St. Demetrius Memorial Saturday in Pristina: This is a torture ground where not even the dead have peace

This morning, at the Orthodox cemetery in Pristina, dozens of Serbs from the city, as well as those who have not lived there since 1999, visited graves and lit candles for family members or friends resting there. Although the cemetery has been partially cleaned and maintained, a large number of monuments remain desecrated.

Year after year, fewer Serbs come to Memorial Saturday in Pristina, while those who settled in nearby towns after 1999 do not miss the opportunity to visit the graves and light a candle.

Djurdja Drmoncic from Pristina noted that the Orthodox cemetery in the city is a horrific sight.

“This sacred place has broken doors, windows of our beautiful chapel built by our ancestors, bombed by bombers, and then further vandalized. Instead of the international community, KFOR, UNMIK, and all other organizations paying attention to our sacred people, our ancestors, all of them national heroes, this is their eternal home, peaceful, as we used to think. However, now it is a torture ground where neither they nor we have peace. They are humiliated, shamed, and underestimated,” Drmončic said.

Miodrag Simic from Ugljare said that the same people always meet at Memorial Saturday in Pristina.

“The cemetery has been cleaned and looks as it should, but the destroyed monuments still need to be restored, and I hear that the chapel is also damaged. You can see it is a beautiful day, but people are scarce, as always, the same people come. I don’t know if they dare not come or simply don’t have time,” Simic said.

Branko Stojkovic added that the cemetery in Pristina is now in decent condition, which, he notes, is not the case in other parts of Kosovo from which Serbs were expelled.

“This cemetery is proper compared to some other cemeteries that were in Serbian communities. But there are no people coming. When someone comes, everyone tends to their own graves,” Stojkovic said.

Slavica Rakic, who visited the graves of her parents, said she was glad to be able to light a candle.

“It is sad, but what can we do, it is what it is. There used to be more people, and now there are still some, but just a few. Today, it seems there are even more than at the previous Memorial Saturday, I met two or three people and then returned,” Rakic said.

Pristina parish priest Father Stanisa Arsic also noted that the cemetery has been better maintained in recent years compared to before.

“Today, on St. Demetrius Memorial Saturday, we came to the Pristina cemetery to pray for the souls of our ancestors, deceased relatives, brothers and sisters, as well as for all known and unknown faithful buried here, whose bones are here. Unfortunately, as you can see, and as I have seen, fewer and fewer people have been coming over the past several years. I would not speculate on numbers, but there are clearly fewer worshippers visiting the Pristina cemetery,” said Father Stanisa.

He pointed to construction work near the Orthodox cemetery.

“There are some works happening next to the Serbian Orthodox cemetery in Pristina – a road or railway track that passes right by the cemetery. The fence on the lower side has been removed and not replaced. As we can see, there are some graves right at the edge of the excavation that are at risk of collapsing. I appeal to the public, and to those in Pristina responsible for this, to restore the fence as soon as possible and repair the area to prevent the graves from collapsing.”

The priest added that there has been no organized attendance for Memorial Saturday in recent years.

“The message to our people, displaced from Pristina, whose ancestors are buried here and who have family graves, is that at least on Memorial Saturday they should come and light candles for the repose of their ancestors’ souls,” the priest said.