Public Announcement
A decree issued by the government of the Republic of Serbia on January 8 requires an additional 8 dinar postage stamp of on every piece of mail. The funds raised through this tax are earmarked for the completion of Saint Sava’s Temple in the Vračar neighborhood of Belgrade. This action shows that the government has lost its autonomy and is being directed by the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).
While we do not deny the religious rights of the SPC to assign contributions to the completion of this religious site or the rights of citizens who wish to give voluntary contributions for the completions of the temple, we must warn that the government’s decree threatens the principles of a democratic society. In many countries, there are church taxes, which are collected in order to finance the majority (and minority) religious communities, but only members of the respective communities pay the taxes. The introduction of the tax on pieces of mail earmarked exclusively for one religious community shows the unfortunate truth in the statement that in every century Serbia tries to transform itself into a clerical, even a theocratic, state in which the Serbian Orthodox Church is given the status of the state religion.
In a country in which a significant percentage of schools do not even have a bathroom; illiteracy is growing; the healthcare and pension systems are falling apart; the unemployment rate is rising and learning is falling to the margins, the government proclaims the that completion of the construction of a religious site is the state’s priority. The government is not even being hypocritically criticized by The International Monetary Fund for shifting expenses to construction, echoing what occurred when television subscription was introduced.
If the government thinks that this tax will help it to survive, we wonder if they will get the idea to continue on by similar means to increase their popularity, if they will get the idea to introduce extra payment stamps which would finance the defense of Slobodan Miloševic and Vojislav Šešelj before The Hague Tribunal and the defense of Bishop Pahomije at the court in Nis.
Belgrade, January 9, 2006
Women in Black – Belgrade
