US Kosovo Policy

Kosovo Donors Conference Remarks (May 13, 2005)

Ambassador Louise V. Oliver, Permanent US Representative to UNESCO

Thank you Mr. Director-General: Ministers; Excellencies; Distinguished Delegates; Colleagues.

On behalf of the United States, I would like to add my thanks to the organizers of this timely and important donors conference: UNESCO, the UN Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo, the Council of Europe, and the European Commission.

Nothing is more fundamental to the work of UNESCO than the protection and preservation of cultural heritage. That is why it is so appropriate for UNESCO to play a central role in soliciting pledges of support that will help restore and rebuild the cultural heritage of a land wracked by conflict. My government fully shares the aims of this conference.

The preservation of cultural heritage is something all our countries and organizations can and should support. This goal has a special poignancy in Kosovo and throughout the Balkans.

Many of the monuments and sites for which support is being solicited today require restoration to repair the decay that has occurred over many centuries.

Unfortunately, many other monuments and sites need restoration because they were damaged or destroyed willfully by those seeking to deny the legitimacy or indeed the very existence of a cultural heritage created by a community other than their own, but sharing the same territory.

Whatever their origin and motivation, attacks on architectural monuments are a threat to peace and to the future we all want to secure.

It is fitting that the monuments and sites identified for potential donors by surveys carried out by UNESCO and the Council of Europe span the divide of religion and ethnicity in Kosovo. As has already been mentioned this morning, these include historical sites of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Islamic structures from the Ottoman period, and a variety of secular monuments.

All of us accept that rebuilding the Balkans and integrating the Balkans into the Euro-Atlantic community requires building solid political institutions based on shared values. By attending today’s conference, we also reaffirm the important role that cultural heritage can play in that process.

Preserving, restoring, and rebuilding sites and monuments that suffered damage in the recent conflict will help Kosovo become a part of the community of nations once again, not only because it reinforces a respect for the past, but also because it enables the people of today’s Kosovo to recognize themselves as inheritors and owners of a shared cultural heritage.

Therefore, my government is pleased to pledge the sum of one million dollars to assist in the reconstruction and preservation of some of the projects listed for today’s conference.

This pledge represents a large increase in U.S. assistance and reflects our continued commitment to cultural preservation in Kosovo. Since 2000, the U.S. Mission in Pristina has contributed nearly $100,000 to various cultural projects, including monument preservation, restoration of historic manuscripts, and a joint project with Kosovo’s Ministry of Culture to develop an inventory system for the management of cultural heritage sites.

I hope that this contribution from my government, along with contributions from many other donors, will help build a new Kosovo where all can live, work, and travel free of fear, hostility, or danger, and where the people of Kosovo can look upon all the sites and monuments of this territory that has suffered so much through the centuries as their shared patrimony.

Thank you.