Page 668 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

From the 13th to the 20th century
25. On March 29th, the albanians from Mavrić stole 12 rams from Milenko Savić from Gojbulja in the District of Vučitrn.
26. ariton Velić, merchant from Vučitrn, being constant- ly harassed by the notorious criminal Rifat Osman called Macunca, was forced to sell all of his real estate for a mere trifle and leave Vučitrn.
27. On april 16th, a group of albanians broke into the house of Father arsa, a priest from the village of Kamenica, and began to torture him in order to extort some money from him but having assured themselves that he had no money, they stole some smaller items. On the same day, in the eve- ning, these robbers broke again in the same house and since the priest, having noticed them beforehand, left the house together with his son, they tortured the females demanding money from them; nevertheless, they were forced to run away seeing a group of peasants whom the priest summoned for help.
28. On Holy and Great Wednesday this year, a criminal Shakir Kopran extorted 10 Turskih liras from Petar Simić from Godilovac in the District of Gilan. This sum was hand- ed over to the aforementioned villain through the mediation of Rama Lapaštica from Kupište, the District of Gilan, who acted as a go-between.
29. Criminals walk freely and undisturbedly through the villages in the District of Gilan; they fire shotguns fearing no
one3.0. Sulja Zekim from Makreš beat up Stojan Djokić and Mihailo Trajković from Čukarica, in the District of Gilan. That happened 4 days before easter holidays.
31. Following the robbery of his house and death threats uttered by a group of albanians, Vasa Gardžić from the vil- lage of Magilj was forced to move to Gilan.
32. in the month of Decemeber 1897, albanians rustled 4 goats from janko Mitrović from Domorovci; 27 goats from Vasa ivanović from Korminjani; 4 goats from Mihajlo Fili- pović from the same village; 6 mares from jovan Djordjević from Bostan; 2 mares from Lunaf Falić from Tručevac. all the villages are located in the District of Gilan.
33. The notorious criminal Rashid Degerle from Lablanj, notorious for his crimes and brutal atrocities forcing more than 20 Serbian families to flee their homes, was admitted as a guest, together with his gang of 10 accomplices, in the home of Maksim Milošević, a serf from Papalovo in the Dis- trict of Gilan. Before leaving the house, this outlaw beat up the aforementioned Makism so brutally that the latter almost died due to this abuse.
34. Nikola andjelković who had settled in Priština 40 years ago was forced to leave this town receiving serious death threats from the notorious criminal Bećir aga from Vučitrn; andjelković was forced to abandon all of his incomes and all of his immovable properties in the total amount of more than 1,000 Turkish liras.
35. On December 23th, a group of albanians forcibly en- tered the home of Djoka Filić from Bušince in the District of Gilan, tied his hands and burnt his flesh with fire to extort 20 Turkish liras. Had it not been for his brother Kosta who rushed there with a couple of peasants, the albanians would have killed Djordje for certain. and as the albanians threat-
ened to Kosta as well, he was also forced to leave the village and seek refuge in Gilan.
36. The same albanians repeated their attack on Djord- je’s home with an intention to kill his brother Kosta but not finding Kosta there, they tied Djordje and robbed the locks on all the chests searching for money. in the end, as they could not find money, they stole all the clothes and dresses they could find.
37. On january 23th, an albanian named Bajram from Vi- tina, struck with an axe Zdravko Staničić from the same vil- lage. Zdravko almost died due to the attack.
38. On january 5th, a group of albanians attacked jovan and Stevan, the Milivojević brothers as well as the sons of Stano Milivojčić from Sivci (Kosovo)—while they were cut- ting firewood in the vicinity of the village.
39. a very strange custom has been established of late in the town of Peć: Whenever the telal [town-crier] communi- cates some official announcements to the people, he always finishes his announcement with the following words: “Woe unto him who is a Christian”!
Correspondence on Albanian violence in Old Serbia (Vilayet of Ko- sovo) 1898–1899, pp. 18–17.
a NeW NOTe OF THe SeRBiaN GOVeRNMeNT TO THe OTTOMaN PORTe
Stojan Novaković, Serbia’s Minister to Constantinople, to Tefik-Pasha, Ottoman Minister of Foreign Affairs
Constantinople, julz 16th/28th, 1898
Mr Minister,
With reference to my Note dated May 14th of the current
year, No 744, i have the honor to draw the attention of Your excellency to new atrocities and acts of violence continuously being perpetrated against the Serbs in the Province of Kosovo.
Murders, rape and all kinds of banditry, being incessant- ly committed, can be treated no more as individual crimes and without consequences for they apparently indicate—of which i had the honor to notify You in my previous Note— that the albanians have decided beforehand to totally exter- minate Christians, especially ethnic Serbs, from that area.
Your excellency will find it easy to assure Yourself of the accuracy of this statement if You would only give a cursory glance on the appendices to my Note, wherein we have re- corded, in a very brief period of time of only a couple of weeks, some ten cases of murder, the same number of rapes and abductions and even more cases of banditry, excluding oth- er misdeeds such as: acts of violence, torture, thefts, corvee, to which Serbs are exposed day in, day out and which co- erce them into leaving their ancestral homes and moving to Serbia, being deprived of safety with respect to their estates, their lives and their honor. allow me to say, Mr. Minister, that such state of affairs is pitiable indeed. and what is even worse is an ominous helplessness of the local authorities leaving unpunished most atrocious misdeeds which are being per- petrated, so to speak, before their very eyes. That impotence and condonation on behalf of the authorities leaves alba- nians not only open space to further inflict tortures and abuse but even encourages them on that path. [...]
Correspondence on Albanian violence in Old Serbia (Vilayet of Ko- sovo) 1898–1899, BeLGRaDe, MDCCCXCiX, pp. 35–36
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