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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Agreement reached on particular questions regarding protection of religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo-Metohija

Belgrade/Vienna, 23 May 2006

Members of the Belgrade team for political talks on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija Slobodan Samardzic and Leon Kojen said today after the conclusion of the fifth round of talks that the Belgrade and Pristina teams reached agreement on particular questions regarding protection of religious and cultural heritage in Kosovo-Metohija.

Kojen told a press conference that all three sides – Belgrade, Pristina and UN Special Envoy – agreed that the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) should be safe, with its own organisation and basic measures of protection, and differences remained on the issue of the size of protected zones.

Speaking on returning the nationalized property of SPC, Samardzic said that the Serbian parliament will soon adopt a law on restitution of nationalised property and pointed out that it is necessary that Serbia and Kosovo-Metohija reach agreement in the near future so that the property of SPC is returned, since laws in Serbia are not implemented in Kosovo-Metohija.

Returning property is the obligation of all countries which nationalized the property of churches and Kosovo-Metohija will have to adopt a law on restitution of property, which should be in harmony with the Serbian law, said Samardzic.

Samardzic stressed that the ethnic Albanian side refused to discuss the issue of property restitution in this round, adding that that is a part of economic talks which will be held on May 31 in Vienna.

The chairman of the meeting, UN deputy envoy for talks on Kosovo Albert Roan said that both sides agreed upon the need of providing physical protection to sites of religious and cultural heritage, which would be done by international forces in the next several years.

"We have decided to set up an expert group made up of representatives of governments from all sides, and institutions such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe, which should establish criteria for setting up protection zones," Roan said.