Kosovo Partisans Set to Lose Their Memorial

A monument in Pristina to Partisans who fought in World War Two faces demolition as a new memorial complex arises to Kosovo’s first president, Ibrahim Rugova.

The monument, a platform supporting a metal globe surrounded by several concrete shells, situated in the Velania neighbourhood, dates back to 1960. Rugova, who died in 2006, is buried some 50 metres away.

Work on the long-planned complex dedicated to Rugova is slated to begin this year. When complete, the 3.5-million-euro complex will include an amphitheatre, a cemetery for Kosovo Liberation Army fighters and a small lake.

According to documents from the Ministry of Environment, which is leading the project, the war monument will be torn down and a circle of granite stones will replace it. While it will form part of the Rugova complex, this portion will still be dedicated to Partisan fighters.

A joint memorial would be ironic as the Partisans executed Rugova’s father and grandfather.

The Ministry of the Environment initially denied that the Partisan monument was slated for destruction. Its officials have since declined to answer Pristina Insight’s questions, after the newspaper viewed the ministry’s official plans for the complex, which foresee the destruction of the Partisan monument.  

Muharrem Elshani, owner of the construction company UNICOM, one of two firms contracted to begin the first phase of the project, confirmed to Pristina Insight that the monument would be destroyed.

Vehap Shita, vice-president of the Association of Veterans of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, which represents Partisan veterans, is troubled by the plans.

“The destruction of the monument would be to the detriment of Kosovo, not just to the detriment of the fighters,” Shita said. “I don’t believe the ministry has the right to topple the monument,” he added.

Agim Gerguri, director of the institute for protection of Kosovo’s monuments, who was part of the government committee that approved the initial design of the Rugova memorial, said he wasn’t aware that the new complex would usurp the old monument.

“There was no mention at all about destroying it,” Gerguri told Pristina Insight.

However, he noted that no World War Two monuments are on the state’s protection list.
Gerguri said that as long as the Rugova complex contained a portion dedicated to Partisan fighters, the destruction of the original monument would not be a serious problem. “The important thing is that it should not vanish,” he said.

Officials in the dark

The Institute for Monuments and Regional Museum of Pristina said it was also left in the dark about the monument’s fate. “We are not aware of this project. Nobody has sought an opinion from us,” Haxhi Mehmetaj, the director, said.

According to Kosovo’s 2006 Law on Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Culture, whose authority covers architectural heritage issues, has to approve the destruction of old memorials.

“Any works of alteration to, or demolition of, an architectural monument, or any conservation or restoration activities that may affect the values attributed to the monument, will require written consent from the competent institution,” the law states.

Vjollca Aliu, director of the ministry’s cultural heritage department, said she wasn’t informed about the memorial’s impending destruction.

Last week she told Pristina Insight that she would look into the matter. But she did not respond to the newspaper’s subsequent telephone calls and emails.

Kosovo’s Yugoslav-era monuments have largely been forgotten in independent Kosovo, often torn down with little notice. Many in the Albanian community associate them with years of repressive Serbian rule.

Another Yugoslav monument, the Brotherhood and Unity Square in Pristina, is due to be replaced by a monument dedicated to Kosovo Liberation Army war hero Adem Jashari.
While few Kosovo Albanians feel much interest in preserving the Yugoslav era’s architectural legacy, some suggest they have value.

In 2012, the Pristina artist Albert Heta embarked on a project to fix the lighting in the Brotherhood and Unity monument. Heta told Deutsche Welle radio that he hoped to provoke a discussion about fast-disappearing markers of Kosovo’s history.   

“Nowadays, we are erasing [memories of] when we were part of Yugoslavia – but erasing us being part of Yugoslavia also erases what Kosovo was,” Heta said.

Rugova row in Tirana

In the Albanian capital, Tirana, World War II veterans are fighting the decision to rename a street after the late Kosovo president.

The street’s former name, Martyrs of February 4, commemorated 84 people killed during World War Two.

Rugova, seen as the father of the nation by many Kosovo Albanians, died in 2006 after leading a non-violent struggle against Slobodan Milosevic’s regime.

He became Kosovo’s first president, but his power was eventually eclipsed by leaders of the KLA, including Kosovo’s current Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci.