Letter to the Editor

Your view: Get informed

Monday, April 26, 2004

I read "Sikeston native visits Kosovo over break" by Leonna Heuring published on April 15.

As much as I admire Aaron Senter's good heart and courage for deciding to go to Kosovo, I must say that I am very disappointed with his very superficial impressions about the violence that took place while he was there. He says that "Shortly after they arrived, a small riot broke out in a city about 20 minutes from Gjakova." It was not a small riot. It was a brutal violence that killed 28 people. According to UNMIK data, 561 Serb houses have been burned down and 218 more Serb houses have been seriously damaged. A total of 35 Christian Orthodox churches and monasteries were destroyed or seriously damaged, as well as dozens of cemeteries from which the deceased were unburied and their bones scattered.

I guess that Mr. Aaron Senter was influenced in the choice of his missionary trip by the media which have been presenting the problems of Kosovo very one-sidedly and focused mainly on the suffering of Muslim Albanians, while ignoring the suffering of the Christian Orthodox in Kosovo.

If Mr. Aaron Senter wants to be a teacher and a missionary he has to learn to hear both sides in a conflict and not to allow media to guide him through his missionary work.

I recommend Mr. Aaron Senter and your readers to visit www.kosovo.net or www.kosovo.com to learn more about the suffering of Christians in Kosovo.

If your readers or Mr. Aaron Senter need more information on the situation in Kosovo, I would be more than happy to provide it.

P.S. The original name of the town Mr. Aaron Senter visited is Djakovica, not Gjakova. The Albanians who expelled Serbs changed the original Serbian name of the town.

Dr. Mirjana Petrovic

San Diego