After the Executive Board of UNESCO at last week's session in Paris by majority vote accepted Kosovo's application for membership in the Organization for the protection of cultural heritage, both sides (Serbian and Kosovo) initiated lobbying for their aims, in real and in the virtual world. Yet the Kosovo side gave a good lesson ...
Former commander of the KFOR French Special Forces, Colonel Jacques Hogard stated that UNSECO should not grant Kosovo's membership because it does not belong there.
UNESCO should not yield to pressures because those who destroyed and burned down property now want to become UNSECO members and Kosovo does not belong there, Hogard told the daily Blic.
The Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo, which belongs to the world also, has to be saved, Hogard said.
Minister for Returns and Communities in the Kosovo Government Dalibor Jevtic said today, after talks with Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga, that he had the same opinion as Jahjaga, that the situation in the Assembly of Kosovo needs to be resolved in a peaceful and democratic way, because without addressing the situation in the parliament would not be possible to resolve the question of Community/Association of Serbian municipalities (ZSO).
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said today that Serbia will never do anything that would go beyond Kosovo's status neutrality.
Commenting on a statement of the President of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Vladimir Kostic that the reality was that Kosovo is not in Serbia's hands neither de facto nor de jure, Dacic told the RTS that the reality was that Serbia does not have full sovereignty over a part of its territory but that either have it the authorities in Pristina.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo, Petrit Selimi said that Kosovo officials have given UNESCO written guarantees that they will not change the name of the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), which is a constitutional category in Kosovo Constitution. “Naming of the monuments on the UNESCO list will change only in consultation with officials of the Serbian Orthodox Church,” said Selimi in an interview given to the daily Danas.
The French Ambassador to Serbia Christine Moro said that Chapter 35 does not have anything that was not included in the Brussels agreement, and that they want Belgrade and Pristina to normalise relations.
Moro said that it would be good now to open Chapter 35 as it would prove that the dialogue has produced results and that Serbia was making progress in the accession talks.
Greek diplomat Dimitris Moschopoulos is the main lobbyist of Hashim Thaqi and Isa Mustafa for the admission of Kosovo into UNESCO, Blic learns.
Dimitris Moschopoulos was the head of the Greek office in Pristina, as well as Representative of the EU for the protection of Serbian cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo.
Nenad Djurdjevic from the Forum for Ethnic Relations said that it was a smart move of Pristina to engage this Greek.
Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric said that status and property of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) should be discussed in the next round of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
According to him, the theme will be the participation of Serbs in Pristina institutions in the guaranteed percentage, as well as the airline flight Belgrade - Pristina.
NATO did not approve the formation of the so-called Army of Kosovo, Serbian Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic has said.
Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic said to Blic that this was opposed by those members of the military alliance that have not recognized Kosovo, "and that also prevents the so-called Kosovo from developing partnership relations with NATO."
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have agreed that "destruction of Serb cultural heritage in Kosovo would be a crime."
During their meeting in New York on Monday, Nikolic also asked for support in preventing the admission of Kosovo to UNESCO, and for protection of Serb heritage.