Most Serb cemeteries in Kosovo in poor shape
27. October 2011. | 12:19
Source: Tanjug
Serbian Orthodox cemeteries in Kosovo are in poor shape, the mission of the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) in Kosovo-Metohija stated, adding that a majority of municipal administrations pay no attention to maintenance and preservation of the graveyards.
Serbian Orthodox cemeteries in Kosovo are in poor shape, the mission of the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) in Kosovo-Metohija stated, adding that a majority of municipal administrations pay no attention to maintenance and preservation of the graveyards.
OSCE drew up an assessment of 392 Orthodox cemeteries in the entire territory of Kosovo, save for the northern part, and established that 229 of them are in a poor or very bad shape, while only 46 are in an exceptionally good shape.
Numerous cemeteries were devastated in 1999 and 2004 and the consequences of the damages inflicted in this period are still visible, because many tombstones were torn down or broken, the report states.
The cemeteries are overgrown with weed and even piled with garbage from time to time, OSCE stated in the report presented in the Media centre in Caglavica.
For most Kosovo municipalities, the obligation of cemetery maintenance is envisaged in the Statute but hardly any municipality sets aside permanent funds for the purpose.
OSCE established that only three municipalities in Kosovo allocated necessary funds for cemetery maintenance last year.
The Kosovska Mitrovica municipality set aside EUR 30.000, Vucitrn allocated EUR 6.000 and Obilic EUR 10.000 for the purposes of cleaning and maintenance of cemeteries.
Even in the municipalities which set aside certain budget for cemetery maintenance, many graveyards are in poor shape because the funds are used for a small number of local Orthodox cemeteries
.
The most important factor that contributes to the poor shape of Orthodox cemeteries is the absence of Serbs in the nearby villages.
Despite the municipalities' clear obligations as regards maintenance of both Orthodox and all other cemeteries as envisaged in relevant laws, only seven municipalities set aside funds for this purpose in the course of 2010.
Although the obligation of cemetery maintenance rests on the municipalities themselves, the Serb community and the Serbian Orthodox Church played the most important role in the maintenance, repairs and recovery of graveyards, the OSCE report points out.
Comments (1)
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28. October 2011. 08:44:56
| Paul
0
I love it how it is mentioned that the cemeteries are in bad shape instead of stating that they have been vandalised. Secondly it states that the condition of them is because there are no serbs there??? I wonder why there are no serbs there and i wonder who vandalised them. The Kosovo albanians are ethnicaly clensing the land of serbs, their churches their houses...and nothing is allowed to stay that might remind them of who lived there before. Even the dead are not allowed to rest in peace and are violated. So the grave yards are alowed to be vandalised but than it is the responcibility of the SERBS which have been chased away from their heritage to come back and fix them and maintain them. Also it does not mention that the three regions that have put aside funds are all serb regions...I have been to bosnia and seen muslim graveyeards protected by serb police and in perfect condition. The same should be done to serbian graves in albanian majority areas. Todays society is doing everything to protect the disgusting image of the Albanian nation and who they truly are...it is disgusting and so obvious.