Memorial Service in South Mitrovica: Let me put the monument back in its place, so I can find my baby

Several dozen Serbs from North Mitrovica woke up early this morning to go to the southern part of the city to mark the Great or Winter Memorial Service, an Orthodox holiday dedicated to remembrance and prayers for the deceased. For more than two decades, the Serbs have been coming to the Orthodox cemetery in South Mitrovica to light candles and pay tribute to their loved ones.

The picture of the cemetery in South Mitrovica remains unchanged - broken tombstones, weeds, and trash awaited the Serbs once again. Mounds and graves are covered in grass and moss, monuments are toppled or broken, and those that remain are barely recognizable.

As a result, citizens are still resentful and sad.

Dragan Milosavljevic says that the picture has been the same for 20 years.

"Nothing has changed. Unfortunately, it will remain the same. It's up to us to visit and light a candle, to remember our loved ones who lie here and have no peace. Let them continue in their way, we'll continue in ours. Twenty years ago when we used to come, it was a bit different, harder. There were police and KFOR, and we came together, by buses. We quickly did everything, in a few minutes, and then - we ran home. Over the years, fear and unrest have diminished, today there's no one to watch over. In a way, it's calmer, but there's no peace in our hearts. We still think about how all of this looks," Milosavljevic says.

Among those who came to the cemetery today is Mara Utvic, a mother who buried her four-month-old baby here. She cries over the desecrated grave.

"The baby was only four months old. We lived in South Mitrovica, and until 2010, the monument stood, and then I couldn't find it. Once I died in 1980, and the other time in 2010. What could a four-month-old baby have done wrong?" she wonders.

Her husband and she were 22 years old at the time, she says, and they didn't have any problems with anyone in order to feel unsafe, but...

"It's hard, it's really hard... That's why I appeal to both our and Kosovo authorities to allow us to return the monument to its place for my child. I have no intention of moving and digging her up. At least let me put the monument back in its place so that when I come, I can find my baby," she barely speaks through tears.

Ilija Lazarevic emphasizes that in such moments, the only thing that remains is hope in God.

"Nothing lasts forever. We restore the monuments, thank God, many have been put back in order. It does cost a lot, but we manage. Villains do their deeds, they don't think of God. Personally, I muster the strength to come, but even more courage. I come, light a candle on the day of the deceased. But to tell you the truth, I don't feel comfortable. Fear is a part of being a human," he states.

Commenting on the parallel between the Orthodox cemetery in South Mitrovica and the Muslim one in North Mitrovica, he says that the Serbs believe in God and respect the deceased of any faith.

"Something like that couldn't happen to us," Lazarevic is convinced.