Anniversary of the Bistrica crime – Serbian children killed and wounded at the river 22 years ago, no one held responsible

More than two decades without justice. On this day, 22 years ago, on August 13, 2003, while swimming in the Bistrica River, unknown attackers opened automatic fire on Serbian children. Ivan Jovovic (19) and Pantelija Dakic (12) were killed, while Bogdan Bukumiric (14), Marko Bogicevic (12), Dragana Srbljak (13), and Djordje Ugrenovic (20) were seriously wounded.

That August day, the children were cooling off in the Bistrica. No one could have imagined that their play would be brutally cut short by gunfire. A total of 87 bullets were fired at them.

“It was an execution, in broad daylight,” recalled Nemanja Dakic, brother of the slain Panto, remembering the day that plunged his family and the entire village of Gorazdevac into mourning.

Even 22 years later, one of the biggest ethnically motivated crimes in Kosovo since the arrival of international forces, which took two young lives and forever changed others, has seen no judicial outcome.

No one has been held accountable; no one has even been named a suspect.

Despite promises from representatives of the international community “to turn over every stone” to find the perpetrators, seven years later, EULEX terminated the investigation, citing a lack of evidence.

In December 2018, EULEX handed over police, prosecutorial, and court files, along with related evidence, to the Kosovo authorities, stating that they were responsible for all the cases.

“EULEX handed over 495 police case files on organized crime, 434 case files on war crimes, files on missing persons cases, case files handled solely by EULEX, and over 1,400 prosecutorial case files. The competent Kosovo authorities have full responsibility for the case files and related evidence that were handed over to them,” EULEX said in its 2023 statement on the 20th anniversary of the crime.

According to UNMIK investigators, unknown perpetrators fired bursts from Kalashnikov rifles at a group of Serbian children and young people from Gorazdevac while they were at the river.

The crime was condemned by representatives of the EU, the US, Russia, France, KFOR, UNMIK, as well as by the authorities in Pristina, while Belgrade immediately requested a session of the UN Security Council.

As far as is known, UNMIK and police authorities in Kosovo and Metohija, following the terrorist act in Gorazdevac, questioned around 70 possible or actual witnesses, some reports say a total of 75, and searched about 100 houses. A reward of one million euros was also offered for information about the crime.

Still, none of this was enough to bring the perpetrators to justice.

For Serbia, the fact that the perpetrators have never been brought before the court remains an indelible stain on the reputation of international missions whose primary task was to establish the rule of law in Kosovo.

For the families of the murdered boys and the survivors, time has not healed the wounds. Gorazdevac remembers its innocent children. A memorial service for the victims will be held today in front of the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God, led by the abbot of the Visoki Decani Monastery, Father Sava Janjic.