European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have withdrawn their support for a project in Kosovo with historical links to the Nazi era.
Their contributions to renovation work on a historic building in the Kosovar town of Mitrovica have been stopped, the organizations said in a joint statement.The house, a unique example of European modernism dating back to the 1930s, was set to be turned into a cultural and community centre.The project was controversial because a former owner of the house, the late politician Xhafer Deva, made a name for himself as a collaborator with German occupiers in the Balkans during World War II.Deva was also a founder of the SS division Skanderbeg, which recruited Albanians.“UNDP and the European Union express our strong regret for any unintentional offence caused when announcing the initiating of works while omitting the historical background of Xhafer Deva,” the statement reads.Kosovo’s Culture Minister Hajrulla Ceku did not share the EU and UN’s concerns about the Deva house.“We do not indulge in historical revisionism and do not rehabilitate historical figures,” he announced in Pristina.He said the criticism could be traced back to “unnecessary noise” out of neighbouring Serbia, which did not recognize the state of Kosovo.
NAN