NATO commander visits Decani, last monastery KFOR guards

Admiral George M. Wikoff, commander of Allied Joint Force Command Naples (JFC Naples), toured the Visoki Decani monastery on Tuesday. He was received by KFOR commander Major General Ozkan Ulutas and by the monastery’s abbot, Archimandrite Sava Janjic.

After walking through the church, the abbot briefed the admiral on the conditions the Serbian Orthodox Church operates under in Kosovo, on the security of the monastery itself and of the other Serbian religious sites. The monastery issued a statement on what was discussed.

“The abbot briefed the admiral on the situation in which the Serbian Orthodox Church lives in Kosovo and Metohija and stressed the importance of security for the Visoki Decani monastery and other Serbian Orthodox sites in Kosovo and Metohija,” the monastery said.

The statement does not say what Wikoff replied, or whether the size of the force guarding the monastery came up at all.

The one address the military still holds

Visoki Decani has been guarded by KFOR troops since the end of the conflict in 1999. That is 27 years, and it remains the only case of its kind: no other Serbian Orthodox Church property in Kosovo has continuous international military protection.

The status is not a formality. It is why any announced change in KFOR’s composition carries a different weight at Decani than anywhere else in Kosovo.

Why does the visit come now?

A little over a month before Wikoff arrived, NATO announced it would gradually optimize, meaning reduce, the number of KFOR troops in Kosovo over the coming year. The alliance said at the time that no security vacuum would follow and that every change would depend on the assessment of conditions on the ground.

The Naples command sits above the mission in Kosovo, so decisions on deployment and troop numbers are taken at that level. A visit by the officer at the top of that chain to the one monastery with a permanent guard is therefore not a protocol item.

Novo Selo and a flight along the boundary line

Before reaching the monastery, Wikoff spent part of his time at Camp Novo Selo. Ulutas walked him through the current security picture and the contingent’s daily work there, and the admiral also met peacekeeping troops.

The field programme covered:

• a briefing on KFOR’s security assessment and operations at Camp Novo Selo
• a meeting with soldiers serving in the peacekeeping mission
• a helicopter reconnaissance flight along the Administrative Boundary Line, with a rundown of force posture and patrol patterns in that belt

In its statement, KFOR repeated that the mission carries out a mandate based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 of 1999, impartially and at all times, and that it works closely with the Kosovo Police and the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX).

Pristina came first

Before the monastery, the admiral held separate meetings in Pristina with acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti and acting President Albulena Haxhiu. According to statements from the Kosovo institutions, the talks covered the security situation in Kosovo and the region, cooperation with KFOR and NATO, and continued coordination on security.

Ulutas attended the meeting with Kurti. Haxhiu said afterwards that NATO membership remains a strategic goal for Pristina.

In Decani itself, Wikoff also met municipality president Bashkim Ramosaj, with Alliance for the Future of Kosovo leader Ramush Haradinaj present. One day thus produced both a round of meetings with the local Albanian authorities and a walk through the Serbian monastery those authorities surround.

What is known, and what is not

As of publication, Allied Joint Force Command Naples had issued no statement on the visit, no agenda and no conclusions from the meetings. KFOR and the monastery each spoke about their own part of the programme.

The figure still to come is the size of the contingent after the announced optimization, and whether anything changes at the gate in Decani. Until then, the one measurable fact is that the senior NATO officer responsible for this part of Europe spent the same day with Kurti and in the courtyard of the Decani church.