Memorial service in Staro Gracko: No justice for crimes against the Serbs even after 24 years

The 24th anniversary of the murder of 14 Serb harvesters was marked in Staro Gracko with a memorial service served by the priests of the Eparchy of Raska and Prizren, lighting candles and laying wreaths on the memorial.

The memorial service was attended by family members of the victims, residents of Staro Gracko, representatives of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, as well as political representatives of the Serbs from Kosovo.

Dragisa Jerinic, the parish priest of Lipjan, said in his sermon that NATO soldiers were responsible for the deaths of 14 Serb harvesters, because, as he said, they had not protected them that day, but instead had drawn a target on them.

"They were killed by NATO soldiers, personally, directly, indirectly. Why? They came to bring us peace. What peace? They armed our neighbors, the enemies, in order to kill us. Those same NATO soldiers, who were obliged to protect these innocent people, they did not want to accompany them to the harvest, so they drew a target on them and sent them to be killed. The harvesters went to collect grain, unfortunately, people had to go to collect them soon. God glorified them, I am sure believing and hoping in God that they are now looking at us and supporting us from heaven. Only in our human eyes was an injustice done, as far as they are concerned, no injustice was done to them, knowing that they belong to the Orthodox faith, that they are Orthodox Serbs, by taking their cross to carry, they knew that they would suffer. They perished, sad and grieving families remained, but we owe them as a debt, to preserve the properties on which they perished. If we dare to sell those properties where they suffered, we will also sell their sacrifice, their blood. And who has the right to sell the blood of their ancestors," priest Jerinic asked.

The President of the Association of Kosmet Victims, Natasa Scepanovic, reminded that no one had been punished for that crime.

"Twenty-four years ago, Albanian terrorists shrouded this tame village in black. Our sons, fathers, and brothers did not return from the nearby fields, gathering the harvest. We know, because we share the same fate, that you still feel the same pain for your neighbors; that your life has been turned into hell by some evil people, to whom you owe nothing. What intensifies the bitterness is the fact that no one has been justly punished for this massacre, as for all crimes. Killers walk freely and laugh in our faces for almost two and a half decades," Scepanovic said, adding that the just punishment of those who had ordered and committed the crimes would not lessen the pain, but they would know that justice had been served.

The mayor of Strpce, Dalibor Jevtic, said that 24 years had passed, but we still did not get answers to the question of who was responsible.

"It is difficult to speak without emotion today, it is difficult when we have been waiting for justice for 24 years, and those who should bring justice, when asked when justice would come, answer that the investigation into this crime has been suspended. The times we live in are difficult. Today, being a Serb in these areas is difficult. Today, in these times without evidence, if only one person points a finger at a Serb, he is arrested and sent to the dungeons, while on the other hand, those who killed 14 harvesters are still at large. We do not have any expectations from the authorities in Pristina, but we have a request to the international community, which we consider responsible for the lack of justice, and which we consider responsible because the crime happened," Jevtic pointed out.

Assistant Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Milena Parlic, pointed out that those present today were sad and inconsolable standing in front of the marble plaque on which the names of the "murdered harvesters" of Staro Grack were written.

"In the agricultural area of the village of Staro Gracko during the harvest, among the crops brutally and painfully, 14 Serb peasants were killed. 14 male heads, and 14 householders, on the day of the Holy 45 Martyrs of Nicopolis, and became 14 martyrs of the new Kosovo. In our Serbia, the harvest was always accompanied by a song, the first sheaves were celebrated with it, but the beasts that had only a human form, turned the harvest into a Hell on earth..." Parlic said.

Parlic added that most of the crimes, as in Staro Gracko, had happened in front of the eyes of the international community.

"We continue today. In this village in Kosovo’s peaceful area, the Sitnica River is still roaring; the darkness is slowly receding, the red poppies in the fields remind us of the tortured, massacred, and “reaped” people of Staro Gracko, while black scarves are tied in a sad knot under the mothers' chins. Although defeatism has been spreading for decades, our country of Serbia is trying with all its might to keep the song in Kosovo and Metohija," she said.

Regarding the prohibition of the institutions in Pristina for the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Petar Petkovic to attend today's commemoration and be with his people, Parlic says, "This will only strengthen us in the further fight for truth and justice and what has been ours for centuries in these areas".

Slavica Janicijevic, who lost her brother, father, and two uncles in the bloody harvest on July 23, 1999, spoke on behalf of the bereaved families.

"Twenty-four years of pain. Our life is going differently every day. When the combine harvesters pass, we remember the massacre, we remember what they did to them, that it was a massacre, that it wasn't murder. That people were castrated, that my brother has a big wound in his heart, why don't they find out who the perpetrators are? I am furious with KFOR, and EULEX; everything is in their hands, and we can't wait any longer, that they be brought to justice. Since the funeral, no one has come from KFOR," Janicijevic said with tears in her eyes.

On this day, in the agricultural area of the village of Staro Gracko, during the harvest, Milovan Jovanovic, Jovica, and Rade were killed.

Zivic, Andrija Odalovic, Novica, Slobodan, Mile and Momir Janicijevic, Stanimir and Bosko Dekic, Sasa and Ljubisa Cvejic, Nikola Stojanovic and Miodrag Tepsic. Their murder is considered one of the biggest crimes after the conflict in Kosovo in 1999, for which no one was held accountable.

Seven Albanians were under investigation. In October 2007, UNMIK arrested Mazllum Bytyqi from the village of Veliki Alas, near Staro Gracko, on suspicion of having participated in the murder of Serb harvesters, however, he was released from custody two months later due to lack of evidence.

In 2017, the Special Prosecutor's Office in Pristina, together with EULEX, suspended the investigation due to a lack of evidence.