MODERATE KOSOVO CHURCH LEADERS, UNOSEK AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000614 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL, INL, EUR/SCE NSC FOR BRAUN USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KCRM PGOV PINR KDEM UNMIK YI SUBJECT: MODERATE KOSOVO CHURCH LEADERS, UNOSEK AND PRISTINA AGREE IN SUBSTANCE ON CHURCH PROTECTIONS REF: (A) BELGRADE 879 (B) PRISTINA 495 PRISTINA 00000614 001.2 OF 002 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PROTECT ACCORDINGLY ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. Father Sava told PolOff that he personally supports UNOSEK proposals for the protection of cultural heritage. He said the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC),however, cannot support the proposals publicly so long as the government in Belgrade continues to oppose them. Sava criticized recent statements by hard-line Bishop Artemije in the U.S., and lamented that moderate Bishop Irinej is being sent off to Australia during status talks. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) On July 20, PolOff attended the weekly memorial service for Serbian King Stefan Decanski (St. Stefan) at Decani Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site in western Kosovo. During the service, Father Sava Janjic and 20 of his fellow monks chanted hymns to the remains of St. Stefan, who founded the monastery in 1330. The service is open to the public, and at least 20 Kosovo Serbs of all ages attended. Members of the international community participated, along with UNMIK Civil Police and Italian KFOR soldiers. At the close of the mystical, candle-lit service, the monastery's abbot Bishop Teodosije Sibalic of Lipljan blessed the monks and the visitors as they filed past and kissed St. Stefan's open, glass-covered coffin. ¶3. (SBU) Sava told PolOff that he personally supports proposals made by the office of the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo (UNOSEK) on the protection of Kosovo's cultural heritage. (NOTE. Blerim Shala, coordinator of the Pristina final status negotiating team told CDA on July 21 that Pristina negotiators have only relatively small differences with Teodosije and Sava on the protection of church sites, having agreed to the number of sites to be protected (14) and the size of the protection zones to be extended for half of them. END NOTE.) Sava is a close advisor to Bishop Teodosije, who attended the recent negotiating session on cultural heritage in Vienna. Sava said that the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) cannot publicly support the UNOSEK proposals so long as Belgrade continues to oppose them, and he criticized what he views as Belgrade's attempts to prevent progress on this issue. He lamented that newly-appointed moderate Bishop Irinej Dobrijevic is being "sent off to the farthest possible place8 (Australia) when his services are most needed during status negotiations (Ref A). ¶4. (SBU) Sava criticized Bishop Artemije Radosavljevic, the head of the Raska and Prizren Diocese who is currently based at Gracanica monastery outside Pristina (Ref B). Sava gave PolOff a copy of Artemije's recent statements in the U.S., in which Artemije characterized the Kosovo conflict as a religious one between Christians and Muslim extremists, and urged the U.S. not to contribute to, "the creation of a country of evil, whose government will be in the hands of terrorists." Sava said that such comments do nothing to protect Kosovo Serbs or their religious sites. ¶5. (SBU) Sava told PolOff that the program of the Reconstruction Implementation Commission for Orthodox Religious Sites in Kosovo (RIC) is on schedule for 2006, and he added that the RIC will issue several more tenders in the coming months. He said that one of the Kosovo Albanian companies that successfully carried out some of the initial reconstruction in 2005 has a good chance of being chosen this year for work on the next phase; he continued that there are very few Serb companies among the bidders because they are worried about security in Kosovo. ¶6. (SBU) Sava said that municipal leaders and the international community need to do more to ensure the ongoing security of reconstructed sites, some of which have been further damaged after preliminary reconstruction works were completed in 2005. He said that visiting Council of Europe representative and RIC chairperson Emma Carmichael noticed in PRISTINA 00000614 002.2 OF 002 early July that part of the new lead roof from St. George Runovic church in Prizren has gone missing since the RIC replaced it in 2005. (NOTE. Father Sava's internet KIM info service reported that the removal of tin from roofs of older buildings is becoming a "frequent occurrence," and said that part of the tin roof was also recently removed from the nearby Turkish bath hammam in the center of Prizren. END NOTE.) ¶7. (SBU) COMMENT. Despite obstructionism from Belgrade, moderate Orthodox church leaders in Kosovo continue to struggle to ensure that status negotiations result in effective protection for their sacred sites and monastic communities in Kosovo. The evident moderate SOC leaders- Pristina negotiating team consensus on the protection of patriarchal sites should obviously inform UNOSEK's drafting of any best-practices position papers. END COMMENT. ¶8. (U) Post clears this message in its entirety for release to Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari. MCBRIDE