Office for Kosovo urges better protection for Visoki Decani

BELGRADE - The Serbian government's Office for Kosovo-Metohija has condemned strongly the threats against the monastery of Visoki Decani and urged Kfor to boost military protection of the monastery and identify and bring to justice as soon as possible the unknown perpetrator who has threatened to raze it.

The Office urged the international community to take the threats very seriously and take all necessary measures to protect the monastery, adding that threats occur on a daily basis.

The Visoki Decani monastery has been targeted by grenade attacks four times, and the fraternity of the monastery has received threats on several occasions, the Office said in a statement late Saturday.

Graffiti with the acronym "UCK", a reference to the "Kosovo Liberation Army," a former ethnic Albanian paramilitary formation, were found on the monastery gate on Friday.

Archimandrite Sava Janjic, the abbot of Visoki Decani, told Tanjug Saturday that an unidentified man has threatened to destroy the medieval Serbian monastery.

The monastery was built by Serbian King Stefan Uros III Decanski and his son, Emperor Stefan Uros IV Dusan. The monastery was completed in 1335, and its frescoes were finished around 1350.

UNESCO put the monastery on its World Heritage List in 2004, citing its frescoes as "one of the most valued examples of the so-called Palaeologan renaissance in Byzantine painting" and "a valuable record of the life in the 14th century."

In 2006, it was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger due to the potential for attacks by ethnic Albanians.