Angels of Gorazdevac

The killer came to the well where children were bathing, where they were roasting corn, where a hundred of them were playing and enjoying life, in the ghetto, surrounded by wire and military vehicles. They suffered only because they were Serbs and Christians.

You haven't looked at the sun for twenty years, son! Are your wounds lighter, Ivan? - says Senka Jovovic at the grave of her son. Everything froze on her - the pain, the son's youth, the dignity of the family, the experience of the suffering of women from Metohija, the beauty of the mother who will not change and says that the accident crushed her family. She knows how Ivan's face looked and how he promised her not to go swimming in Bistrica, and then she heard the shots: her mother's heart knew! She took off towards the river and it was too late. Ivan and Panta Dakic were fatally shot. The killer came to a well where children were bathing, where they were roasting corn, where a hundred of them were playing and enjoying life in a ghetto surrounded by wire and military vehicles. The volley still resonates in her heart with the same strength and volume, and the bell that announces the beginning of the memorial service rings for every innocent victim in the tame plain suffocated with bloody conflicts and personal misfortunes.

In the church, at the memorial service, there are two candles in front of the icons of two little-known saints of this region - Vasilije and Grigorije of Pec. In front of them is the Jovovic family on one side, and the Dakis family on the other. Their children suffered, as did these two saints from Turkish slavery, just because they were Serbs and Christians. The people of Pec preserved the memory of two holy innocent victims, and the Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary in Gorazdevac twenty years ago rests on the innocent sacrifice of two injured children. Today, a mother Gordana Dakic sees her thirteen-year-old Panta as an angel. The boy was helping his father Milisav with collecting beans, so he went to the river to cool off.

The light from the dome falls on the middle of the temple, and the Hierodeacon Vlasije from Decani reads the Gospel: "If you are not like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven." In the world of Gorazdevac, mentality, habits, and sense of freedom have fundamentally changed. Insecurity fueled for decades has reached its ultimate limits in the words of the international community and KFOR that "they will leave no stone unturned and find the killers". No one was found, no one was punished, and nothing happened - only the parents in the returnee communities in Metohija decided that their children would not go to school here.

"We gathered in memory of Ivan and Panta, the children of this place, the children of this land, the children of this river that runs through Gorazdevac, the children of Metohija, and the children of all of us. They remained known and recognized throughout our family and in a way they are our hope, they went with that youthful joy into the hands of their Creator to rejoice there in eternal glory," Bishop Ilarion of Novo Brdo said, Vicar of Serbian Patriarch Porfirije.

The images of bloody white coats, panicked screams, as well as the inhuman acceptance of the wounded children Dragana Srbljak, Djordje Ugrenovic, Bogdan Bukumiric, and Marko Bogicevic in the hospital in Pec were embedded in the new life of Gorazdevac and everything that happens here.

"The picture is the same in our mind. That was a big blow to us in Gorazdevac. Everything is in us and always will be, I feel the same as that day, an indelible mark has remained. We didn't go to the sea, on vacations, it was very hot, and the river was the only place to play and go out. I started a family here, and I plan to stay here, I have four children, and I will try not to forget Ivan and Panta," Djordje Ugrenovic says, a seriously wounded boy from Bistrica whose gunshot wounds were plastered by Albanian doctors in Pec. From there, thanks to the United Nations official from Sarajevo, Darija Safranic, the media, and the public, the children were urgently evacuated.

"Don't lie to the professor - tell me if Bogdan is not alive", repeated Professor Mileta Bukumiric to the author of this text while it was not yet known who would survive and how the day would end. While the Ombudsman Marek Antoni Nowicki arrived in Gorazdevac with his assistant Ljubinka Todorovic, the surrounding Albanian villages played Zurna and Davul.

"We pray to God that the one who committed that evil is found whose hand did not tremble when he was supposed to kill children. Please understand me, not so much for the sake of us who are gathered here, but for their sake - it's a malady when you hide a murderer in your family. It poisons society, it poisons our relationships, and God forbid that. No retribution is required, no punishment, we Christians expects judgment from the Lord," Bishop Ilarion of Novd Brdo said.

The investigative authorities did nothing, UNMIK and the Kosovo Police submitted the case to EULEX, which closed the case in 2011 with the explanation that there was no evidence. It has not been opened since then.

"The crime will be remembered as one of the biggest stains on the international community, which failed or did not want to fulfill what was given to them by Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council. Their obligation was to provide and guarantee a safe environment for the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija," Milos Terzic said, Assistant Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija.

"I am fully convinced that they (KFOR and NATO) know everything, including who the perpetrators are. These are all elements that we have been dealing with for many years - since 1999, since the arrival of NATO forces in the area of Kosovo and Metohija, elements of actions that should be used to frighten the Serbian national community so that all the Serbs leave the area of Kosovo and Metohija, only the methods change over time,"  former Vice President of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and head of the Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija, Nebojsa Covic, told KIM radio.

The memorial service was attended by the head of the Pristina district Srdjan Popovic, the head of the Pec district Milo Stevanovic, the President of the Provisional Authority of the Municipality of Pec Darko Kolasinac, and lately, officials from municipalities in Montenegro have been coming very often.

"This is mine and I am coming among my people," Velimir Djokovic said, President of the Danilovgrad Municipality Assembly.

Twenty years have passed, and it is the end of the day, children are playing football, the game has not been interrupted, and everything has been done to prevent it from happening. And these days they disputed the Memorial Tournament dedicated to the murdered boys, but they didn't succeed. The two boys, victims, look like those two saints from Turkish slavery, their peers have sweaty faces on the improvised soccer field. Most of those who have visited this area know that Ivan and Panta are the two angelic wings of Gorazdevac.

Written by: Zivojin Rakocevic, writer and journalist