Need for reorganization of system of public services for protection and conservation of cultural heritage at Kosovo and Metohija

 

Goals:

• Forming a specific, efficient and elastic expert-technological framework of public service for long-term protection of all forms of cultural heritage of Serbian cultural identity at Kosovo and Metohija, able to adapt and remain adapting to possible changes in the political and management system.
• Solving the status and other problems of approximately a dozen relocated province and regional culture institutions (Annex 1), as their work has been not only physically obstructed but it also remained in management vacuum.
• Improvement and rationalization of expenses on work of scattered and partly relocated institutions and services, through technical unification, modernization of planning and management, modernization of equipment and personal strengthening.
• Revival of activities and networking of insufficiently utilized (for seven years already) expert and experience cadre resources.

Tasks:

1. To make a Decision on establishment of Regional Center for Culture (task carrier: Government of Republic of Serbia).
2. To prepare the elaborate on establishment of Regional Center for Culture, which would include setting a network for joining the existing services (Annex 2) and relocated province culture institutions (task carrier: Work team specified by Government of Republic of Serbia).
3. To name the Director and the Business Board of the Regional Center for Culture (task carrier: Government of Republic of Serbia).
4. To make official the general documents and start of activities of the Regional Center for Culture (task carrier: Director and Business Board).

Feasibility:

• The sensitivity of conditions that will be faced by the Regional Center during its activities may be amortized by the specific relationship with the Government of Republic of Serbia, which would provide the possibility of a certain specific form of independence in activities. This specific form would be defined by the Government and adapted with the changes in political condition.
• The legal framework for the Founder’s Decision is included in the Law on Public Services, Law on Cultural Assets and in the appropriate delegated legislation documents on authority at the territory of Province Kosovo and Metohija. The institutions that will be united by establishment of the Regional Center were explicitly determined as public institutions important for Republic of Serbia.
• The expenses for activities of the new Regional Center may be paid from the already existing budget positions of individual institutions mentioned in the previous paragraph, which are financed from the budget of Republic of Serbia, so it is not necessary to open new additions to the budget.
• There are ready able, trained and experienced cadre resources for specialized expert and leading functions. As these persons have spent all their lives at Kosovo and Metohija, there is also the necessary striving for renewal of activities in conservation of cultural heritage. The regional center is important both for retaining of these cadres and creating the new ones and for revitalization of Serbian people at Kosovo and Metohija. In order to initiate processes of reorganization and education of new cadre it is necessary to employ experts and institutions from Belgrade.
• According to the results of performed studies and consultations, it was determined that within the Province institutions that would be included in the Regional Center there is a high degree of agreement with the initiative for reorganization of system of public services for conservation of cultural heritage at Kosovo and Metohija.

Scheme of Center

Regional Center for Culture

Branko V. Jokić
Director of Museum in Priština

Keeping in mind the conditions in which the Serbian people thrives and survives at Kosovo and Metohija at present day, there is the inevitable question of survival of Serbian culture and cultural heritage. In order to preserve the main characteristics and functions of cultural assets, museum, archive, publishing and library work, stage-musical and other modern creative artwork, the establishment of the Regional Center for Culture would unite these functions within the political concept for decentralization and local management.

It is now possible to say with great certainty that within the region of Kosovo and Metohija there were at least two national cultures and two cultural identities for a longer period of time. The strivings of Albanian ethnic community to use the existing situation to forcefully create so-called “kosovar” cultural identity through the mono-ethnic institutions are causing the urgent need to offer a solution known and used by European practice. It primarily means that two or more cultural identities may coexist if there is political will of interested sides. In order to create the necessary ambient for such kind of coexistence in culture, it is necessary to define clear cultural politics of Serbian people at Kosovo and Metohija and clear cultural politics in Serbia. This would mitigate the confusion that is present in all domains of cultural creative work and particularly in approach to conservation of cultural heritage at Kosovo and Metohija. The present conditions are unbearable and threaten the Serbian people, if it manages to survive at Kosovo and Metohija, with loss of cultural identity in a short period of time. It is not even necessary to mention the further processes. They are well-known to anybody who is seriously active in strategic thinking about the national and state interest at Kosovo and Metohija.

It is our obligation to follow all events in the cultural politics, which are beside the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government at Kosovo (PISG) guided (and essentially created) by international and regional organizations, UNESCO and European Council (EC) in cooperation with Administration UNMIK, and actively participate by creating concrete and constructive proposals. That creates suitable climate for affirmation of our legitimate proposals, with the main goal of enabling respect among all sides and cooperation of interested parties on equal level. It assumes existence of REGIONAL cultural development that may be used as a good example in building different relationships among the ethnic groups at Kosovo and Metohija.

In order to overcome the very difficult and unpredictable present situation at Kosovo and Metohija, it is necessary to:

1. define a long-term strategy of conservation of cultural heritage at Kosovo and Metohija within the initiative of Government of Republic of Serbia for decentralization, with a critical assessment of previous results in the domain of heritage conservation,
2. improve, by inclusion in the conservation system, not only the immobile cultural assets, but all movable cultural and natural assets as well,
3. start the essential reforms of system of conservation of cultural and natural assets in Serbia, matched with the international system of conservation of cultural and natural assets, which will contribute greatly to better conservation of cultural heritage at Kosovo and Metohija.

Following proposals were made to Ministry of Culture of Republic of Serbia:

1. Making a decision on establishment of Regional Center for Culture at Kosovo and Metohija,
2. The authority institution of Republic of Serbia should reach an agreement with UNMIK administration in order to establish the Regional Center and therefore provide an equal institutional partner for international organization and PISG at Kosovo and Metohija, in line with the decentralization process supported by the Government of Republic of Serbia;
3. After reaching the decision on establishment of Regional Center it is necessary to make an accurate assessment of necessary cadre and offer an adequate social program for surplus employees (presently mostly associates not involved in work activities);
4. An advising session should be organized In cooperation with Coordination Center, including all the relevant representatives of Serbian people from Kosovo and Metohija, as well as the experts in field of culture; this advising session would also present and adopt the strategy and cultural politics that would be compulsory for all participants in the political and cultural scene; it would be advisable to present the assessment of involvement of Serbian representatives in the previous period, both in PISG and at the local level in municipalities with Albanian government.

Forming the REGIONAL CENTER FOR CULTURE would create the main conditions suitable for continuation of work by Serbian experts, including:

1. End of passive relationship toward the initiatives started at the relevant international level and by the interested national institutions and experts;
2. conservation of expert potential, creation of new cadre and improvement of professional work in all cultural domains;
3. significant contribution to survival of Serbian people at Kosovo and Metohija through work on conservation of cultural heritage, creating the suitable conditions for sustainable economic growth;
4. Reorganization of culture institutions will provide rational utilization of cadre potential and financial means.

Proposal for reorganization/revitalization of culture institutions

at Kosovo and Metohija and continuation of work by Serbian experts

Belgrade, September /December 2005.

Annexes to the document - Tables

Main table: List of organizations/units by districts

Table 1: Organizations according to type, ownership of space and equipment, and employees

Table 2: Organizations according to type, number of employees, ownership of space, and type of financing

Tables 3, 4, 5 and 6: List of institutions displaced from the permanent head offices (culture institutions with “displaced head offices”)

• Table 3: Organizations displaced from their head offices according to present work engagement of workers, listed by the district of former-permanent head offices
• Table 4: Workers from the displaced organizations according to education level and work experience, listed by the district of former-permanent head offices
• Table 5: Employees of displaced organizations according to education level and passed expert exam
• Table 6: Employees of displaced organizations according to education level and work experience