Radomir Janackovic: We refused to sell the house before it was set on fire again; the policemen laughed at us

Radomir Janackovic, whose returnee house was set on fire in Novo Selo Medjunsko near Vucitrn, told Kosovo Online that, while they had been watching their house burn again, the Albanian policemen who had been on the scene had laughed at them.

Radomir lives in Priluzje with his family of four. Also, his father with his wife and another son have been living as tenants for 23 years because they do not have the conditions to live in their village.

The house of the Janackovic family has now been set on fire for the third time, and before that, it was robbed.

"A month ago, Albanians came to buy the plot, but my father did not want to accept it. We are not afraid of anyone, and we do not want to sell, but you see that after a month they asked us to sell it, and the house was set on fire. We don’t know exactly who, we can't judge, but this is very disturbing. The damage is great, everything was burnt, and only the walls remained. There was no furniture inside the house because everything was stolen. The house was completely destroyed. Around us there were four Serbian houses, even the little that is left of us bothers them," Janackovic says anxiously.

He adds that the police informed them that their house was set on fire.

"A neighbor who lived near us left some hay, the police called us, and we had something to see; the house burned down, and while we were watching all that, the policemen laughed at us. They didn't want to speak in Serbian, but my father knows little Albanian. My father is old, he has diabetes, and a part of his foot was amputated, to experience something like this for the third time is excessive. I don't know who is bothered by the roof when everything has already been taken away; if someone needs a roof, he should take it off, and not set it on fire, so that they call us to watch our house burn," Janackovic explains.

He says that they have gone through many hardships throughout their lives, but that they will not give the land to anyone and that they will stay in Kosovo.

He adds that he does not expect the perpetrators to be found.

"Everything that is happening is difficult. All this is very difficult," Janackovic said.