Page 753 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

This was the same while our government was in place, as well as on the occasion of the withdrawal of the Serbian army and people into the gorges of albania in 1915.
When even this was not enough, after World War i, in 1921–1922, they created the Kachak movement on the ba- sis of murder and plunder, which cost many of our people their lives until the army stepped in to stop them. interest- ingly enough, as soon as they again felt themselves free af- ter that, they created an illegal terrorist organization, the notorious Kosovo Committee, which ordered the compo- sition of a list according to which they began to assassinate our people of influence (e.g. jera Mališić, president of the village municipality in the district of Peć; Miraš Božović from Djakovica and many others), the list later being dis- covered during an investigation by the federal prosecutor in Peć.
“(...) During the World War ii occupation all these ana- tional elements torched the homes of our settlers, plun- dered them, destroyed everything they had, raped the wom- en, forced them to flee to the place of their birth, to return whence they came, not even allowing them take with them the smallest amount of food and clothing, and there were entire columns of unclothed and unshod people fleeing the region where they had worked acquiring their property for 20 years, coming unknowingly into the range of the wartime jaws of the enemy. They did not spare the Serb old-timers, either, killing, beating and plundering many of them during the time of the occupation (...).
after the liberation of 1944, we again forgot all our en- dured suffering, victims, discomfort, troubles, fear and vari- ous forms of misfortune so that we could do it all over again, as our people are wont to say, creating brotherhood and unity between us and giving them, as minorities in Kosovo and Metohija, i would even say, too many schools, a bigger number than albania would have opened for them had it by some chance occupied the region because it could not afford to support the number of schools they enjoy today in our state for the purpose of their cultural development, so that together with us they can raise their primitive ele- ment in our free country and our national region.
However, what happened was this: while we, on the one hand, are demonstrating to them that we are humane, com- passionate, people in the real sense of the word, they, on the other hand, are digging a hole for us in our own coun- try by destroying our churches and monuments. What the enemy occupier did not want to do, they did, these ana- tional elements; they destroyed our remaining, eighth on the list in the district of Djakovica, monument—the mau- soleum church in Djakovica. it was built of hard material with five domes and a mausoleum for the safeguarding of 400 coffins containing the bones of all the fallen soldiers in the wars from 1912 to today for the liberation of the district of Djakovica, a complete masterpiece, modern, in the spir- it of modern technology. This monument was built and major work completed in 1936–1939, the only things miss-
ing were plastering and consecration for the church to be opened.
Such a grand memorial church, valued at more than two million dinars, was a thorn in the side of their fanati- cism, of which the anational elements of the region can never be freed. For these reasons and political ones least of all, so that one cannot see that there are Serbs in Djakovica, they managed to vent their fury on our holy shrine and destroy it, beginning on the feast of St. Sava in 1949, and then a year later almost to the day—not brick by brick, as buildings are normally destroyed but in a violent and bar- baric manner—using mines, which were handled by ex- perts brought in from the nearby Deva mines. The air pres- sure raised the bricks to a great height and they would then fall on the roofs of houses and down on the ground in the streets (...).
in order to somehow camouflage the destruction of the church, deflecting all complaints and suspicion from them- selves since they supposedly had nothing to do with this, they came up with a way of perverting the actual situation, as if the Serb people themselves had asked that this be do- ne (...).
in Djakovica the Muslims have 18 mosques and 12 tekias, the Catholics have two or three churches, and the Ortho- dox have only the aforementioned chapel, 48.5 square me- ters in surface area, and this incomplete new mausoleum church. From the liberation from the Turks in 1912 to the present day, it had not occurred to anyone to seek the de- struction of anyone’s house of worship, while these a-na- tionalists are now destroying ours, supposedly telling the Communists that they do not tolerate houses of worship while, interestingly enough, not destroying one of their own nor even attempting to do so since the liberation of 1944.
The Kosovo and Metohija areas have understood the autonomy given them very wrongly and arbitrarily, as if they were a state within a state, and that they are able to do what- ever they want in the interests of their national affairs (...).
Today through the abuse of their authority they are also terrorizing our Turkish element—the Turkish minority, refusing to allow the children to attend Turkish schools, e.g. in Peć. They did the same thing with our Serb children during the occupations of World War i and World War ii. They know very well how to carry out assimilation, es- trangement from one’s people and expulsion.”42
Bishop Vladimir, by act No 2014 from December 24/11, 1951, informed the Holy Synod of Bishops that he “received an act under No 245 from December 17, 1951, from the ad- ministration of Visoki Dečani of the following content:
“it is the administration of Visoki Dečani Monastery’s honor to inform Your Grace that on December 10, 1951, the monastery received a visit from an official of the Municipal People’s Council from the Committee for education and Culture, Mr. Ratko Karakušević, who presented an act by
42 AHSB, Syn No 95/1951.
The Suffering and Persecution in Kosovo and Metohija from 1945 to 2005
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