Serbian Orthodox Church - News 31.3.2004.

NEWS

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
March 31, 2004

TRAGIC BALANCE OF POGROM, MARCH 17-19 2004

According to information received so far by the Diocese of Raska and Prizren, 12 persons of Serb nationality have been killed or are listed as missing. These numbers are not final.

Dozens of Serbs have been wounded or beaten up. Over 4,000 Serbs (according to UNMIK data, the exact number is 4,012) have been expelled from their homes and are presently either internally displaced in Kosovo and Metohija or have crossed the administrative line into central Serbia. Of that number, 334 people are still temporarily lodged in KFOR military facilities.

According to UNMIK data, 561 Serb houses have been burned down and 218 more Serb houses have been seriously damaged. Since the entire Serb quarter of Potkaljaja in Prizren has been torched, the number of destroyed or seriously damaged houses (including those that were empty due to the fact that their Serb owners were expelled in 1999), according to assessments of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren the number exceeds 1,000. The Serb returnee village most damaged is Belo Polje near Pec where some 20 just restored homes and the parish hall were burned down. The inside of the church was also burned again.

A total of 35 Orthodox churches and monasteries were destroyed or seriously damaged, as well as dozens of cemeteries from which the deceased were unburied and their bones scattered. The tombs of St. Ionnachius of Devic, the Serbian Emperor Dusan and old tombs in the villages of St. George in Prizren and St. Nicholas in Pristina were opened and desecrated. In the churches, hundreds of valuable icons, chalices, vestments and other church valuables were destroyed, as well as medieval frescoes and many church documents (books of baptisms, marriages, deaths).

List of Serbs killed in Kosovo and Metohija, March 17-19, 2004

1. TRAJKOVIC, ZLATIBOR (born 1951) from Kosovo Polje, burned to death in front of the Russian hospital in Kosovo Polje when the Albanians, in a general pogrom against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija attacked Kosovo Polje on March 17-18 and set fire to both Orthodox churches, the school, the hospital and dozens of Serb houses.
2. VESIC, NENAD (born 1950) from Lipljan during the general pogrom against Serbs throughout Kosovo and Metohija on March 17-18, 2004 when the Albanians threw a hand grenade at him in Lipljan. Wounded by the grenade, he was further abused by Albanian members of the Kosovo Police Service and subsequently died of his wounds while suffering. A hand grenade was also thrown at Father Randjel Denic near the church in Lipljan and he was wounded by shrapnel. Albanian extremists set fire to 28 Serb homes and accompanying utility buildings; about 150 Serbs fled to the north part of Lipljan and neighboring Serb villages.
3. PERIC, BOBAN from Gnjilane was killed by Albanians during the general pogrom against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija during March 17-18, 2004. At that time all remaining Serbs from Gnjilane (approx. 200) were forced from their homes and expelled, while some of them fled by themselves from the Albanian violence to the Serb village of Silovo and others near Gnjilane.
4. SPASOJEVIC, BORIVOJE (born 1941) from Kosovska Mitrovica was killed during the general pogrom by the Albanians against the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija on March 17, 2004 in the afternoon when he was shot down by a burst of automatic gunfire near the bridge over the Ibar River in Kosovska Mitrovica coming from the direction of the Three High-rises in northern Mitrovica which is inhabited by Albanians, from where Albanians fired weapons and threw hand grenades, resulting in injury to dozens of Serbs. Subsequently French KFOR broke into the buildings and expelled all the Albanians from it after finding weapons and ammunition.
5. TACEV, JANA (born 1968) born in Macedonia and married to a Serb in Kosovska Mitrovica, Roman Catholic by faith, was killed on March 17, 2004 by an Albanian sniper from the balcony of a multi-story building in northern Mitrovica near the bridge on the Ibar. She was buried by the French military chaplain.
6. NEDELJKOVIC, DRAGAN (age 55) from Prizren burned to death in the building of the Seminary in Prizren when Albanians began, on March 17, 2004, their general pogrom against remaining Serbs throughout Kosovo and Metohija, especially in Prizren, and when the Seminary, the Orthodox Cathedral, the Bishop's residence, the church of the Mother of God of Ljevis, the Church of Christ the Savior and all other smaller Orthodox churches were torched, as well as the entire Serb quarter of Potkaljaja and Holy Archangels Monastery on the Bistrica River near Prizren.
7. Unidentified Serb woman /?/ whose body was found burned in the basement of the Seminary in Prizren burned on March 17, 2004 during the general Albanian pogrom against the Serbs of Kosovo and Metohija. /Serbs say there was a mentally disabled woman in the Seminary./ Her name and family name is not known at this time.
8. STOLIC, DOBRI (born 1954) and his son Borko from the village of Drajkovce near Strpce were killed during the general pogrom against the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija by Albanian extremists in front of their home on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 in the evening at approx. 18,00 hours when Dobri was called out of the house by someone and then rifled with bullets. His son, Borko, died shortly afterwards in the same fashion when he stepped out of the house upon hearing gunshots. In 1999 they had fled from Urosevac and were living in Drajkovce in a Serb house.
9. STOLIC, BORKO (born 1982), the son of Dobri Stolic, was killed by Albanians together with his father on March 17, 2004 in the village of Drajkovce near Strpce.
10. PETKOVIC DUSANKA (age 71) was evacuated on March 17-18 from her home in Urosevac by Greek KFOR during the general pogrom by the Albanians against the Serbs throughout Kosovo and Metohija. The Albanians immediately torched her house. Upon hearing this news on March 19 in the Greek military base in Urosevac, she died of inflicted suffering and the trauma she had lived through that day.
11. TANJIC, SLOBODAN (age 45) from the village of Svinjare near Kosovska Mitrovica disappeared during the forced evacuation of Serbs by KFOR when the Albanians began the attack on the village of Svinjare, March 17-18, 2004. His body has not been found. Albanians burned the Serb village of Svinjare to the ground.
12. Unidentified Serb man from Kosovo Polje disappeared in the general pogrom against the Serbs on March 17-18, 2004. There are rumors that he was killed but he has not been found either alive or dead.

This list is most probably not final and will be added to and modified on the basis of new information and confirmations by international representatives.