US State Department notes religion-related incidents in annual report

It said that some religious groups, which are not required to register with the government, reported difficulties with property, bank accounts and other business while the Jehovah’s Witnesses reported verbal threats, physical assaults and inadequate response by the police and prosecutors as well as death threats by an off-duty Gendarmerie officer in Belgrade and obstruction by local authorities.  

“Smaller groups, mainly Protestant churches, said they encountered public distrust and misunderstanding and said members of the public frequently branded their religious groups as “sects,” which has a very strong negative connotation in the Serbian language,” it said and added that anti-Semitic literature was available in some bookstores.  

“The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) did not act to resolve contested religious registration claims by different Jewish groups, which Jewish leaders said contributed to an ongoing rift in the community,” the report said.  

The section of the report on Kosovo said that the Kosovo Protestant Evangelical Church (KPEC) complained that local authorities did not treat religious organizations equally on property issues, including in the granting of building permits and allocation of burial space in public cemeteries. “KPEC and others also stated the Kosovo Islamic Community (BIK) held contracts to run many municipal cemeteries and discriminated against minority religious groups in the allocation of burial plots and provision of services and discrimination against practicing Muslims,” it added.  

It said that the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) reported violations of its property rights by the government, including refusal to implement a three-year-old court decision to recognize its ownership of land around the Visoki Decani Monastery and.  

The Kosovo police reported 61 religiously motivated incidents, most targeting religious sites, including cemeteries, in the first nine months of the year, many of them linked to ethnicity as well as religion.  

The entire report is available here.