The former Ambassador of Serbia to UNESCO, Professor Darko Tanasković, tells Kosovo Online that the fact that the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage kept four Serbian medieval properties in Kosovo on the List of World Heritage in Danger confirms that there has not actually been any improvement in the situation , which the authorities in Pristina constantly insist on and demand that these goods be removed from the list of goods at risk.

"In that sense, it is positive for Serbia, although of course, it is not positive that these very important universally valuable cultural assets are on the list of assets in danger." The decision was expected and is not sensational because no condition was really met that could contribute to these goods being removed from the list of goods at risk," says Tanasković.

According to him, there are several conditions for Serbian goods to be removed from the list at risk, and one of the three main ones is the full and permanent protection of the goods in a safe and stable political environment.

"It is estimated that the political environment is still not stable." The second condition is an agreed medium-term plan for the restoration of the frescoes, including a preventive conservation regime and the conservation and rehabilitation of the entire property. And that, of course, is not something that can be talked about at all. What medium-term plan, who should make it, with whom? And the third is the implementation of the asset management plan, the full establishment of the so-called buffer zones and boundaries of the asset, including their legal protection. Considering everything that is happening, that roads are being built next to the monastery, that usurped property is formally returned to Dečani Monastery only after a major intervention for political reasons, what kind of buffer zone, what kind of respect for legal norms, does not exist at all, including the corresponding law. Therefore, a lot would have to be done in order to remove these goods from the list of goods at risk, and for that, as we know, there are no minimum conditions," Tanasković points out.

"From the very beginning, since those properties were registered, which was back in 2006, political instability, which was called post-conflict political instability, was constantly highlighted as one of the most significant factors and that has not changed, and it is ultimately line, I repeat, is positive for us, although otherwise it is not good in itself", indicates our interlocutor.

Between the two sessions of the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, as Tanasković states, there is always a struggle to remove something from that list or to add something to it.

"It is a dynamic that takes place constantly from one session to another, and the World Heritage Committee meets once a year." There are countries on whose territory there are goods that have been assessed as being in danger, but not because of some political instability or, for example, physical danger, but simply because those countries do not take care of them in the way that UNESCO standards foresee, so then there is a situation where expert proposals appear to put the properties on the list of being in danger, and people don't like that because it speaks badly about the care of cultural properties. On the other hand, for example, the Palestinians have always insisted that their cultural assets be put on that list because they are threatened by Israel. So, that is one dynamic in which these four cultural assets of ours, that's what I call them, because that is the official terminology of UNESCO, are very stable on the list of assets in danger", Professor Tanasković concludes.

Source: https://www.kosovo-online.com/