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Kosovo Joining UNESCO ‘Threat to Serbs’ Heritage’ :: Balkan Insight Ivana Nikolic If Kosovo joins the United Nations cultural body UNESCO, Serbian heritage in the former province could be erased, President Tomislav Nikolic warned foreign ambassadors to Belgrade. Ahead of UNESCO’s executive board meeting which will consider Pristina’s membership bid next week, President Nikolic on Friday appealed to 80 diplomats in Belgrade not to let Kosovo join. Nikolic accused the Pristina authorities of being responsible for allowing attacks on Serbian cultural monuments in Kosovo since the war in June 1999 ended as well as intentionally neglecting their upkeep. “The aim is to falsify history and to create a new state, a national and cultural identity which implies the total extinction of everything that testifies about the Serbian presence [in Kosovo],” Nikolic said in a speech at the Palace of Serbia. He said that since the war in 1999, more than 200 churches and monasteries owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church have been attacked, while around 10,000 icons and other pieces of church property have been stolen. “There is a dramatic gap between Pristina’s declared commitment and real action when it comes to the protection of Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija,” Nikolic said. Nikolic’s appeal comes after UNESCO’s executive board on Monday decided to put Kosovo’s bid on its agenda <http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/kosovo-step-closer-to-unesco-membership-10-12-2015-1> for a meeting on October 22. Serbian officials however oppose any kind of international recognition of the former province <http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/kosovo-serbia-begin-diplomatic-battle-over-unesco-09-17-2015> . Families of Serbs who were killed or went missing in the war also appealed to UNESCO member states not to accept Kosovo, saying it would be an insult to the victims. In his speech, Nikolic also recalled the ethnically-charged unrest across Kosovo in March 2004, during which he said that 35 Orthodox churches and monasteries were burned or destroyed, along with hundreds of Serb houses, buildings and schools. “That aspect... of destructive campaign of vandalism should be seriously taken into account when considering who has proposed themselves to be a guardian of Serbian and world heritage,” he said. Nikolic also said that Kosovo’s battle to win membership of UNESCO would further damage the ongoing EU-backed dialogue to normalise relations between Belgrade and Pristina. Belgrade sees Kosovo as the cradle of the medieval Serbian state. Many of the most significant Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches lie there, including the monastery churches of Gracanica and Decani and the patriarchal complex in Pec/Peje, which are already on the list of UNESCO world heritage sites. Belgrade accuses Pristina of not looking after them properly and of colluding in the destruction of some sites. However, Serbia has no right to veto Pristina’s UNESCO membership bid, and Kosovo will be able to join even though it is not a UN member state. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SERBIAN NEWS NETWORK" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/senet. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
