Page 455 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

rović presented facts regarding ethnically motivated crimes against Serbs and other non-albanians in Kosovo, the in- efficiency of the UNMiK police, insecurity of private prop- erty, lack of freedom of movement, inaccessibility of medi- cal institutions, limited possibilities for education in the Serbs’ mother tongue, dramatic unemployment among the Serbian community of about 90 percent, as well as the constant threat to Serbian cultural and religious monu- ments in the province.
On March 16 mass protests by Serbs began in down- town Gračanica following the serious wounding of a Serb medical secondary school student, jovica ivić (age 18) from nearby Čaglavica the previous night. Several Serbian sec- ondary school students were injured in clashes with inter- national and Kosovo police in the demonstrations.
On March 17 the albanians began their own violent protests, which quickly spread like wildfire throughout the province. The immediate cause of the albanian protests was the drowning of three albanian children. Kosovo al- banian television quoted a fourth, surviving child as saying he and his friends had been chased by Serbs with a dog into the raging river. However, this was denied by the UN- MiK police spokesman Derek Chapel the next day. The subsequent investigation proved that Serbs were not in- volved in this incident
MeMORaNDUM onKosovoandMetohija
trije Popović, was shot dead the night of Friday, june 4, in a fast food restaurant in downtown Gračanica. He was shot in the back of the head with automatic gunfire and died on the scene. according to the testimony of his friends, who were with him at the time of the attack, the murderer ar- rived in a white audi and sped off in the direction of Pri- ština immediately after firing the shots. Soon after the murderer and his companion were arrested near Priština bus station.
Conclusion
Once again we remind the reader: if the story of albanian historians and their Western mentors and supporters is true about how Kosovo and Metohija “is not the center of the Serbian state and church” and this is instead a product of “Serbia megalomania” and “mythology” and so on, how is it then that Kosovo and Metohija have such a large num- ber of Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries, and have had them continuously from the 12th to the 21st cen- tury? and why are they targeted by the albanians with in- fernal hatred for devastation and destruction, along with the Serbian cemeteries next to them, and the Serbian oaks and pines around them!? Truly, why are the albanians so
at all. Nevertheless, the tragedy was used as a trigger for massive ri- ots all over the Prov- ince between March 17 and 19. in only two days 19 people were killed, nearly 900 wounded and 30 Serbian Ortho- dox churches and mon- asteries were set on fire or seriously damaged (See more in the attached report on the March po- grom).
in the period be- tween the March po- grom and the conclu- sion of the updated ver- sion of the Memoran- dum sporadic attacks and provocations aga- inst Serbs continued throughout the prov- ince. among the inci- dents the most serious was murder of a Serb teenager Dimitrije Po- pović in Gračanica. a 17 year-old Serb, Dimi-
March Pogrom 2004, burned Serbian churches and houses in Prizren
furiously destroying these Serbian holy shri- nes (112 to date that we were able to personally visit and see with our own eyes, even though there are sure to be more desecrated and destro- yed that we Serbs can- not access without an armed KFOR escort) and why are they erad- icating with such hell- ish hatred the ineras- able vestiges of Serbi- an spirituality and state- hood, Serbian faith and customs and culture, the Serbian Orthodox character of this re- gion? The fury which emerges in this pro- cess is only a witness of the very opposite of what they and their tu- tors from the West claim. This hellish fury shows that they are well aware of whose Land this is and who has lived and created in it
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