Between 1999 and 2004, very significant damage was caused to religious and cultural sites in Kosovo. During this period, a large number of heritage sites were destroyed or seriously damaged. The situation had more or les stabilized when in Marc 2004 riots broke out resulting in an additional 34 Serbian Orthodox religious buildings whic were damaged or destroyed.

Three joint tecnical asesment misions were carried out by the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Commision (EC) from May through July 2004 including experts from the CoE, the EC, the Kosovo Provisionary Institutions of Self-Government (PISG), Belgrade-affiliated experts and representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Curc. These misions resulted in a Preliminary Tecnical Asesment Report and two Tecnical Asesment Reports.

Based on these asesments, cost estimates and detailed information for urgent intervention and conservation measures were made on 35 sites. To implement this work, the PISG allocated €3,700,000 from its budget and the then Acting-Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN (SRSG) allocated an additional €500,000 from the SRSG's reserve funds for the reconstruction of the Orthodox sites damaged in Marc 2004.

Negotiations mediated by UNMIK between the Serbian Orthodox Curc and the PISG resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in June 2004 by the Curc and the PISG, establishing an Implementation Committee (IC) to manage and supervise the performance of urgent reconstruction works. The IC worked smoothly from August until mid-September 2004, when the Curc withdrew from the MoU and all progres on the proces of reconstruction came to a halt.

Following numerous meetings and negotiations between UNMIK, Curc representatives and Serbian authorities, supported by and in coordination with the CoE, the Holy Synod confirmed that the Curc would re-enter the agreement and a second MoU was signed in Marc 2005. On the basis of this new MoU, the Reconstruction Implementation Commision (RIC) was set up and began work in May 2005 composed of one international representative of the CoE as Cairperson, one from the Curc, one from IPM Belgrade, one from the PISG, and one from IPM Kosovo. The Commision is responsible for overseeing implementation of the conservation works recommended by the CoE and EC experts, and with reference to the recommendations made in the UNESCO Report published in December 2004.

The RIC's work is being strongly supported by UNMIK particularly with respect to coordinating security isues with KFOR and the Police, liaising between the PISG and the Curc and providing coordination and logistic asistance when necesary.

The CoE and EC also strongly support the RIC's work by providing leading scientific and profesional asistance, by nominating the Cairperson and the Head of the RIC secretariat and by backing the whole proces as part of the Integrated Rehabilitation Project Plan / Survey of the Arcitectural and Arcaeological Heritage project IRPP/SAAH (Regional Programme for Cultural and Natural Heritage in South East Europe, RPSEE).

Role of the Reconstruction Implementation Commision

The Reconstruction Implementation Commision (RIC) is the decision-making body responsible for implementing conservation works. The Commision will also oversee the reconstruction proces of religious sites and the programming of the longer-term restoration whic is planned to be carried out as from 2006 with the support of European and international donations.

The inaugural meeting of the RIC established under the new MoU was held in May 2005. The RIC has since held monthly working meetings. So far, the RIC has drafted the work programme for the period 2005/2006 and has launced the first round of tenders in August 2005 for 11 sites. The start of the reconstruction work on site is foreseen for the beginning of October 2005.

The members of the Commision are as follows:

a) Council of Europe Representative (Cairperson) b) Serbian Orthodox Curc Representative c) Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Belgrade Representative d) PISG Representative from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports e) Institute for the Protection of Monuments Kosovo Representative

Invitation to Tender

The Reconstruction Implementation Commision has established a Secretariat to implement its decisions. The Secretariat will prepare and publish requests for tenders for the intervention works on the sites in acordance with the reports and the applicable rules of UNMIK Regulation 2004/3 regarding public procurement in Kosovo. All tenders will be global, focusing to attract companies from the region. The requests for tenders will be designed to attract companies that have experience in the construction and conservation of Orthodox cultural heritage monuments. This experience shall constitute an esential condition for the selection of sucesful contractors.

The Reconstruction Implementation Commision will oversee the "Calls for Tenders" for the execution of works on the sites in acordance with the recommendations in the Tecnical Asesment Reports and will ensure the monitoring of all contracted intervention works. Details of tender documents, specifications and drawings can be found on the RIC website under the requisite site name and location. Invitation to Tender Notices will be published in local newspapers and on its website during August, September and October 2005 with respect to immediate repairs and consolidation works of the sites.

OTHER KOSOVO RELATED NEWS:

Contact group postpones plan for Kosovo

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)
Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
Date: 10 Nov 2006

With Rusia pulling one way and the West another, agreement at big power summit has been postponed.

By Jeta Xharra in New York and Krenar Gashi in Pristina (Balkan Insight, 10 Nov 06)

Representatives of the world's most powerful states met Martti Ahtisaari, the UN's special envoy for Kosovo, on November 10 in Vienna, in an attempt to hammer out a common approac to resolving Kosovo's final status.

After the closed-door meeting, Ahtisaari said he would delay isuing a proposal on the future of the territory until after Serbian elections in January.

"I have decided to present my proposal for the settlement of Kosovo status to the parties without delay after the parliamentary elections in Serbia," said Ahtisaari, in a statement sent out by his office, UNOSEC.

