has become a continuous ritual that remains without a suspect. Persons, who always remain unidentified, robbed two churches within the last two months. The Church of St. Mary was robbed, and the 40-year-old bell was stolen and its perpetration was easy because they used the scaffolding of the restoration. Also, from the Church of St. Athanas some valuable icons were torn down. There are three wonder in this phenomenon which is a precedent that has been known for a long time. First, for years there have not been any alleged suspects for these crimes; secondly, there has been no statement from the Directorate of Monuments; and finally, the media neglect the issues of theft from churches in our country, which remains the issue that really needs the focus of this article.
Perhaps this neglect by the media is justified by the charged political, economic, social events agenda etc., but there is no reason justifying the lack coverage and time devoted to the church robberies in the chronicles and in televised debates. This is not a simply crime, or an ordinary theft that has worried us from time to time, but a blow to the values, to the cultural heritage and above all to the religious community. The public and private media has to “awaken responsible institutions from sleep”, as a professional and civic duty, and also to inform the public, because usually, the looting of these churches are considered as common as having one’s pocket picked on the bus. The unauthorized silence of the responsible institutions in solving the problem is unfortunate and connected with the unidentified suspects, who still remain enigmatic; while the neglect of journalists in highlighting this problem goes beyond the limits of negligence, approaching the absurd.
By Isidor Koti
Traslated by Ana Kercyku
