No One Held Responsible for Massacre of Serbian Children in Kosovo
The younger brother of the slain 11-year-old Pantelija Dakic was carrying the cross to mark his brother’s grave at the funeral. August 13, 2003, Gorazdevac, Kosovo-Metohija, Serbia.
Four Years Later: Massacre of Serbian Children Unpunished
Monday August 13 marks the four year anniversary since the brutal massacre of two Serbian children and wounding of four more in the Bistrica River, in the village of Gorazdevac, close to Pec in Kosovo province.
The memorial service held each year for the slain boys was held today in the Church of the Most Holy Mother of God in Gorazdevac. Out of six Serbian boys who went to swim on a hot summer day in their village river, Pantelija Dakic and Ivan Jovovic were slain on the spot, sprayed with bullets from the automatic weapons, while four of their friends — Djordje Ugrenovic, Bogdan Bukumiric, Marko Bogicevic and Dragan Srbljak — were severely wounded. The perpetrators of the heinous crime remain unidentified and are still at large.
Then UNMIK police commissioner Stefan Feller said that he would turn every stone to track down the animals who have slain the children. However, not even the award of one million euros UNMIK had offered for the information about the murderers has helped find the perpetrators in four painful years.
Gorazdevac is the biggest Serb settlement in Metohija which, after the arrival of UNMIK and KFOR in the province, has dwindled to no more than 1,000 Serb inhabitants. They live in a virtual ghetto guarded by NATO troops, but even that wasn’t sufficient to prevent such bestial crime.
President Tadic: Great Shame for Both UNMIK and Kosovo Albanians
Serbian President Boris Tadic on Monday expressed concern and strongly condemned UNMIK and the temporary Kosovo institutions for the failure to shed any light, even after four years, on the attack on six Serbian boys.
“One cannot tolerate the fact that four years have passed and we still do not know the names of the murderers that opened fire at the boys who were swimming in the river. I call on the Albanian leaders in Kosovo-Metohija to make personal efforts in shedding light on this crime, but also in suppressing extremism among the ethnic Albanian population so that a stop could be put to the murders, threatening, the torching of houses and the property of Serbs and other non-Albanians in the province,” Tadic said, and the president’s Press Relations Office reported.
According to President Tadic, the fact that the perpetrators of the crime in Gorazdevac have still not been tracked down is yet another proof that the society in Kosovo-Metohija is not ready to become either democratic or multiethnic.
Tadic reminded UNMIK and the temporary institutions in Pristina that their obligation was to ensure personal safety and freedom of movement for all the inhabitants of Kosovo-Metohija, and concluded that there was no improvement regarding the position of Serbs in the province, eight years after the international community took the administration and security of the province over.