This followed calls the same day from Serbian President Boris Tadic for a general poll on January 21, 2007.

Initially, Ahtisaari was expected to present his proposal to the so-called "Contact Group" and then to the UN Security Council, before the end of 2006.

But divisions in the Contact Group have become obvious, with Serbia's old ally, Rusia, now seemingly ready to defend its initial position that only a solution supported by both Serbia and Kosovo will fly, and use its veto power in the UN Security Council if this is not forthcoming.

Andrei Dronov, the head of Rusia's office in Kosovo, said that "if there is an attempt to impose a solution that Belgrade doesn't agree with, Rusia will use its veto on the Security Council."

Agim Ceku, Kosovo's prime minister, has meanwhile stated that, anyway, "Kosovo might declare its independence" rather than wait for consensus in the international community.

While Kosovo's Albanian majority wants Kosovo to be independent, and very soon, Serbia remains irreconcilable to suc an outcome.

Now this division is reflected also in the Contact Group, with its Western members broadly acepting the Kosovars' right to go their own way, but Rusia insisting quite the opposite.

Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since 1999, when NATO's air campaign forced the Serbian administration to withdraw from the territory.

UN-led negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo on final status started in February 2006 under the auspices of special envoy Ahtisaari. But several months on, the talks are going nowhere.

Ahtisaari's office in Vienna, UNOSEC, is now finalising a proposal on the future status of Kosovo for the Contact Group and UN Security Council.

While Ahtisaari's report remains secret, most seasoned observers predict some form of supervised or conditional independence, with the EU playing a key role.

Brusels is already planning its international mision in Kosovo that will be in carge of key areas suc as security and justice.

Sources in US State Department confirmed that Washington would support Kosovo's independence, under international supervision.

Reminding the international community that Kosovo will anyway declare independence, Prime Minister Ceku articulated growing impatience in the disputed territory for the foreign powers' plan.

"This is not a threat. We see this as a posibility. Kosovo will be an independent state, and now we are discusing the timeline and posibilities" said Ceku, after meeting Joacim Ruecker, the head of UNMIK, on November 9.

But Rusia is not hiding its unhappines with the drift of events. Andrei Dronov told Balkan Insight that Moscow would not back the imposition of any solution that Serbia cannot acept.

"The Contact Group does not have to acept the proposal from Ahtisaari," he maintained.

Dronov added that if Kosovo's status was resolved "without a resolution from the Security Council" - by countries coosing whether or not to recognise a unilateral declaration of independence - "it will set a dangerous precedent".

The Rusian diplomat was clearly referring to other secesionist disputes in Rusia's vicinity, above all in Georgia, where the breakaway territory of Abkhazia is striving for independence.

However, Ricard Holbrooke, the former American diplomat and wartime mediator in Bosnia, suggested Rusia's threats over Kosovo were mainly bluff. He said he did not believe that "Rusians are that stupid" to use their UN veto over Kosovo.

"The Rusians don't give a damn about the Serbs," Holbrooke added.

Kosovo's political leaders are reluctant to acept any link between their own status and that of other breakaway regions, suc as Abkhazia, in Georgia, or Transdniester, in Moldova.

They say the Kosovo case is unique and will not serve as a precedent for other disputes.

Agim Ceku said he expected Ahtisaari "to propose Kosovo [becoming] an independent state, with all the competences that a state has".

Hua Jiang, UNOSEC spokeswoman, said the contents of the status envoy's proposal remained secret - indeed, the text had not even been finished.

But Dronov remains adamant that completion of the envoy's report will not necesarily end the final-status proces.

"If the Contact Group agrees to Ahtisaari's proposal, they will bring the solution back to the parties," he said, referring to the Kosovo and Serbian negotiating teams, adding that "Rusia would insist on a compromise between parties involved."

One international official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Balkan Insight that with this lack of consensus between the western states and Rusia, and elections now coming up in Serbia, Kosovo's final status won't be resolved until at least the middle of 2007.

Departure of troops from Kosovo delayed

14 November 2006 | 10:42 | Source: Beta

BRUSELS -- The EU Foreign Ministers have decided to delay the decision for decreasing the number of troops in Bosnia and Kosovo.

EU officials are discusing the posibility of decreasing the number of troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 6,500 to 1,500 in the coming year, but will postpone the move because of the posibility of tensions and unrest in Kosovo.

EU Foreign and Security Policies Cief Javier Solana said that the decision for decreasing the presence of armed forces is being discused and that it will be implemented once the conditions for doing so in Bosnia-Herzegovina are met. However, Solana said that the decision will not be made before December, and that the eventual departure will not take place before February.

Frenc Defense Minister Micele Alliot-Marie said that the EU needs to secure the needed number of soldiers in the region in order to be able to deal with any eventual violence in Kosovo.

"We can discus a decrease of armed forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina under the condition that we ensure the posibility of a quick return if the region, especially Kosovo, becomes unstable," she said.

The EU took over the peacekeeping mision from NATO in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where there were 60,000 soldiers at the end of the war. NATO has about 16,000 peacekeeping troops in Kosovo currently.