Dacic: Serbia to apply for UNESCO Executive Board membership

PARIS - Serbian FM Ivica Dacic announced on Thursday Serbia would apply for membership in the UNESCO Executive Board.

Addressing the 42nd session of the UNESCO General Conference in Paris, Dacic noted that he expected other UNESCO member states to support the application and added that Serbia would live up to the trust.

Speaking about the global situation, Dacic noted that, amid growing turmoil, mutual understanding and readiness for compromise were increasingly gaining significance.

He said Serbian cultural heritage in Kosovo-Metohija - which is under UNESCO protection - was in jeopardy and that physical desecration of Serbian holy sites continued, and noted that the international civilian and military missions in the province were guarding just a few monasteries and churches.

"The 1,300 holy sites in the province are a testimony to the immeasurable significance (of the heritage) not only for Serbia but the world as well," Dacic said.

He noted that four Serbian monasteries and churches in Kosovo-Metohija that were inscribed in the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage - Visoki Decani, the Patriarchate of Pec, the Church of Our Lady of Ljevis and Gracanica - represented the peak of medieval art.

"We will continue our advocacy against politicisation of cultural heritage," Dacic concluded.