UNESCO Executive Council is set to decide on today’s session in Paris whether proposal with the recommendation for Kosovo’s membership in that organization will be on the daily agenda of the body. State secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Veljko Odalovic, said to RTS that he expects wisdom to prevail over politics and that Kosovo’s request won’t be put on the agenda.
Odalovic said that Kosovo is not a state and that its sponsors are trying to provide many memberships to Kosovo, through a small door, and that issue of Kosovo’s membership should be discussed within the frame of the Brussels dialogue. He also reminded on 2004 many Serbian shrines were destroyed in Kosovo and added that UNSC Resolution 1244 had provided that Serbian military and police could return to Kosovo to protect monasteries and churches. Odalovic further said it would be a catastrophic damage to hand over monasteries to Pristina and voiced hope that today politics will be in the second plan.
Coordinator of the negotiation team for the establishment of the Association/Community of Serb municipalities and Kosovo Minister for Local Government Administration, Ljubomir Maric, said that decision about Kosovo’s membership in UNESCO is a political process at the high level and that Serbia is excluded from making decisions about all issues that matter. However he added that Serbia can influence on matters in the Kosovo parliament where law on cultural heritage has been withdrawn from agenda. “This (draft) law abolishes Serbian Orthodox Church, and we can influence on that. It is important to us that Serbian Orthodox Church is recognized in its full capacity,” said Maric.
