Kosovo police to guard Gazimestan
The NATO-led KFOR has started a handover procedure of the Gazimestan monument, near Pristina, to Kosovo police, KPS. Serbian Ministry for Kosovo has assessed as wrong the decision to withdraw KFOR units.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Slovak troops are currently in Gazimestan and they are determining factual condition of the monument and its surroundings with members of Kosovo police, reports said.
Official handover should be carried out in a few days and responsibility for the security of Gazimestan will lie with the police station in Pristina's neighborhood of Vranjevac.
Taking over the authority for security of Gazimestan monument will be the first case where KPS will assume responsibility for security of Serb cultural monuments in Kosovo.
The monument is dedicated to Serb soldiers who fell in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, when the medieval Serbian state clashed with invading Ottoman Turks.
Serbian Ministry for Kosovo has assessed as wrong the decision to withdraw KFOR units that have been securing the monument at Gazimestan, as well as that it causes doubt regarding the sincerity of the intention to preserve that monument.
Several vandalism incidents aimed at destruction and desecration of Serb sanctities since 1999 provide no guarantees that the KPS will protect and preserve them, communicated the Serbian Ministry, while asking KFOR to reconsider its decision on the withdrawal from Gazimestan.
