By Aleksandar Pavlović*
After Kosovo’s failed UNESCO bid in 2015, the question whether Kosovo should reconsider its prospective 2017 bid is being a matter of fierce disputes, and with new Kosovo right-wing government likely to be formed soon, it warrant further discussions. The main point of this contribution to the Kosovo UNESCO case could be conveniently summarized by the words of Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.” In other words, the question of Kosovo UNESCO membership in my view is not the question of if or whether, but of when. In the 2015 voting Kosovo was only three votes short to get membership, and it is significant that the USA did not take part in it due to an unpaid membership fee. But, on October 21, 2015, the UNESCO Board decided to put the Kosovo bid to a vote, despite Serbia’s opposition to it. That is, in the long run, a winning combination for Kosovo, as it now has the right to request its membership every two years. This autumn Kosovo is eligible for another bid, and its officials are still considering whether to take the chance or risk another humiliation in the eyes of the public. But, even if it fails to get membership this year, Kosovo has the right to request another voting in 2019 and so on, again and again. In the spirit of a Serbian proverb that it is not the good looking one but a persistent one that succeeds, if Kosovo remains persistent it will be admitted to UNESCO, sooner or later.
Sovereignty vs protection
Both Serbian and Kosovo media dedicate huge attention to the UNESCO case, but always, or almost always, through a prism of sovereignty, i.e. if it belongs to Serbia or Kosovo, and rarely through the question of legislation that applies to it, the rights it enjoys and the chances to improve its position.
So, how do these laws actually look like? The basis for the legal status of Serbian heritage in Kosovo is provided by the Marti Ahtisaari’s 2007 Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement. The annex 5 of this plan reads: “The Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo shall be afforded the protection and enjoyment of its rights, and that those Serbian cultural sites which are considered to have special significance for Kosovo Serbs will be provided with security by the Kosovo police force” . In addition, Ahtisaari’s plan allows for the creation of special protective zones around certain Serbian monasteries and churches, in order to “provide for the peaceful existence and functioning of the sites to be protected; preserve their historical, cultural and natural environment, including the monastic way of life of the clergy; and prevent adverse development around them… (Article 4.1).
In accordance with the Ahtisaari’s plan, Kosovo Assembly since 2008 adopted a number of laws that grant protection of Serbian cultural heritage, which is explicitly mentioned in the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo:
Article 9 [Cultural and Religious Heritage] The Republic of Kosovo ensures the preservation and protection of its cultural and religious heritage.
Article 58 [Responsibilities of the State]
- The Republic of Kosovo shall promote the preservation of the cultural and religious heritage of all communities as an integral part of the heritage of Kosovo. The Republic of Kosovo shall have a special duty to ensure an effective protection of the entirety of sites and monuments of cultural and religious significance to the communities.
One issue is that the adoption of these laws spurred heated debates in Kosovo. Statements such as “Serbianization of Kosovo”, “terror”, “humiliation” were used by MP Alma Lama (Democratic League of Kosovo – LDK). In addition, members of the Orahovac (Rahovec) Municipal Assembly stated: We, members of the Policy and Finance Committee see the approval of this bill as unreasonable, since it envisages the formation of a mini-municipality in the municipality of Orahovac, to which the village Velika HodŠ¾a (Hoà§à« e Madhe), inhabited by the Serb minority, belongs” .
Members of the Prizren Municipal Assembly also objected that all the construction around the Orthodox sites depends on the Orthodox Church. They argued that the Orthodox Church in Kosovo is granted more power than in Serbia. The debate required the participation of the then Prime-minister Hashim Thaà§i and minister Dardan Gashi,who said: “This law directly affects the relations of the Republic of Kosovo with the friends and allies of the Republic of Kosovo and as such, I pray and ask you and urge that the law is adopted in the proposed form” (Plenary session, 20.04.2012).
Hampered implementation
In short, the current laws were eventually passed, but with great efforts and difficulties and, in all honesty, only to the international pressure and conditionality of full independence. Yet, full five years later, the laws have still not been implemented. There are yet continuing incidents of demolition, theft and vandalism against cultural and religious sites, particularly Serb cultural heritage, as well as the lack of cooperation between local authorities and national government in the implementation of the laws. Implementation of the laws has either been boycotted or regularly by-passed by the local Prizren or Orahovac authorities. The major problem is illegal construction around the protected sites often caused by the municipal authorities. UN Security Council has also pointed to the limited financial and logistical support for implementation of the laws and lack of political commitment by municipal Prizren and Orahovac authorities.
For those opposing these regulations, they do give wide autonomy and guarantees for the Serbian Orthodox Church. But the one who thinks Ahtisaari did not do justice to Kosovo Albanians should be reminded that it was precisely his plan that announced what not even NATO did not publicly proclaim neither during nor after the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia – that Kosovo shall be independent. Besides, these rules were designed after the 2004 riots, when the property of Serbian Orthodox Church has indeed been endangered, burned and vandalized.
To sum up, it would be more beneficial in the long run if Serbian politicians were to pay more attention to securing the granted legal protection for the Serbian heritage in Kosovo, and less to sabotaging Kosovo’s UNESCO bid. Equally so, Albanian politicians would improve their case by putting more effort into fully adopting provisions from the Ahtisaari plan and ensuring their full implementation. But, be as it may, in the long run Serbian heritage is doomed to depend neither on the NATO soldiers not Kosovo policemen, but on the people living in its surroundings, and that means Albanians for the most part. It is inadmissible that nowadays foreign soldiers are guarding DeÄani/Decani monastery from the local Albanians who wish to burn it to the ground over a dispute involving few acres of land, while the distinguished fiset of these very same local Albanians protected it during the perilous Ottoman rule and wartime periods. During my last visit to GraÄanica/Gracanica, a brilliant Serbian medieval monastery near Prishtina, I pondered about the fact that, still, there is something in the Balkans that sustained for 700 years, something that no army, banditry, be it native, Ottoman (comprising the Turks, Circassians, Tatars, Arabs and what not), or Western European did not destroy or vandalize; mainly due to our ancestors who kept and protected these holy objects. So, I sure do hope that we today aren’t the worst of them all.
*Aleksandar Pavlović is a researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory of the University of Belgrade and an associate of European movement in Serbia He is currently a fellow of the Centre for Albania-Serbia Relations at the Albanian Institute for International Studies in Tirana. He holds BA and MA from the University of Belgrade and PhD in Southeast European Studies from the University of Nottingham.
