Winter Memorial Saturday in South Mitrovica: Destroyed monuments, an image that has not changed for decades

A large number of Serbs visited the devastated Orthodox cemetery in South Mitrovica this morning on Great, that is, Winter Memorial Saturday – an Orthodox holiday dedicated to remembrance and prayers for the departed – where Serbs have not been buried for more than two decades.

Relatives and friends find the graves of their loved ones from memory, as there are almost no monuments with clear inscriptions.

For more than two decades, people have been coming in an organized manner, by bus from the northern part of the city. In recent years it has also been possible, without problems or risk, to come by private car, so Serbs arrive throughout the day.

The image at the cemetery has not changed even after more than a quarter of a century – broken and toppled monuments, weeds and garbage once again greeted visitors.

Archpriest Radoslav Jankovic visited the graves today and, with a vigil lamp and wine, prayed with the families and friends of the deceased for the souls of the departed. As he pointed out, especially here at the Orthodox cemetery in South Mitrovica, our people come on Memorial Saturday to remember their ancestors, to light candles for the repose of their souls and to pray, but they are met with the sad sight of destroyed graves.

“I am proud of my Serbian people that in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, where the Islamic cemetery stands, not a single monument has been destroyed. That speaks of our holy Orthodox faith, that we await God’s judgment. And those who destroyed these monuments of ours and knocked down our crosses have in fact destroyed themselves, while they have glorified our ancestors. They suffered in a martyr’s way in that manner and the dead have no peace, but they have peace in the Lord, because we pray to God to grant them rest in the Kingdom of Heaven,” Jankovic said.

According to him, the faithful await God’s judgment, because earthly courts can make mistakes and there may be no punishment.

“All of us will one day have to stand before God and answer for the kind of life we led. So those who destroyed this, when they stand before God’s judgment, they will condemn themselves, while our holy ancestors will be glorified. They had no opportunity here to defend themselves. No one can touch their souls, their souls belong to God because they are faithful souls, and we remember them and their good deeds and therefore continue the path of our holy ancestors, to hold to the true faith and to do good deeds, to be sons and daughters of light and of the day, to spread peace, love and joy, to harm no one, but to live in peace and thus not to touch other people’s graves or burial places, but to be proud that we are restrained and that in this way we testify that we are sons of light, sons of justice, sons of peace and freedom,” Jankovic said.

Gradimir Draskic, one of the residents of Mitrovica who came to light a candle for his loved ones, says the image has not changed for years and that promises to restore the cemetery remain unfulfilled.

“We always expect the municipalities to resolve the issue of our cemetery. There were promises from foreigners as well that they would do it. However, as always in Kosovo, nothing gets finished, everything remains closed,” Draskic believes.

That the graves are barely even found is testified by Predrag Ivic.

“I barely found my father’s, grandmother’s and grandfather’s monument, barely. Everything is destroyed,” Ivic said.

In recent years, according to Dragoljub Drazevic, the destruction of tombstones has been declining, yet he appeals to every individual to do what they can and restore at least part of what has been destroyed, without waiting for others.

“I think the destruction is declining. In previous years, on every annual Memorial Saturday, both winter and summer, there were always newly destroyed graves. If that is an optimistic statement. But pessimism remains, everything is broken, nothing is good, it is getting worse and worse. Yet hope in faith, hope in this place where more of our people are there than here, is what keeps and sustains us. Everyone must come to their own place and visit. If we expect someone else from the municipal services to do it, and they have done nothing, we are gravely mistaken. If everyone would fix just a little of their own place, of their relatives, friends, predecessors, the deceased, move just one stone, it would be better for us. But we expect someone else to do everything, I mean literally everything, from the cemetery to life itself. For everything we need a little of our own goodwill,” Drazevic emphasized.

A picture speaks louder than a thousand words, says Jovan Aleksic, looking at hundreds of marble slabs toppled to the ground and overgrown with weeds.

“I think this is truly an extremely, extremely ugly image, not only of this part of our city, but also of the international community and all those who invoke civilizational values. I believe it is a civilizational right of every person to rest peacefully in the afterlife. If you see that our cemetery has, I would say, 60-70 percent of its monuments almost completely destroyed, that many graves can no longer even be recognized, what does that tell you? It speaks for itself. I hope it will be better, that one day this will be restored, that our deceased will rest in peace as they deserve and that we will welcome better times,” Aleksic said.