UNMIK and PISG expected to protect church land in Djakovica

KiM Info Newsletter 03 -02-06

UNMIK and PISG to take action regarding the illegal building on the Church land in Djakovica

KIM Info-service, February 02, 2006

UNMIK authorities in Pristina have informed Serbian Orthodox Church that they would take immetiate meassures together with Kosovo institutions (PISG) to protect the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Djakovica on which KLA Veterans erected a war memorial.

The initial information, published by KIM Info-service, that the UNMIK Municipal Representative in 2002 somehow colluded with local authorities in Djakovica to take away the church land and revise cadastral records eventually proved not only inaccurate, but the opposite of what happened, since it was in fact the UNMIK Municipal Representative who instigated the Executive Decisions by the SRSG invalidating those municipal actions.

At the moment UNMIK is discussing the issue with PISG and will soon come out with a proper solution that would protect the church property form being usurped and probably suggest an alternative location for the war memorial.

As the Church authorities clearly explained to UNMIK , the problem is not in building of a war memorial itself but the fact that it was constructed on the land which belongs to the Serbian Orthodox Church and in immediate vicinity of the Holy Trinity Cathedral that was destroyed by Albanian extremists.