Page 843 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

c. the network of abandoned, ruined and destroyed monasteries and churches scattered throughout the Province;
d. Patrimonial sites of specific vernacular cultural sig- nificance (e.g. the Serbian Quarter in Prizren, the village of Velika Hoča, the Kosovo Battle monument at Gazimestan).
Safeguarding this invaluable network—with an empha- sis on the network of living monastic communities—re- quires that these be given a status of protection that goes beyond a generic level of legal security afforded to cul- tural monuments or UNeSCO World Heritage Sites. an internationally-guaranteed institutional status for the sites and communities that inhabit the most important Serbi- an Religious and Cultural Heritage in Kosovo and Meto- hija1 is therefore judged to be an essential part of the mea- sures proposed to safeguard the Serbian heritage of Ko- sovo and Metohija.
4. The goal of this proposal is to:
a. protect the physical security of the Serbian Religious
and Cultural Heritage in Kosovo and Metohija;
b. institutionalize the existing links between the SOC in Kosovo and Metohija and the Republic of Ser-
bia;
c. establish the institutional framework within which
a sustainable environment can take hold to guaran- tee the preservation and unconstrained develop- ment of the Serbian Religious and Cultural Heri- tage in Kosovo and Metohija, including the Prov- ince’s network of the SOC’s living monastic com- munities;
d. establish the institutional framework by which the reconstruction and preservation of the Serbian Re- ligious and Cultural Heritage in Kosovo and Meto- hija can be safely facilitated.
5. These proposals are based on several basic assump- tions:
a. The limited competence and jurisdiction of the Pri- ština-based institutions authorities and agents, their laws (present and future), regulations and codes toward the Serbian Religious and Cultural Heri- tage in Kosovo and Metohija;
b. The recognition by Priština of the special “status of institutions, sites and other heritage of the Serbian Orthodox Church” in Kosovo and Metohija and the permanent need to ensure the protection, survival and sustainability of the SOC in Kosovo and Meto- hija;
c. The recognition by Priština of the spiritual author- ity, exclusive canonical jurisdiction and ownership of the SOC over all institutions and sites and prop-
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erties currently held or claimed by the SOC (the archdiocese of Peć and the Diocese of Raška and Prizren2) in Kosovo and Metohija; the explicit non- -recognition of any past, present or future claim by any authority, faith, or church over these sites and properties;
d. The recognition by Priština of the existing canoni- cal and administrative links between the Serbian Orthodox Church’s archdiocese of Peć and the Di- ocese of Raška and Prizren, with the Serbian Ortho- dox Church and its patriarchal seat in Belgrade;
e. The recognition by Priština of its obligation to re- turn or provide just compensation for all SOC prop- erty confiscated or expropriated from 6 april 1941 to the present on the territory of present-day Ko- sovo and Metohija;
f. The recognition of specific and direct territorial, legal and administrative links of the SOC’s living monastic communities in Kosovo and Metohija with the Serbian entity in Kosovo and Metohija (“Ser- bian entity”) and the rest of the RePUBLiC OF SeR- Bia (through, inter alia, the Ministry of Religion, the Ministry of Culture and other state organs of Serbia such as institute for the Protection of Cul- tural Monuments that has for more than 50 years worked on preservation and reconstruction of Ser- bian Kosovo heritage;
g. The formal enshrinement of these and other rec- ognitions in the body of the international legal in- strument that will frame the future status of Koso- vo and Metohija and detailed in a separate Charter that would be formally appended to it, as well as in all future basic laws (constitutions) of Kosovo and Metohija. The Charter will explicitly affirm that the network of the SOC’s living monastic communities in Kosovo and Metohija is an integral part of the Serbian entity;
h. The Charter’s aim is to protect the traditions, way of life, environment and property of the network of the SOC’s living monastic communities in Kosovo and Metohija, to protect and limit access to the same, and to further their economic sustainability. it will outline, inter alia, the rules, rights and responsibili- ties of the network of the SOC’s living monastic com- munities in Kosovo and Metohija that the Serbian entity will administer and of which it is an integral part;
i. The international legal instrument that will frame the future status of Kosovo and Metohija will estab-
a Chronicle of the Contemporary Suffering of Kosovo-Metohian Serbs
See appendix a for the list of Serbian religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija judged to be of exceptional impor- tance.
The archdiocese[archbishopric] of Peć holds jurisdiction over the holy patriarchal and stauropegic monastery of Peć and its depen- dency at Budisavci near Klina. The Diocese [Bishopric] of Raška and Prizren holds jurisdiction over all the other Serbian Orthodox Church churches, monasteries, and dependencies located on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija.
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