More than a hundred people gathered today in front of the monastery Gracanica, which is on the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage, in order to send a message that they do not agree with the request of Kosovo for UNESCO membership. With the photographs of the burned churches and monasteries citizens wrote a message “No Kosovo in UNESCO.” At the protest which symbolically started at 12 hours and 44 minutes, the citizens lit 175 candles for 175 destroyed and burned shrines in Kosovo.
Journalist Zivojin Rakocevic said to the gathered people that Kosovo’s membership in UNESCO would mean humiliation and defeat of the Serbian people. Gracanica Mayor Vladeta Kostic stated that he does not believe that Kosovo authorities will now better take care about shrines, after a period of destruction of Serbian cultural monuments. Among the protesters were institutional representatives, cultural workers and journalists. Representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church were not present at the rally in front of the monastery.
