Milovan and Miladin Rajcic arrived in Istok for the weekend – found excavators demolishing their house

Brothers Milovan and Miladin Rajcic, refugees from the village of Dragoljevac in Istok, came to their hometown for the weekend and found there - an excavator demolishing their family house.

They were notified that something was happening on their land by a relative from the village, and when they arrived in Dragoljevac, they saw for themselves that the house was about to be demolished.

"When we arrived, my older brother Milovan and I went to the house, and we found excavators. My brother approached the worker and told him to stop the excavator because he couldn't do that, it was our family house... The worker replied that he had been called by the boss, an Albanian who had bought that land", Miladin Rajcic said for Kosovo Online.

He says they inquired about who bought their house.

"We went to the cadastre in Istok and to the court. We requested the contract that my father made with the woman from whom he bought the house in 1997. However, the contract does not exist anywhere in the court, in the archive. The whole book in the archive does not exist from 1997. They couldn't find it", he said.

After that, they went to the cadastre again, but once more, they didn't receive the document.

"We requested them to give us a paper - who was registered as the owner, from 1997 onwards. They didn't want to give us that document, they said it's in some process", Miladin explains.

He also says that the Albanian who was demolishing his land threatened him, causing distress to his family.

"While my brother was stopping the excavator, that Albanian said to call his boss... He came, and I went to the police station to report the incident. When I returned, I saw seven Albanians around my brother, and he was alone. The Albanian who started to demolish said to my brother, 'You will remember and see who I am'", Miladin adds anxiously.

They reported everything to the police, he adds, where they also gave a statement.

"We guarded down there, night shifts, we were afraid for our safety... Honestly, you are not indifferent", Miladin Rajcic admits.

Since his family fled Kosovo after the war, he says it is not safe for them to return, and they feel threatened.

"How can we come back?" Miladin Rajcic wonders.

The Rajcic family has been contacted by representatives of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, as well as the President of the Provisional Authority of the Municipality of Istok, who will try, through legal assistance mechanisms, to fight for the rights of this Serbian family.