Sounds of prayer…

“We never stopped celebrating St. Petka in these 6 years of being displaced. We marked it each year in central Serbia, and now with God’s will, we are celebrating it here, in the village of Drsnik”

Drsnik was once a village with the biggest Serbian population in Klina municipality.

After the conflict ended in ’99, all 124 families had fled to Serbia.

The village was then burned to the ground.

But this year things have started to change. With the money allocated from the Kosovo Consolidated Budget, 40 houses have been reconstructed. Thirteen of the houses are already occupied.

Rados Davizljevic is one of those who already returned.

“There isn’t anything better then when a man come back home.. ..

I plan to reopen the shop I was running for three years prior to the war, if I can.”

Although for the last 6 years the villagers have lived far from Drsnik, on St. Petka Day, which is the village celebration, a large number of previous inhabitants gathered in Drsnik, showing their strong bonds with their place of origin, and a desire for their return.

Most of them live in the collective centers in central Serbia, where the conditions are far from ideal. Yet, for most of them, fear for security is still a major obstacle to return.

“I live in collective center in Pozega, with three children in one room.

The conditions are bad, but the most important is that children can normally go to school, they have security and we don’t have to worry how will they come back home, that is most important for us, now.”

Apart from security there are other problems that returnees from Drsnik need to face.

Lack of employment opportunities is a chronic problem in Kosovo, and if you have just returned to your property, it is not likely that you will immediately find a job of any kind.

Therefore, the vast majority of returnee population depends heavily on donations to fulfill their basic needs.

In Drsnik, the ICMC in its capacity is helping inhabitants to prepare for coming winter.

According to Miomir Ribac, the village representative, they will need even more aid to get through the winter.

“I don’t know how we will prepare for the winter. As for wood, they ( ICMC) had promise three meters (square meters) of wood for each house, but that is not enough. For food, we get some 10 euros weekly per person.”

Despite all the problems that the inhabitants of Drsnik still need to deal with, there is visible joy for they have returned to the only place these people think of as home.

In addition, Klina municipality has already been proved as a place where the return process has been conducted with relative success, and these new returnees can as well rely on experience and the support of Serbs from Vidanje, Grabac, and Klina town, where Kosovo Serbs have returned too in the two last years.

Sounds of prayer…

At the end of the celebration, traditionally, the host for next year ‘slava’ is chosen. Lets’ wish that they celebrate the next St Petka in even bigger numbers.

This was UNMIK on Air. Thank you for listening.