Page 844 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

lish a special post of high rank with specific powers that would be granted explicit authority to ensure and enforce compliance, as well as penalize non- compliance, on the part of Priština and municipal (local) governments with the provisions of the Char- ter and its attendant regulations and practices. The officeholder will report on a regular basis to the Unit- ed Nations, the european Union, the Republic of Serbia, the Contact Group and NaTO. The indi- vidual holding this post cannot be a citizen/resi- dent of Kosovo and Metohija, and should preferably belong to one of the canonically-recognized Ortho- dox Christian Churches. The Republic of Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church must consent to the appointment.
Linking Serbian Religious and Cultural Heritage in Ko- sovo and Metohija with the Serbian Entity within the Prov- ince and with Belgrade institutions
6. The October 2005 Kai eide Report rightly recog- nized the advantages of establishing “horizontal links” be- tween majority Serbian areas. Building on that firm foun- dation, the Republic of Serbia has proposed a Serbian en- tity—a non-contiguous administrative unit of majority- Kosovo and Metohija areas with defined and transparent links to Belgrade—designed and structured to implement the Contact Group’s Guiding Principle on decentraliza- tion. This guiding principle states that the process of seek- ing the future status of Kosovo and Metohija must pro- vide mechanisms to ensure the participation of all com- munities at the municipal (local) government level. “ef- fective structures of local self-government established through the decentralization process should facilitate the coexistence of different communities.” The Serbian enti- ty’s aim is the provision of a realistic institutional scheme for the protection of the Serbian community of Kosovo and Metohija.
7. an integral part of the territorial, legal and admin- istrative reach of the Republic of Serbia’s-proposed Ser- bian entity is the network of the SOC’s living monastic communities in Kosovo and Metohija, as will be affirmed in the Charter. This geographically-scattered network of living monastic communities logically falls under the ju- risdiction of the Serbian entity. it is neither politically pru- dent, nor economically advisable, nor morally acceptable, for the Serbian community to be administratively and structurally separated from their religious and cultural her- itage. as the Director-General of UNeSCO, Mr. Koïchio Matsuura, stated in response to the March 2004 pogrom, the Serbian religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija is fundamentally linked to “memory and cul- tural identity.” To sever the Serbian community from its religious and cultural heritage in any way goes against the spirit and letter of the process of seeking the future status of Kosovo and Metohija as defined by the Contact
Group’s Guiding Principles, which affirm that on the ques- tion of ensuring sustainable multi-ethnicity, “effective con- stitutional guarantees and appropriate mechanisms” must be provided to “ensure the implementation of human rights” for all individuals and communities in Kosovo and Metohija.
8. additionally, the historical record and recent expe- rience affirm that the mere establishment of “safe zones”3 around a single living monastic community is an insuffi- cient guarantee of security, preservation and unhindered development of the Serbian Religious and Cultural Heri- tage in Kosovo and Metohija. The clear and present dan- gers that continue to affect the monastery of Visoki De- čani from the time of the UNMiK-led initiative to declare the “Dečani canyon area“ a “special zoning area” are well documented. The essential problem remains that Visoki Dečani itself and the surrounding area remain under the territorial, legal and administrative jurisdiction of a ma- jority ethnic albanian municipality and the PiSG Minis- try of environment and Spatial Planning, which together have demonstrated a gross disregard for even the limited protections provided for in the executive Order. The so- lution lies in severely limiting the competence and juris- diction of the Priština-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. jurisdiction will be granted instead to the Serbian entity which will establish an in- stitution for Safeguarding the Serbian Religious and Cul- tural Heritage in Kosovo and Metohija (iSSRCHKiM).
9. Moreover, as an additional safeguard, the interna- tional legal instrument that will frame the future status of Kosovo and Metohija will establish a special post of high rank with specified powers with the explicit author- ity to ensure and enforce compliance, as well as penalize non-compliance, on the part of Priština and municipal (local) governments, with the provisions of the Charter and its attendant regulations and practices as well as with those of the Serbian entity. The officeholder will report on a regular basis to the United Nations, the european Union, the Contact Group and NaTO. The individual holding this post cannot be a citizen/resident of Kosovo and Metohija, and should preferably belong to one of the canonically-recognized Orthodox Christian Churches. The Republic of Serbia and the SOC must consent to the ap- pointment.
10. in addition to the network of the SOC’s living mo- nastic communities in Kosovo and Metohija falling un-
3 The idea of providing limited protection to a natural preserve that includes a single monastic community was first articulated in april 2005 when SRSG jessen-Petersen issued an UNMiK executive Order which declared the “Dečani canyon area“ a “special zoning area.”Othertermstodescribeproposalsthatofferlimitedprotection to a monastic community include the euphemistic “qualified zone” and the less obscure “specially protected zone.”
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