Kosovo Plan – Part 2
Ljubljana, 11/01/2005 | press release
The President of the Republic of Slovenia Dr Janez Drnovšek sent a letter today to Serbian Patriarch Pavle, UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, the presidents of member states of the Contact Group for Kosovo (France, Italy, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom and United States of America) and the
High Representative of the European Union for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana. In his letter President Drnovšek wrote:
The status of the Serb minority in Kosovo constitutes an essential element of the political solution to the Kosovo problem. The minority community shall have to have guaranteed security and an appropriate level of autonomy. To my mind, a further key to the solution lies in granting exterritorial status to the most important cultural, religious and historic monuments in Kosovo. In this regard I propose the following:
1. It is my assessment that the following monuments are crucial, although the Serb Orthodox Church will have to decide and would probably add further monuments to this list:
Visoki Dećani Monastery
Gračanica Monastery
Peć Monastery and Diocese
Bogorodica Ljeviška Cathedral in Prizren
Banja Monastery
2. The Dećani Monastery already has the status of a UNESCO World Heritage site, while the other monuments are in the process of acquiring such status which, I believe, should be completed as expediently as possible.
3. These monuments including the Cathedral and their corresponding land would remain under Serbian jurisdiction. The laws of the Republic of Serbia would apply to these sites, while international forces would provide protection.
4. Denationalisation (property restitution) procedures need to be sped up, whereby these sites would again become property of the Serb Orthodox Church.
5. The policy of repatriation of Serb refugees to Kosovo should be revised. Presently this policy is completely ineffective. I propose that Serbs be given the possibility of repatriation outside of their original domicile in order to enable them to settle in concentrated Serb agglomerations in the vicinity of special status religious sites. The international community should provide the necessary funding for this purpose.
6. The final agreement on the status of Kosovo should also include provisions on special duty-free arrangements for exterritorial sites in Kosovo.