(Sputnik
Kilambi)
Milisav Dakic:
He was to me, he was my favorite son. I raised him to be tough, not because of
financial problems but because of his fragile health and later on he grew up to
be a really fine and good guy, he was an unbelievably nice child.
Life will never be the same again for 1, whose 11-year-old
son Pantellija succumbed to the bullets of a lone gunman one hot afternoon last
week on the banks of the Bistrica River.
A group of Serb children
beating the blistering Balkan summer by splashing around in a popular swimming
stretch of the river Bistrica near Gorazdevec, a Serb enclave near Peja – and
then suddenly, a burst of Kalashnikov fire and an idyllic afternoon had become
a nightmare – Pantellija and 20-year-old Ivan Jovovic lay dead, four other
children seriously wounded. Lidia
Isailovic, a local doctor recalls.
Ivan Jovovic:
People reacted immediately after the gun shooting. The whole of Gorazdevac
heard it, there were three machine-gun bursts there and those who were near
here started running to get to the river side it appears that one boy was shut
dead at the place most of them were treated here, we provided first aid, and
then they were transported from here.
And amidst the chaos and confusion, a feeling of
incomprehension – two of Ranko Zdravkovic’s children were part of the swimming
party that fateful afternoon.
Ranko Zdravkovic’s: When I saw the scene I
went mad. They were putting bodies in the car. I forgot everything, even my
kids. They are not wounded, thank God. They injured their legs, while they were
escaping through the maize field. But I’m still in shock. I took five
sedatives, but still I’m not normal after that scene. I couldn’t help. I didn’t
know whom to put first in the car. Blood was everywhere. My car is still
bloody.
Amidst the tears and
the rage, a number of questions: How could this have happened? Was it another
ethnically motivated murder designed to disrupt the returns process? Was it a
message to the new UN chief Harri Holkeri, whose first day in Kosovo coincided
with the Gorazdevec killing? Or was it a kind of response to the Serbian
government’s recent blueprint for the future declaring Kosovo to be part of
Serbia and Montenegro?
Whatever the reasons,
none of them is good enough to justify the killing of children. Derek Chappel
UNMIK police spokesman.
Derek Chappel: The person who did this
stepped far beyond the boundaries of any normal criminal act. Most murders have
a purpose, they are committed in the course of a robbery, or committed because
of an argument in a way there is a reason for most murders, this is random but
at the same time it is deliberate. Random in the sense that these kids were
killed simply because they were there, and were easy targets. Targeted and
deliberate in that the shooter deliberately killed children because he knew
there would be a shock value to this
The new UN chief was
also quick to react. A visibly upset Harry Holkeri pledged that everything
would be done to arrest the perpetrators of what he called a senseless crime.
Harry Holkeri:
As far as the perpetrators are concerned, in this event or the previous
ones, the investigations are going on and progress has been made. But we need
commitment, of all political leaders of Kosovo and elsewhere, and I appeal to
the ordinary people to stop this barbarism.
Kosovo’s politicians and press were unanimous in condemning
the shooting. But Kosovo Albanian politicians were conspicuous by their absence
both in Gorazdevec and at the subsequent funerals for the victims – an
unfortunate lapse to say the least – Human rights Ombudsman Marek Novitski.
Marek Novitski:
First, it is very important to be here, because in this type of situation
people need to see from political leaders from different sides that they really
understand and of course they expect condemnation of this kind of attacks. And
strong statements that serious steps will really be taken.
Yes they should have been there, admits Ali Lajci, mayor of
Peya, a town devastated during the Serbian repression four years ago and still
fragile in terms of inter-ethnic relations
Ali Lajci: It is a human reaction. But it
wasn’t possible to visit, because of the confusion over there. Because there
are groups and extremists there and there is no security.
Many Albanian residents in Peja seem to share Lajci’s view,
that Gorazdevec Serbs haven’t distanced themselves sufficiently from the former
status quo.
Vox Pop: There are still people who are angry-their
families were killed by the Serbs. The war wasn’t 30 years ago. There are still
missing people, and people know that they are buried somewhere in Serbia. And
they are walking around and swimming in the Bistrica.
