Milasinovic: By keeping Serbian monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger, we are more certain they will survive

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which is meeting in New Delhi, has decided to keep four Serbian medieval monuments in Kosovo on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Professor Goran Milasinovic, President of the Commission of the Republic of Serbia for Cooperation with UNESCO, tells Kosovo Online that Serbia is more assured that these monasteries will survive at least in their current form because they remain on the list of endangered heritage.

Let us remind that in 2006, UNESCO added three monasteries – Pec Patriarchate, Visoki Decani, and Gracanica, as well as the Church of the Mother of God Ljeviska in Prizren – to the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Milasinovic emphasizes that the Republic of Serbia's Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO makes significant efforts every year to ensure these sites remain listed as endangered on UNESCO's world heritage list.

“There are two sides to the problem that we face every year. One is ensuring that these sites remain on the list of endangered heritage. The World Heritage List includes a little over 1,100 sites, but only about 50 are on the list of endangered heritage, so it is a very small number,” Milasinovic points out.

He explains that once something is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, UNESCO signals, “This is the concern of the entire world, not just you locally interested parties.”

“In this sense, the moment something is on the list of endangered heritage, global monitoring is significantly better focused, and I would say we and these monasteries are then more secure that they will at least survive in their current form. Of course, things could be much better, but at least let it remain as it is now,” says Milasinovic, President of the Commission of the Republic of Serbia for Cooperation with UNESCO.

As another important issue, he highlights the report that Serbia sends to UNESCO, which all experts should review, and the importance of not putting this document to a vote to avoid raising status issues.

“It is very important for us that the report we prepare is received by UNESCO and reviewed by all experts, but also that it is not put to a vote to avoid any potential debates about the status issue that such a report might generate. We prepare the report as a full member of UNESCO, the Republic of Serbia, it is not being submitted by some so-called state of Kosovo,” Milasinovic emphasizes.

In the report accepted by UNESCO, it is specifically stated that the sites on the list are not being maintained adequately.

“It is noted that they do not fulfill UNESCO’s full mission, which is to be accessible to all citizens of the world, including those from Serbia, and a number of irregularities are mentioned that could be addressed and avoided with better management of these sites. The report prepared by the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments lists all irregularities, including political instability in this part of the territory, and it is clearly stated that conditions have not been met to remove these four sites from the endangered list, despite differing voices from Pristina a few years ago. We see that the issue of monasteries and our general cultural heritage is highly politicized, with little concern from Pristina about culture and monument protection, and much more about the political connotation of it all,” Milasinovic says.

He warns that Belgrade should never lower its guard on this issue and should always act as if the following year might bring “some signal to the so-called Kosovo to apply again for UNESCO membership despite not meeting the objective criteria for admission.”