Serbs rally in Belgrade with calls for unity in a volatile region as Russia gives its support

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s populist president on Saturday called for peace and harmony in the Balkans even as he and the Bosnian Serb separatist leader organized a large nationalist gathering that featured calls for “unity” of all Serbs in the region — a message that has raised eyebrows in neighboring states.

The “All-Serb Assembly” with a slogan “One People, One Gathering” included thousands of Bosnian Serbs and those who traveled to the Serbian capital, Belgrade, from neighboring countries including Montenegro and North Macedonia.

The meeting came only weeks after the United Nations General Assembly voted to designate July 11 annually as an international day of reflection and commemoration of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim boys and men by Bosnian Serb forces. Serbia and Bosnian Serbs strongly opposed its adoption.

The rally on Saturday included Orthodox Church prayers and folk dancing and carried the main message that Serbs, wherever they live, are one people striving for the same goals.

A resolution adopted at the assembly said, “the All-Serb Gathering notes that the Serb people represent a single entity. The Serb people have had multiple states with different names through history and are entitled to cherish their rich tradition.”

The idea launched by Serb nationalists that all Serbs living in the Western Balkans should be part of the same political sphere and live in a joint state led to the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, many historians and analysts say.

Such ideas are being floated again in Serbia, although its increasingly authoritarian President Aleksandar Vucic and Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik on Saturday tried to downplay any threats to the region from the gathering in Belgrade.

Dodik, who arrived at the rally straight from one of his frequent meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, has been continuously insisting that the Bosnian Serb-controlled half of Bosnia should split from the loose union and join neighboring Serbia.

“The multipolar world that is coming is something different from what used to be the world dominated by one side (the West), and we have to understand those relationships," Dodik said, adding that Vucic "understands this better than others.”

Vucic stated that Serbia will never leave Bosnian Serbs in the lurch.

“My only request for you is to try everything peacefully and in conversation with all other nations (in Bosnia), in accordance with the Dayton Agreement, to solve all the problems,” said Vucic, referring to the U.S.-sponsored peace deal that ended the 1992-1995 war.

The U.S., which has sanctioned Dodik in part for his separatist moves, has said that it will defend the Bosnian unity by all available means.

In his message to the participants of the gathering in Belgrade, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave a tacit support for the Bosnian Serb separatists.

Lavrov said that “Russia will never close its eyes to any injustice towards the brotherly Serbian people, and attempts to demonize them, trampling on their legitimate rights.”

“Together with other freedom-loving nations, we will continue to build a new world order — based on equality, dialogue, mutual respect and mutual appreciation of interests,” Lavrov said.

Western officials believe that Russia is trying to destabilize the Balkans to shift at least some of the attention from its war in Ukraine. Although formally seeking European Union membership, Serbia has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia.

Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije performs during the prayer service for the All-Serbian Assembly in the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox temple in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 8, 2024. The All-Serbian Assembly carries the main message that Serbs, wherever they live, are one people, that they strive for the same goals. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije performs during the prayer service for the All-Serbian Assembly in the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox temple in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 8, 2024. The All-Serbian Assembly carries the main message that Serbs, wherever they live, are one people, that they strive for the same goals. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Officials from Serbia, Bosnian Serb and Montenegro political leaders attend the prayer service for the All-Serbian Assembly in the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox temple in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 8, 2024. The All-Serbian Assembly carries the main message that Serbs, wherever they live, are one people, that they strive for the same goals. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik, left, speaks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic during the prayer service for the All-Serbian Assembly in the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox temple in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 8, 2024. The All-Serbian Assembly carries the main message that Serbs, wherever they live, are one people, that they strive for the same goals. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik, left, speaks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic during the prayer service for the All-Serbian Assembly in the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox temple in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 8, 2024. The All-Serbian Assembly carries the main message that Serbs, wherever they live, are one people, that they strive for the same goals. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

BRUSSELS (AP) — Pope Francis promised Saturday to “offer all the help we can” to aid clergy sexual abuse victims, after a group of Belgian survivors told him first-hand of the trauma that had shattered their lives and left many in poverty and mental misery.

Francis’ visit to Belgium has been dominated by the abuse scandal, with King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo both blasting the Catholic Church’s dreadful legacy of priests raping and molesting children and its decades-long cover-up of the crimes.

Francis met for more than two hours late Friday with 17 survivors who are seeking reparations from the church for the trauma they suffered and to pay for the therapy many need. They said they gave Francis a month to consider their requests, which the Vatican said Francis was studying.

“There are so many victims. There are also so many victims who are still completely broke,” survivor Koen Van Sumere told The Associated Press. “I have also been lucky enough to get a diploma and build a life for myself. But there are so many people who are completely broke and who need help and who cannot afford it and who really need urgent help now.”

