Peace-Maker Radovan Karadzic Awarded Knight Order Of An Unheard-Of Church

Namely, Karadzic was awarded the highest Order of St. Dionysius on Pale on Tuesday. The state news agency Tanjug said that the Bosnian Serb leader received this 900-year-old high order of the Greek Orthodox Church from the representative of this religious community, Mr. Mladen Zarubica.

Underscoring that he was ``extremely honoured'' by the order, Karadzic said he hoped all peoples in these lands would soon live in peace, Tanjug said. To a question of Western journalists, surprised that an order was being awarded to Karadzic who does not boast a good reputation in the world today, Zarubica replied that awarding the order to Karadzic could surprise only those who knew nothing about Serbs and who qualified their justified struggle for independence as aggression. It seems, however, that the true ``catch'' lies not in the fact that the order is awarded to Karadzic, abhorred by some or even many, but in who is granting it! It would be appropriate if an order, particularly such a high knight order, were awarded by a senior church dignitary. But of what church? VREME has learned that Zarubica, a Serb-born American, did not award the order on behalf of the Greek Church, but on behalf of the Greco-Romanian Church. Such a religious community is not listed among Greek canonical churches nor among churches headed by Greeks, ie, whose bishops are predominantly Greek (Constantinople Patriarchate, Cypriot Arch-diocese, Greek Arch-diocese, Alexandrian Patriarchate...) We have also been unable to find the Greco-Romanian Church on any of the lists of autocephalous and autonomous Orthodox churches we have been able to obtain. Maybe a non-canonical church is in question, although a Greco-Romanian alliance is quite puzzling, unless a Vlach or Tzintzar religious community is in question.

The Serbian Patriarchate has never heard of the above-mentioned church; neither have the Greek sources and the Vrsac-based Vicary of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the Yugoslav part of Banat (Vojvodina).

Leader Karadzic was to have visited the Greek island of Zakinthos, but his visit was postponed ``for security reasons,'' so that he was unable to be proclaimed citizen of honour and take part in the festivities on St. Dionysius Day. Maybe the Order of St. Dionysius is a kind of replacement, ie, compensation to Karadzic for his absence at the St. Dionysius festivities.

Maybe the gentleman who has awarded Karadzic the high order has appropriated a false title--if this 900-year-old order exists at all. Although the existence of the Greco-Romanian Church is problematic in itself, ie, although this religious community does not boast a reputation worth mentioning, Karadzic is obviously adhering to the logic ``I'll take anything you give me'' when the order is in question, hoping that the cheap gold plate will be interpreted by some distant future generations as genuine gold awarded for knighthood and peace-making.