The Dukadjini region has long been a criminal hotspot says
Abel Ferhat, UNMIK regional commander for Peja. 22 killings since the beginning
of the year, 6 this month alone.
Abel Ferhat: If Paris is famous for the Eiffel tower, I think
Dukadjini is famous for criminal activities. We cannot have an exact
explanation, but I think that corruption is more established in our region
because we are close to the border to Monte Negro and Albania.
Citizens tend to have little confidence in the police,
pointing to the number of cases that remain unsolved and are afraid to come
forward. But Peja major Ali Lajci insists the ultimate responsibility lies with
the internationals – UNMIK police and KFOR.
Ali Lajci: We openly said that this is a
tragic case with destabilizing potential. On an international level, this
creates a bad image not only for Peja but for Kosovo too. We can offer to
cooperate in order to reduce tensions between the communities, but the main
structures responsible are the police and law. They are in charge of security.
A facile response, one could argue, because the police and
KFOR were at the scene within minutes of the attack. Whoever did this did it
with the intent of intimidating the Serbian community and of frustrating the
reconciliation process going on, says UNMIK police spokesman Derek Chappel.
Derek Chappel: They are
obviously extremist, they’re probably acting within a very small group of
people, much like a terrorist cell operates nevertheless they managed to
disappear in the countryside within minutes of the murder and so far nobody has
indicated they saw him, there’s no description. That indicates there must be a
degree of local support and compliance. That might be through fear or through
support for what he did. Which is why it’s so important that the public
cooperate with us, we have to break through this wall of silence.
But condemnation and passing the
blame is not enough stresses senior church
leader Father Sava Janjic. Local authorities also need to share responsibility
for the security situation in Kosovo.
Father Sava Janjic: The perpetrators should
be found but just condemning can’t end this case. Political and moral
responsibility should exist. Some people have to resign. There is the local
Mayor. There are local councils, there is a chief of the police, and there is a
local KFOR commander who didn’t provide patrols. Some serious neglect
happened.
The Gorazdevec killings send shivers not just because of the
brutality of attacking children. It seems to mark a spiraling cycle of
ethnically motivated violence – another Serb, shot through the mouth while
fishing in a village in central Kosovo has died from his wounds. All this is
bad news for the fragile returns process. Ranko Zdravkovic is certainly
considering leaving Kosovo.
Ranko Zdravkovic: Everybody is talking about moving away. We are really under attack. Even without
this we are hurt. We have no water, no electricity, no phones, and no freedom
of movement. What are we looking for here? I had some hope, but after this
crime, to be honest I’m the first one who will leave.
But it’s not just the Serbs who are paying the price.
Revenge attacks against Albanians have been reported in Gracanica and
Mitrovica. The frightening thing is the silence from the people – take the
recent killings in Peja when 3 people, including 2 young girls were killed in a
drive-by shooting, just metres away from the police station. A silent vigil
called to protest the killings managed to gather only a handful of people,
mostly foreigners. Antonetta Krasniqi, an Albanian who took part in the
protest, says it is important to stand up and be counted.
Antonetta Krasniqi: It was very difficult for
me to accept that there weren’t more Albanians taking part. It was also
difficult because if there is a political protest or something to do with this
or that party everyone gets out. But when it is something – when Albanians do
bad things, everyone closes their eyes – they do not want to accept that it is
us who are doing evil things now.
UNMIK says it will leave no stone unturned in tracking down
the perpetrators of the Gorazdevec and other atrocities. A 50,000 Euro reward has been posted for
information leading to the resolution of this crime. Kosovo risks getting
sucked into a new spiral of ethnic violence if such killings are not stopped, warns
the Ombudsman Marek Novitski.
Marek Novitski:
We have too many undiscovered murders, we have too many undiscovered
attacks, which resulted with the death of people and this kind of story as we
have today. I do hope that this will be the chance that one day we’ll see
people who committed this, I stress it again, barbarian act, will be before the
court.
But time is running out and both Albanians and Serbs need to
forge a common stand against violence if they don’t want to forfeit the future.
That does it for this edition of UNMIK ON AIR. Thanks for
listening.