Serbian, Kosovo culture ministers discuss rebuilding cultural sites in province

Associated Press, Sep 23, 2005 2:09 PM

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro-The culture minister of Serbia and his counterpart from Kosovo held talks Friday in Belgrade on preserving and restoring the troubled province's cultural heritage.

The two sides recently have stepped up contacts before U.N.-mandated negotiations on Kosovo's final status, expected later this year.

The meeting Friday focused on Serbian cultural heritage, particularly the Orthodox churches and monasteries destroyed by rioting ethnic Albanian mobs in March 2004, according to a statement issued after the talks.

Serbian Culture Minister Dragan Kojadinovic pledged Serbia's cooperation in the reconstruction of Serb religious sites, which remain gutted despite promises of speedy repair by Kosovo's interim ethnic Albanian government.

Reconstruction work is to start in October, the Kosovo culture minister, Astrit Haracia, was quoted as saying.

The two officials also agreed to form working groups to deal with the return of documents and cultural objects from Serbia to Kosovo, the statement said.

Ethnic Albanian authorities in Kosovo say that 676 archaeological and 571 ethnological artifacts were taken to Serbia before the Serbs pulled out of the province after the 1998-99 war.

Kosovo's U.N. administration is to participate in the return process, along with international culture organizations, the statement said.

The March 2004 rioting represented the worst violence after the 1999 NATO air war ended Serbia's crackdown on ethnic Albanians seeking independence. Nineteen people were killed and about 900 injured in the rioting, which also left 800 Serbian homes and 29 Serbian Orthodox churches destroyed. About 4,000 Serbs fled the province.

Haracia has said that his visit to Belgrade, the third attempt to bring the two sides to a table to discuss culture, was "significant" for regional stability.

Since the war the province has been run by a U.N. mission, pending resolution of Kosovo's final status. Kosovo officially remains part of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced Yugoslavia. The province's majority ethnic Albanians want full independence, but the Serb minority insists Kosovo remain part of Serbia-Montenegro.