Is the Dečani Monastery really endangered?

It was partly in response to the 2004 riots that the “Medieval Monuments in Kosovo” — which includes Dečani — were inscribed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger in 2006. The Medieval Monuments also include the Gračanica Monastery, Our Lady of Ljeviš Church in Prizren, and the Patriarchal Monastery of Peć. Our Lady of Ljeviš was seriously damaged in the 2004 unrest and has since been partially restored. The others escaped the riots without damage.A recent public statement from the Eparchy of Raška-Prizren about the Most Endangered list makes much of KFOR’s presence as well as the destruction of 1999 and 2004. They also cite attempted grenade attacks targeting the Dečani Monastery in 2000 — in the immediate aftermath of the war — and in 2007. Kosovo Police arrested the perpetrator of the 2007 attack and he was subsequently sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

While Çeku cites the suspension of the road development as a sign that the current system incorporates the concerns and needs of the monastery, it isn’t just the local firebrands Haradinaj and Ramosaj who have been pushing for a continuation of the project. The new government’s Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, Liburn Aliu, has also stated his desire to build the road in the monastery’s special Protected Zone.Çeku’s letter to Europa Nostra also stated that “The Republic of Kosovo is the highest instance of protection of cultural heritage assets in the country. We protect our heritage.” This is a rather different claim than the one Çeku made to Prishtina Insight in 2015, before he was a government minister, when he complained that there was widespread abuse and neglect of cultural sites in Kosovo, both Albanian and Serbian.