[CPProt.net] Disputes wreck Kosovo monuments

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

May 13, 2005

Disputes wreck Kosovo monuments 
By Matt Prodger 
BBC News, Kosovo  


Potential donors attending a conference in Paris on Friday are being asked
for money to help restore the cultural heritage of Kosovo. 
At the top of the list are Serbian Orthodox churches targeted by ethnic
Albanian mobs during three days of bloody rioting in the province in 2004. 

But reconstruction has been held up by the Church's refusal to participate. 

Except for raindrops falling from its ceiling, the Church of the Holy Virgin
of Ljeviska in Prizren is silent. 

The bell has not rung for more than a year; not since ethnic Albanian
extremists arrived in March 2004 and set fire to the church. 

The UN's global heritage organisation, Unesco, described it as "an
unpardonable act of vandalism against one of the most important medieval
monuments in the Balkans.'' 

It will cost $4m (£2.1m or 3.1m euros) to repair, and this is just one
example of many. The Serbian Orthodox Church says more than 80 of its
monuments have been damaged since the war in 1999, but the figures are
disputed. 

Better relations 

Unesco says that 75 monuments are in need of urgent restoration in Kosovo,
48 of them Serbian Orthodox. Another 14 are in fact Islamic, says Unesco,
and they date back to the time when Kosovo was part of the Muslim Ottoman
Empire. 


 Some representatives of the Kosovo government incited the riots, and that
is something which is very sad 
Father Sava, 
Decani Monastery  

Raising the money for the Orthodox heritage is one thing, but getting the
Serbian clergy to co-operate with the Kosovo government in the
reconstruction has been much more difficult. 

The head of the Church in Kosovo, Bishop Artemije, has been the biggest
obstacle, though in recent months his colleagues have tried discreetly to
sideline him in an attempt to push things along. 

To visit Decani Monastery in the west of Kosovo, you have to pass through a
heavily armoured K-For checkpoint. Inside, French peacekeepers are buying
bottles of the monks' home-made wine as souvenirs, while Father Sava tells
me that relations with the Kosovo government have begun to improve. 

But there is lingering distrust when he says that "unfortunately, the Kosovo
institutions during the March riots last year did not play a very
constructive role". 

"On the contrary," he says, "some representatives of the Kosovo government
incited the riots, and that is something which is very sad.'' 

Withdrawal plans 

In turn, senior sources in the Kosovo government have told the BBC that they
believe the Serbian Orthodox Church has tried to keep the monuments in ruins
for as long as possible - as a visual reminder to the international
community of what Albanian extremists are capable of. 


The province's environment minister, Ardian Gjini, says: "The Kosovo
government allocated the money, the UN mission was ready to start the work,
but the Orthodox Church wasn't ready for a deal with the government and the
UN.'' 

In just a few months' time, negotiations are expected to begin on the final
status of Kosovo. It may soon gain independence from Serbia. 

The United Nations Mission in Kosovo has made no secret of its desire to
withdraw as much as possible, as soon as possible. 

But on one thing both the Church and the Kosovo government agree: these
examples of cultural heritage will need the protection of foreign
peacekeepers for many years to come. 

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4541197.stm