ĐURĐEVI STUPOVI UNDER ROUND-THE-CLOCK POLICE SURVEILLANCE

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 25 /SRNA/ - The Đurđevi Stupovi Monastery, the seat of the Budimlja–Nikšić Eparchy, has been under round-the-clock police surveillance for the past seven days, the Eparchy said, expressing concern over what it described as the Montenegrin Government’s openly violent stance toward the Serbian people.

The Eparchy stated that the indiscreet and inexplicable presence of various police units and official vehicles in the immediate vicinity and at the approaches to the monastery creates an atmosphere of siege, causing distress among the monastery’s residents and the faithful.

The clergy and faithful of the Serbian Orthodox Church /SOC/ have been brought to an unpleasant situation, the Eparchy emphasized.

It points out that such scenes of police encirclement of churches in recent years have only been seen at the height of the persecution of the Serbian Orthodox Church during "Đukanović’s totalitarian regime."

In a statement, they recalled the public persecution and anti-church media campaign to which the Eparchy has been subjected in recent months, as well as the frequent summoning of Metropolitan Methodije of Budimlja and Nikšić and the clergy for questioning. They emphasized that the continuation of this practice is seen as an attempt to criminalize and socially isolate the Church through the use of the repressive apparatus.

“May God grant that peace and the rule of impartial justice and law soon prevail in Montenegro,” reads the statement published by the Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church.