U.S. joins the Serbian Orthodox Church for cutting off works on Decan road Plav

During yesterday's day, the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo reacted to works being held on road construction from Decani to Plav in Montenegro.

They, along with the Serbian List and with the head of the office for Kosovo in Serbia's government, Marko Djuric, said legal violations are being made with it as it intervenes in the protected zone.

These statements were attributed to reactions from Decani's municipal bodies.

Initially, it was the mayor of Komuna, Bashkim Ramosaj, who said it is false to claim Serbs are working in a protected area because only some stones have been removed that have prevented the free flow of vehicles.

There was a similar reaction by Infrastructure Minister Pal Lekaj, who said the Decan border with Montenegro, which started a month ago, is under way without violating the protected area.

“Works are developing with a satisfactory intensity, 5km from the Decani Monastery from now on, as we have pledged from the beginning. As far as the company is working within the protected zone, it is a mountain road, and very often, like any other mountain route, there are erodings and landslides of soil and stones, and the company has had to intervene just as it is in a contract to make way for small vehicles, citizens who have their property where they hold their cattle and tourist activity”, Lekay reported.

But in the late hours of yesterday, O'S mission The SEU in Kosovo came out with a statement saying that works on this road were banned.

“E have followed with concern what appears to be illegal road construction, which is continuing since yesterday, within the Special Defence Zone (SPZ) of the Decani Monastery. We welcome today's afternoon decision to stop the work within the SPZ. O Monitoring Mission The SB has confirmed that street work has been banned and the heavy machinery has left SPZ”, O said SBE.

This organisation said that any work within the SPZ should be in accordance with the Council for Implementation and Monitoring (IMC) and urged all involved to find a mutually acceptable solution in accordance with Kosovo's law and international commitments.

The American ambassador to Kosovo, Greg Delaway, also came in favour of the decision to stop the work.

“The US fully agrees with the OSCE statement”, Delawi said in a Twitter post.

Even earlier this month, Ambassador Delaway had declared that road construction near the Decani Monastery is illegal under Kosovo laws.

“The street issue in Decan was closed in 2014, and was again confirmed two weeks ago. Kosovo law says road construction facing the Decani Monastery is illegal. Respect law”, Delawie tweeted on May 16 of this year.

Last night, the Decani Community officially reacted, which said that the “personel of the Serbian Orthodox Church is cheating”, and even these “malpractice” municipalities have called “into operation, malicious and anti-human”.

The 24 April “works on the Decan Bjelka of Beleg-The border in Montenegro have begun outside the special protected zone. In this case, the Decani municipality and the Ministry of Infrastructure are guarantors that this project will continue out of the protected zone until a decision is reached by KZM (The Council for Implementation and Monitoring), where representatives in this council for the absurdity of time are five institutions including the Decani Monastery and that the Decani Community is not one of the 1518x1>, said at the beginning of the Decani Commission's response.

The municipality, such as the Ministry of Infrastructure, said the engaged company has done only remove the stones from the road within the particular area as a result of the landslide, which has occurred as a result of the construction of hydropower plants in the particular area with the consent of the monastery, which under the Law is strictly forbidden activity.

Muds and stones have been removed in order to ensure that this road is a dead end and secure for the company and the many citizens who pass along this road. This human and necessary activity is emerging that the monastery staff has waited for a chance to make their next fraud. The building objectives of this road are: peaceful, in line with the purpose of the Law for the specific protected areas, in line with the visual and aesthetic framework of the area, in line with the preservation of cultural, archaeological, architectural heritage and in the function of preserving and promoting natural heritage. This development of the existing road renovation-alfortification is a favourable development for all communities”, the Decani municipality stressed in response to the media.

The municipality says that the citizens of Decani, even today and in earlier times, have cohabited with the mosaic of religious cultural heritage “which has not occurred in all historical periods from the monastery against the Albanian citizens of Decani”.

The only concept that leads the citizens of the Decani municipality is the developmental concept and the use of potential and resources, the easiest access to them to get a better standard for life and for our families. That is, and it will be our only goal without cheating others. In this case, the monastery personnel do well to be together with our concept and side with the malicious intentions of the 70 thousand citizens of the Decani municipality”, the municipality has further said.

“As regards property donated by the Serbian genocide state led by Slobodan Milosevic in 1994-1997 and given to the Constitutional Court decision of the Republic of Kosovo, we assess that Decani Monastery has had to seek this property exclusively from the citizens of the Decani municipality. For a certainty that the citizens of the Decani municipality have never been guided by the chauvinist ideas and promotion of wars, this is a testimony today to the entire”, the Decani Community's response concluded.