Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
November 29, 2002

Novi Pazar, November 28, 2002

In the last couple of days the Monastery of Sopocani was several times shot at, and several Serbs have been beaten in Novi Pazar this week without any reason. The nature of these attacks is clear since they were accompanied with verbal insulting involving national characteristics. The incidents happened in the period November 25-28, 2002. It is expected that the authorised state organs should undertake legal steps against the criminals.

The Committee for the Protection of the Human Rights from Novi Pazar noted the following cases:

• November 27, 2002 at 14:30 - a group of unknown people fired several gun shots at the Sopocani Monastery, from the very place from which - about a month ago - 70 shots were fired at the Monastery; the investigation was carried out by the investigative judge and the persecutor from Novi Pazar, and by the authorised organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; eight cartridges were found at the place of inspection.
• November 28, 2002 - shots were heard several times in the immediate vicinity of the Sopocani Monastery.
• November 25, 2002, Monday, at 13:05 - Licina Enad from Novi Pazar beat Desimir Milosavljevic, teacher of the primary school "Vuk Karadzic", on the market and fled after inflicting injuries.
• November 27, 2002, Wednesday - when getting into the bus certain person with surname Vrsanin kicked in the face the boy Bojan Letic born in 1985 and inflicted serious injuries on him. The boy is in the hospital.
• November 28, 2002 - Zumberovic Alija, father of a pupil, beat Slavko Markovic, the professor of the Serbian language, in the high school in Novi Pazar. The incident took place in front of the professor's office, before the eyes of the other pupils.