French, German Embassies in Pristina Comment on Relocating Plaque Commemorating Serbian Soldiers at Pristina’s Cemetery

Pristina (Photo: YTPrintScreen)

The French Embassy in Pristina has relocated a stone plaque commemorating the Serbian soldiers killed in World War I and the Balkan Wars, at a cemetery in Pristina, after the plaque has caused controversies in the Kosovo media.

The commemorative plaque reading “Here rest the remains of the Serbian soldiers killed in the 1912-18 Wars” has been moved a few meters away from its original location within the Orthodox cemetery, while instead a new plaque has been placed, reading: “To the French soldiers killed in Kosovo.”

“Over the past few years, particularly in 2022, this joint French-German ceremony was in the shadow of controversies in certain media outlets in Kosovo regarding the presence of this stone plaque honoring the Serbian soldiers killed in between 1912 and 1918,” it is said in a joint statement of the French and German Embassies submitted to the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).

“Subsequently, we have moved the stone plaque commemorating the Serbian soldiers only a few meters away, while paying deepest respects and after we have informed the municipality. No remains of any soldier has been moved. This stone plaque remains fully visible at the same location,” the two Embassies said in the statement.

The Eparchy of Raska and Prizren of the Serbian Orthodox Church has expressed concern with the relocation of the commemorative plaque. In a statement, the Serbian Government’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija has described “the removal and relocation” of the commemorative plaque as “an anti-civilizational act,” adding it was an attempt to “eradicate all traces of Serb existence” and also “a brutal revision of history.”