The Kosovo police on Aug. 23 took over responsibility for the protection of the monastery of Gracanica, the Kosovo police General Directorate said.

"Pursuant to the law on cultural and religious heritage and obligations deriving from the Martti Ahtisaari plan for the resolution of Kosovo and Metohija's status, the Kosovo police took over from KFOR the responsibility to protect the monastery of Gracanica on Aug. 23," police spokesman Baki Keljani told BETA.

The police, according to Keljani, see this new responsibility as a big step forward in the process of strengthening the Kosovo police's responsibility, as the force will be guarding the most important areas of cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo.

"This step also demonstrates an improved situation in Kosovo as well as KFOR's confidence in the Kosovo police's ability to perform this important task," Keljani said in a statement to BETA.

At the moment, the Kosovo police are guarding 174 religious and cultural sites, of which 18 have permanent security, while the rest are patrolled occasionally. Keljani added that no incident around religious monuments has been reported thus far.

According to a NATO Council decision, KFOR is to transfer the protection of the Serbian Orthodox Church monuments over to the Kosovo police.

The decision, however, does not apply to the Patriarchate of Pec and the monasteries of Visoki Decani and St. Archangels, which will remain under KFOR's protection. The Serbian Orthodox Church opposes the decision to place its religious monuments under Kosovo police protection.