Velika Hoca: The anniversary of the murder and kidnapping of the Serbs and Roma people from the municipality of Orahovac was marked

The 25th anniversary of the kidnapping and murder of the Serbs and Roma people from the municipality of Orahovac was marked today in Velika Hoca, a crime for which no one was held accountable.

In front of the monument in Velika Hoca, a memorial service was held for the civilians who were kidnapped and killed by the Albanians in July 1998 in the attack on Orahovac and the surrounding villages - Retimlje, Opterusa, Zociste, and Velika Hoca.

In July 1998 alone, 47 people were killed in the Municipality of Orahovac, and more than a hundred Serbs and Roma people were kidnapped and taken to KLA prisons and camps.

Families, friends, and acquaintances laid flowers next to the monument, lit candles, and with photos of the missing and victims, they reminded of the crime, which, they say, must not be forgotten.

Almost the entire family of 17 members was kidnapped from Dragica Mavric.

"My only brother, my only child, also died. Brothers from uncles, relatives, everything we had. When it happened, I was married here in Velika Hoca, so my mother told me how everything happened. They were attacked in their homes, they defended themselves, but they couldn't. The next day they were all picked up. We never recovered. My mother and father died, and there is no one left; only we, sisters, remained. My uncle was killed on the doorstep, as he went out to see where the sons are, they immediately killed him in the yard. They buried them when they arrived, without crying, because they were not allowed to. They left hungry and thirsty," Dragica Mavric from Retimlje recalls.

The parish priest from Velika Hoca, Milan Stojkovic, said after the memorial service that he prayed that God would grant all the innocent victims a place in the kingdom of heaven.

"Indeed, many of these victims laid down their lives for the sake of us who are here today, and that is why we as the Church are here to encourage, strengthen, comfort, and that is why the Church exists, and the Church is God on earth. We are all parts of that body, and Christ is the head. That's why we have gathered here today to remember all the victims together as the body of Christ and to pray that God will settle all of them in His Kingdom," Stojkovic said.

The memorial service was also attended by the deputy director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Borislav Tajic, who recalled that in the period from 1998 to 2000, 84 Serbs had been killed in the territory of the municipality of Orahovac.

"It is difficult to find words of comfort in the face of the all-pervading sadness of the extinguished lives, not because they had any guilt, and not because they did anything bad to anyone. But because they were Serbs, they were born as Serbs, on their land in Kosovo and Metohija. They are a symbol of the martyrdom and suffering of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. A symbol of the inconceivable ideology of hatred, trampled dignity, right to life, and identity. Bearing in mind the immense determination and courage of the inhabitants of this region to stay in these areas and the wishes of the families by not forgetting the past, look to the future. The Office for Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, from the moment of persecution and displacement from these tragic events in the period behind us, has been dedicated to understanding the needs and every kind of support to the residents of this region," Tajic said.

President of the Organization of Families of Captured, Killed Fighters and Missing Civilians of Republika Srpska, Isidora Graorac, spoke about the suffering during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where, as she said, 36,000 Serbs had lost their lives.

"Unfortunately, this is information that did not go to the public, that is, it did not go outside the former Yugoslavia. And what is most devastating is that it is thought that only members of one nation died in Bosnia and Herzegovina. What is left for us is to convey the truth and talk about everything that happened in our country," Graorac said, adding that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbs had died on major holidays. “Unfortunately, we in the Republika Srpska have the problem of institutions that were formed at the state level and where in 15 years only 58 Serbs cases have been resolved, which is a devastating figure and we believe that the number of 1,466 missing persons will remain perhaps permanently unsolved," Graorac said.

The coordinator of the Missing Persons Resource Center, Negovan Mavric, points out that the international community, instead of helping to find the missing, makes things worse.

"Now we are making a Declaration, what we, as a family, know, what is written in those points, which they are forcing. We are illiterate people, we ask them to return our people and let them discuss these declarations later. They need that, in order to extend the mandate of foreigners as much as possible, they are happy here. Three months have passed since the acceptance of the Declaration, nothing has changed. I had the opportunity to meet with Lajcak, who said that we would see what would happen when it was signed. Mr. Lajcak, nothing has happened and nothing will happen," Mavric said.

The President of the Provisional Authority of the Municipality of Orahovac, Aleksandar Micic, said that the suffering of Serbs should be remembered every year.

"Everything that needed to be said about their suffering, torment, and grief of families has been said many times in this place, as well as at other gatherings... It has been said many times, but we need to be reminded every day of what happened 25 years ago. I am sure that we will never forget those days of uncertainty and apprehension. We should recall and remember all the wrongdoings that we experienced and all the suffering," Micic said.

As journalist Olivera Radic recalled, the first victim on July 18, 1998, was Aleksandar Majmarevic.

"The day after, under the church bell tower in the church gate in Orahovac, the blows of hammers could be heard as Petko Simic and Srecko Kolasinac made a coffin for the murdered Acko from rough, barely found boards from the nearby houses. At the funeral of Acko, for whom not even the priest could come the garden behind the church altar began to turn into a cemetery. Those images are obscured by the whistling of bullets flying above us, and a child's voice announcing that there are dead and wounded over there near the Baljosevic family house. And the knowledge that a grenade destroyed the bodies of Jagos fil Djokic, Vekoslav Kazic, and Borivoje Simic. They brought them dead in blankets and laid them on the stone slabs in our church, and blood was still gushing out of their destroyed entrails. Doctor Vekoslav's bandages were not enough to stop the bleeding, I folded their hands on their chests and put a twig of basil between them, which my mother-in-law was drying, under the eaves in the church," Radic testified.

In 2005, the remains of thirty-six persons kidnapped in July 1998 were found in Malisevo and Volujak.