Page 667 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

a) They raided two horses from Kosta aksentijević and jevrem Milovanović from the village of Rudnice, two oxen and a cow from Vandić from the village of Pridvorica. (Van- dić chased them and managed to take back his cattle but was wounded on that occasion;
b) 7 heads of draft cattle from Mienko Urošević, also from the village of Pridvorica, (ali-aga Čamilović met the thieves and forced them to return to Milenko all the cattle they had stolen).
c) They robbed the home of Panta aleksić from the vil- lage of Crveni and killed Panta.
12. Unidentified albanians committed numerous robber- ies and thefts in many villages of the area of Priština in the months of October and November. They stole: 11 horses, 9 oxen, 8 cows, 150 sheep, 27 goats, 11 beehives. The embassy possesses a list with the names of all the owners who were robbed with all the details with respect to the robberies.
13. On November 14th, the albanian criminals–the afore- mentioned Tifa and Husein—broke into the house of Rista Stanković from Drenovac (the District of Gilan) demanding 6 Turkish Liras and threatening to kill him instantaneously unless he delivered the money. Rista, as he did not have the money, gave them all the jewelry his wife had and two pairs of socks.
14. On October 28, albanians rustled two cows from an- djelko Stojković from the village of Glogovac (the District of Gilan), on November 12th, two oxen from Stojan Petković, from the same village; on November 11, one ox and two cows from Nasko Mladenović, from the village of Rapotovo (in the same District); and from anta Tomić from the village of Ča- rakovci one mare and all that was in the granary.
15. arsa, son of Mitar Lazić from the village of Gologo- vac (the District of Gilan) married Mladena, the daughter of Stevan from the village of Robovačka Reka (in the same Dis- trict) on Novemeber 13th. after the wedding, an albanian criminal named Shakir Korpan fom the village of jelača, who is now living in the village of Robovac, broke into arsa’s home demanding from the latter to either give him his wife or 12 Liras, threatening to kill every member of arsa’s family whom he could find. as arsa refused to pay the blackmail, Shakir again stormed into his home on November 28th, this time accompanied by 4 outlaws. They tied arsa’s arms and inflict- ed various forms of torture upon him: burning him with fire, stabbing him with sharp objects—all in order to force him to either hand over his wife to them or to pay 12 Liras of blackmail! His entire family fled into the mountain while arsa was being subjected to horrible tortures. His father Mitar rushed to Gilan to complain to the authorities; they told him to return to his home and promised to send someone to in- vestigate the case on the spot but did not take any action at all. Consequently, arsa and his whole family were forced to flee abandoning their home and all of their property.
16. On December 3rd, a group of albanian criminals at- tacked Veličko Pešić from the village of Božovac (the Dis- trict of Gilan): they beat him up, burnt his flesh with fire and exerted various forms of torture upon him attempting to ex- tort money. When his wife started to cry, one of the alba- nians beat her up with the rifle-butt.
Sources and Testimonies
17. On December 2nd 1897, Kosta Milivojević from Ra- den and Milojko Bojović from Tvrdjen were ambushed by a group of albanians while leading their horses loaded with flour to Novi Pazar; the attack happened in the vicinity of Novi Pazar, in the place called “Sviba” in the evening that day; Kosta was killed while Milojko was forcefully taken away to- gether with the horses.
18. in the mountain of Ženjovac, in the Kaza of Priština, there live 40 albanian criminals who, with threats, robber- ies and all sorts of crimes, terrorize Serbs of the Kosovo Prov- ince and District of Gilan to such extent that they must not refuse to hand over whatever the albanians demand and, moreover, must not even complain to the authorities against the criminals for the latter are threatening with all kinds of atrocities to anyone who would dare file a lawsuit against them.
19. With the intention to prevent the Serbs of the Prov- ince (Vilayet) of Kosovo from feeding their livestock and thus force them to abandon their homes and move out of the Ko- sovo Province, albanians decided to cultivate the fields sit- uated in front of the very villages in which the Serbs resided and which served them as pastures on which their livestock grazed. This process was first initiated by: Mufti Mustafa effendi, Sulejman-aga (now a pasha), ali effendi Nufuz Na- ziri and other Turks from that region. encouraged by these examples, the albanians confiscated the best lands which belonged to Serbs in the following villages: Laplje, Čaglavica, Livadja, Dobrotin, Gušterica, Matičani etc. etc.
20. in the village of Donji Dol, in the District of Peć, there are 7 Serb homes left, two of which belong to Mihailo Savić and Maksim Hristić. albanians seized their lands causing them to sink into abject misery. among these remaining Ser- bian homes the most notable is the house of Stanisha Bogi- ćević whose lands the albanians also intend to appropriate and, moreover, they threaten to kill him. They set his house on fire and the entire furniture and his belongings were burnt down together with all of his livestock. This family which once consisted of 20 members and has been, until recently, the richest family in that place, has now been brought to the utmost poverty without even enough bread to eat.
21. On april 8th, some albanians wounded from the shot- gun Djordje Vučetić, a teacher from the village of Gotovuša and Kosta, an innkeeper in that village.
22. On March 25th, some albanians from the village of Budril, in the District of Gilan, attacked arsa Milenković in- tending to kill him but he defended himself wounding one of the assaulters and ran away. Then the albanians collect- ed all the Serbs from the village and took them to Gilan beat- ing them all the way. in Gilan, they handed them over to the gendarmes who also beat them and put them in prison.
23. Kosovo Serbs must not go alone into the mountain to cut firewood. They have to be escorted by albanians to whom they pay such service.
24. Two of the most esteemed Serbian families: the fam- ily of Staniša Bogićević from Dobri Dol (the District of Peć) and the family of Miloš Vučić from Gora Nedaša (in the same District), who could not endure any more all those acts of violence perpetrated by the albanians, left their homes flee- ing to Serbia.
665