Office for Kosovo and Metohija: Impunity of the crime in Gorazdevac is a stain on the reputation of international missions

The fact that the terrorist act in Gorazdevac has not received a judicial resolution for twenty-one years remains an indelible stain on the reputation of international missions, whose primary task was to establish the rule of law on post-war Kosovo, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija emphasizes.

The Office reminds us that twenty-one years have passed filled with immeasurable sorrow and pain due to the senseless terrorist attack on Serbian youth in Gorazdevac.

On August 13, 2003, while they were swimming in the Bistrica River, two Serbian children were killed and four were wounded by bursts of gunfire. The victims were Pantelija Dakic (12) and Ivan Jovovic (19), while Marko Bogicevic (12), Dragana Srbljak (13), Bogdan Bukumiric (14), and Djordje Ugrenovic (20) were seriously injured.

"It has been more than two decades of mourning for the slain Serbian children in Gorazdevac and just as many years of fruitless waiting and hope that this crime would be solved. The children who were killed and wounded while swimming in Bistrica are symbols of the suffering of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija in the years following the arrival of international forces in our southern province. They are also victims of a mad ideology of hatred, directed against the entire Serbian people, their existence, history, and culture on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. Unfortunately, this ideology has not been abandoned and still has many supporters and political sponsors in Pristina," the statement said.

The Office points out that the fact that this monstrous terrorist act has not received a judicial resolution for twenty-one years remains an indelible stain on the reputation of international missions, whose primary task was to establish the rule of law on post-war Kosovo.

"By closing the investigation into the deaths of Serbian children, as well as many other of our compatriots in Kosovo and Metohija, a sin against humanity was committed, and the democratic world, without shame, capitulated before the ideology of hatred and terrorism. The perpetrators of this crime, as well as the killers of the harvesters in Staro Gracko, the Stolic family in Obilic, and the passengers of the 'Nis Express' bus near Podujevo, must be punished in the name of justice, but also as proof that the era of ideologies of hatred and evil must remain forever behind us," the statement emphasizes.

Despite the tragic loss and daily pressures, the Serbs in Gorazdevac remain on their land, preserving the graves of their fallen children and ancestors, and maintaining the trace of Serbian existence in Metohija.

The Serbian state, the Office emphasizes, will continue to assist them with all available resources to remain in their homes and preserve the Serbian name, which has existed continuously on the land of Kosovo for centuries, something that cannot be erased.