Work Near Deçani Monastery Prompts Church Reaction, Municipality Calls It Road Maintenance

The Raška and Prizren Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo has announced that work has resumed on the Deçan-Plav international transit road within the Special Protective Zone of Deçani Monastery. The Municipality of Deçan, meanwhile, said the activities involved only road maintenance.

According to the Diocese, neither it nor Deçani Monastery had received prior notice that the work would be carried out. They had also not been provided with project documentation or given any explanation regarding the purpose, scope or legal basis of the work.

Deçan Mayor Bashkim Ramosaj explained that maintenance had been carried out on the section in question over two days. According to him, the work included filling potholes, clearing grass and shrubs, and removing dust that had accumulated along the road.

Ramosaj said the activity had now been completed. He also said the municipality had undertaken similar work before, based on an agreement with the abbot of Deçani Monastery, Sava Janjiq.

“I ask everyone for understanding and for the need to maintain this section of the road to be viewed appropriately, while refraining from assessments and characterizations that do not reflect the actual situation,” Ramosaj said.

On July 29, the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo announced that the Implementation and Monitoring Council had not received information about the resumption of work near Deçani Monastery. The council includes two ministers from the Kosovo government and the Serbian Metropolitan Teodosije, while the heads of the European Union and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) missions in Kosovo also participate in its work.

The Raška and Prizren Diocese expressed hope that the Kosovo Police and other responsible institutions would immediately clarify “who ordered and approved the work, verify its legal basis and take all measures within their authority to ensure compliance with the law, the legal order and the Special Protective Zone regime, as well as to halt the work that has begun.”

The Law on Special Protective Zones was adopted in Kosovo in 2008, based on the Ahtisaari Plan. Its aim is to protect the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and its property.

The law ensures the protection of monasteries, churches and other religious sites belonging to the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo. It also covers other sites of cultural and historical value that are of special importance to the Serbian community.

Because it passes through the Protective Zone, construction of the Deçan-Plav highway has been suspended several times to date. However, through the Implementation and Monitoring Council, an agreement was reached in 2020 to build a bypass route around Deçani Monastery. This mechanism consists of representatives of the Kosovo government, the Serbian Orthodox Church and the international community.

Avdullah Hoti, who was Kosovo’s prime minister at the time, said the agreement followed constructive discussions that had lasted several months.

The Serbian List, the main political force representing Serbs in Kosovo and backed by Belgrade, also reacted to the case. According to the party, any action carried out outside the law and the procedures established to preserve spiritual and cultural heritage constitutes “a direct violation of the legal order and further endangers the security and survival of the heritage of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo.”

“We call on all competent institutions, as well as international representatives who guarantee the implementation of existing legal mechanisms, to react urgently, halt all activities that are not in accordance with the Special Protective Zone regime and ensure the full implementation of the law,” the Serbian List said in its response.

Serbia’s Government Office for Kosovo also called on international representatives in Kosovo to ensure the immediate suspension of the work.

The office described the activities as a visible part of “a broader policy of systematic pressure on the Serbian Orthodox Church and its faithful.” It claimed that this was precisely why the work was being carried out without the knowledge or approval of the Raška-Prizren Diocese and Deçani Monastery.

Its statement also said that even regulations adopted in Pristina were not being implemented when it came to the property and guaranteed rights of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo.

The medieval Deçani Monastery in Kosovo was recently visited by Pastor Mark Burns, an informal adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump on spiritual matters. In a statement to Radio Free Europe, he said he would convey his observations about the situation of the Serbian Orthodox Church and religious freedoms to the U.S. State Department.

Burns later wrote on the social media platform X that the U.S. State Department had begun diplomatic talks with Serbia “to hold Kosovo accountable for the mistreatment of Christians, including Serbian Orthodox Church believers.”

The issue of religious freedoms was also included in the Economic Normalization Agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, known as the Washington Agreement. The document was signed at the White House in September 2020, during Trump’s first presidential term.

Among other things, the document sets out both parties’ commitment to respecting religious freedoms. This includes resuming interfaith dialogue, preserving religious sites and implementing court decisions that provide protection to the Serbian Orthodox Church.

In 2023, Kosovo and Serbia also agreed on the Implementation Annex to the Agreement on the Path to Normalization of Relations. The annex mentions formalizing the status of the Serbian Orthodox Church and states that “Kosovo must ensure an additional level of protection for the sites and heritage of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo.”

Although the Agreement on the Path to Normalization of Relations has not been signed, the European Union, which mediates the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, has said the document is legally binding on both parties.