Work on restoration of destroyed churches to begin on Oct. 10

Serbian Press Agency SRNA, Bijeljina, 23-09-2005 20:42:23

Belgrade - Minister of culture in the Kosovo provisional government Astrit Haracija announced today that work on the restoration of Orthodox churches destroyed in March 2004 will begin October 10 based with contracts for the first 11 tenders, and that another 19 tenders have been issued.

During talks in Belgrade with Serbian minister of culture Dragan Kojadinovic, Haracija explained that the Commission for Implementation of Renewal, which is headed by an expert from the Council of Europe and includes Albanian and Serbian members, unanimously chose the contracts for the first 11 tenders approved by the Serbian Orthodox Church.

According to a written statement from the Serbian Ministry of Culture, Haracija emphasized that Kosovo provisional institutions will be able to give 1.5 million euros in the next fiscal year in addition to the already earmarked 4.2 million euros.

He called on the government in Belgrade to continue successful cooperation in this process in order to ensure that all damaged churches are renewed.

Minister Kojadinovic welcomed the progress achieved on this issue and promised full cooperation in this process.

Kojadinovic and Haracija agreed to appoint coordinators for culture who will form work groups in the areas of return of documents, return of artifacts, issues related to archeology, general cultural exchanges of artists and all other issues related to culture.

"These coordinators will form technical work groups and will be responsible to the ministers and they will be tasked with issues whenever necessary at the ministerial level," adds the statement.

Kojadinovic invited film makers from Kosovo and Metohija to take part in the Festival of Documentary Film, which will be held in Belgrade from November 29 to December 3 under the auspices of the Goethe Institute.

Kojadinovic has accepted the invitation to hold the next meeting in Pristina.