Nikolic: 22 years ago, a volley of death cut down childhood on the Bistrica – we will not forget

Danijela Nikolic, Chairwoman of the Committee for Kosovo and Metohija of the Serbian Assembly, today, on the occasion of the killing and wounding of Serbian children in Gorazdevac in 2003, emphasized that 22 years of pain, sorrow, unrest, and hope have passed that the perpetrators of what she called the terrorist attack on Serbian children on the Bistrica would be brought to justice. She stated that this crime must not and will not be forgotten.

“The instigators of such a terrorist attack, even after two decades of our search for justice and the lack of a clear answer to a single question ‘Why’, continue to promote the same ideology with the goal of driving out Serbs and ethnically cleansing Kosovo and Metohija,” Nikolic said in a statement.

She pointed out that the perpetrators of the crime are “quick to use weapons against children, blind to facing the past, and mute to the meaning of human rights and freedoms, a qualification of something that part of the international community, unfortunately, calls a state.”

“On that day, August 13, 2003, during a supposed time of peace and in the presence of several thousand armed KFOR soldiers and numerous international police officers, Albanian extremists fired volleys from automatic weapons at our youth and future. The volley of death cut down childhood, joy, and hopes for a better tomorrow in Kosovo and Metohija,” Nikolic stated.

She recalled that on that day on the Bistrica, twelve-year-old Panto Dakic and nineteen-year-old Ivan Jovovic were killed, while Djordje Ugrenovic, Bogdan Bukumiric, Marko Bogicevic, and Dragana Srbljak were seriously injured.

“The international community and all its officials have remained silent for years in the face of crimes committed against Serbian children and the Serbian people. Every unsolved crime is a stain on the international community in a sea of injustice that has befallen the Serbian people,” Nikolic added.

She called on the international community, the UN, KFOR, and EULEX to show, as she put it, enough courage to clarify the crimes against Serbian children.

“We will not forgive you for the unbearable injustice before which you are silent and blind to see and condemn the crimes against a people who only cry out for human freedom, rights, and justice. We will insist on the truth to the end, because such a crime from the murky Bistrica we cannot and will not forget. For part of the international community and for Pristina, the image from Gorazdevac has long faded, but for us, it will always be the pain we share with the families of a violently cut-short childhood. By remaining silent and hiding the truth, they have shown us that even in pain, we are not equal,” Nikolic concluded.