Van Sumere said he was encouraged by the “positive” meeting with the pope, but was waiting to see what comes of it. The meeting itself was intense, victims said, “It was at certain moments very emotional and at certain moments it was very rough. When the pope was told things he did not agree with, he also let it be known so there was real interaction," Van Sumere said.

He said he hoped as a first step that the pope would receive the victims at the Vatican in the spring during Holy Week. “And then we can not only celebrate the resurrection of Christ but perhaps also the resurrection of all victims in Belgium,” he said.

On Saturday, during a meeting with Belgian clergy and nuns at the Koekelberg Basilica, Francis acknowledged that the abuse scandal had created “atrocious suffering and wounds,” and undermined the faith.

“There is a need for a great deal of mercy to keep us from hardening our hearts before the suffering of victims so that we can help them feel our closeness and offer all the help we can,” he said.

He said the Belgian church must learn from victims and serve them. “Indeed, one of the roots of violence stems from the abuse of power when we use the positions we have to crush or manipulate others,” he said.

Francis has met with victims in the United States, Ireland and Canada, as well as in multiple occasions at the Vatican. He has cracked down on some bishops who failed to protect their flocks by passing new church rules on investigations and punishments. But the scandal has continued to fester, and Francis' record is uneven, with several high-profile cases still pending or seemingly ignored.

Most galling to Belgians was that it took the Vatican 14 years to laicize Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who admitted in 2010 to having abused his nephew for 13 years. Francis defrocked him in March in a move widely seen as attempting to remove a problem before his visit.

After the encounter, Francis went to the royal crypt in the Church of Our Lady to pray at the tomb of King Baudouin, best known for having refused to give a parliament-approved bill legalizing abortion his royal assent, one of his constitutional duties.

Baudouin stepped down for one day in 1990 to allow the government to pass the law, which he was required to sign, before he was reinstated as king.

Francis praised Baudouin's courage when he decided to “leave his position as king to not sign a homicidal law,” according to the Vatican summary of the private encounter, which was attended by Baudouin's nephew, King Philippe, and Queen Mathilde.

The pope then referred to a new legislative proposal to extend the legal limit for an abortion in Belgium, from 12 weeks to 18 weeks after conception. The bill failed at the last minute because parties in government negotiations considered the timing inopportune.

Francis urged Belgians to look to Baudouin’s example in preventing such a law, and added that he hoped Baudouin’s beatification cause would move ahead, the Vatican said.

With the visit, Francis waded straight into Belgian politics and dragged the royal family along with him.

The royals are bound by strict neutrality and the palace immediately issued a statement distancing itself from the visit. The statement said the “spontaneous visit, on the pope’s request, was not part of the official program” and added the king and queen were there only “out of hospitality toward the pope."

Francis started the day by having breakfast — coffee and croissants — with a group of 10 homeless people and migrants who are looked after by the St. Gilles parish of Brussels.

They sat around a table at the entrance of the parish church and told him their stories, and gave him bottles of beer that the parish makes, “La Biche de Saint-Gilles.” The proceeds of the beer sales help fund the parish’s charity works.

Francis thanked them for the beer and breakfast and told them that the church’s true wealth was in caring for the weakest.

“If we want to truly know and show the church’s beauty, we should give to one another like this, in our smallness, in our poverty, without pretexts and with much love.”

The breakfast encounter was presided over by Marie-Françoise Boveroulle, an adjunct episcopal vicar for the diocese. The position is usually filled by a priest, but Boveroulle’s appointment has been highlighted as evidence of the roles that women can and should play in the church.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Francis have a breakfast together with people who are experiencing homelessness and are assisted by the parish church of St. Gilles in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis have a breakfast together with people who are experiencing homelessness and are assisted by the parish church of St. Gilles in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis have a breakfast together with people who are experiencing homelessness and are assisted by the parish church of St. Gilles in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis have a breakfast together with people who are experiencing homelessness and are assisted by the parish church of St. Gilles in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A priest waits attends meeting of Pope Francis with bishops, deacons, and religious people in Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Koekelberg, Belgium, Saturday Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Nuns attend a meeting of Pope Francis with bishops, deacons, and religious people in Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Koekelberg, Belgium, Saturday Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Pope Francis arrives at a meeting with bishops, deacons, and religious people in Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Belgium, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful gather in the Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart during the meeting of Pope Francis with bishops, deacons, and religious people, in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis attends a meeting with bishops, deacons, and religious people in Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Brussels, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Francis arrives for a meeting with bishops, deacons, and religious people in Koekelberg Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Koekelberg, Belgium, Saturday Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)