Page 804 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Protopresbyter-stavrophor Savo B. jović
Yesterday about 130 households from the village of Mu- šutište (about 300 from the whole parish) left. There are only about 50 houses in the vicinity of the church left for today. They ask: What should they do? i give the same ad- vice everywhere and always: stay. i see: They do not accept it. They say: They were incited to leave permanently by of- ficials and commanders over their radio stations—Mo- torolas:
“The last convoy today is leaving at 3:00 p.m. Get ready. Whoever stays will have no guarantee of being able to leave later. The Germans are coming (who for months have been depicted as the enemies of the Serbs. and—the scenario succeeded. Like in Kninska Krajina: the people set out after the army. again a part of the Serb people (this time from Kosovo) is on bicycles, in trailers. a reprise of the columns from two and a half months ago (albanian ones) except now in the opposite direction—to the North. To ruin. To horror...
On our way to Prizren, we stopped in Mušutište. ev- erything was packed to go. Tractors, trucks, automobiles. Pain and despair. Some thirty of them gathered in the church. They ask, yet they do not want to listen. We leave for Prizren, and they... We arrived in Prizren at 2:00 p.m. New information: Last night in Prizren some 40 Turkish homes were damaged, several Serb shops and bars, some women were raped... This morning, leaving from Prizren— convoys of military vehicles—ready. a convoy of some 30 buses enters Prizren—for the army. Disintegration, decay, chaos. everything pre-planned, drawn up and realized. ev- erything as i foresaw it and spoke about it many years ago. This is truly the end, not just of Kosovo but also of Serbia— and also of the Serbs. in other places, too (near Prizren, Djakovica, Dečani, Peć) General flight. in many places the army continues to burn, destroy , shoot (Dečani, Peć).
Upon arriving in Prizren at 2:00 p.m. i immediately re- turned father Hariton to the monastery of the Holy Trinity with my blessing to drive all the sisters to the monastery of Gračanica, so they are not alone up in that mountain, when the entire village has left. They could become needless vic- tims of the KLa, which was in the hills above the monas- tery. i believed then that this would be for one or two days until the international forces arrived (naively believing, i admit, that they would immediately establish peace and offer protection to those in danger). Father Hariton carried out the blessing and also was the first to bring news that the Germans had arrived in Prizren. Last night the Rus- sians arrived in Priština (Slatina airport) and today—the British. and so on and so forth.
The next day, on Sunday, june 13, i served in Prizren. Few people came. Fr. Zoran Grujić served in Ljubižda. There the KLa is blocking the village and the church. in Prizren the albanians are in a frenzy—because of the arrival of KFOR. Fr. Zoran barely managed to get to Prizren. They smashed his car under the eyes of KFOR soldiers. The first sign they would not protect us, that they would not stop
the KLa from taking its vengeance and revenge... The Serbs in Prizren in a panic. Many come, ask, seek a solution, an- swers. Contacts with Priština, Peć, Dečani. Radio connec- tions and telephones are in constant use. New news is con- stantly arriving... Djakovica, Dečani, Peć—empty, without a single Serb (with the exception of the monasteries of De- čani and the Peć Patriarchate). Djurakovac, all gone. Ora- hovac and Velika Hoča, ready to head after the army. KFOR (the Germans here) does not guarantee safety (they say there are too few of them for now). in Prizren three Serb victims have already fallen. Many have already moved away. The rest are ready to go. Tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. the last convoy of army and police is leaving Prizren. We, too, and the rest of the people are forced to head after them. But just to Gračanica, under no circumstances from Kosovo. at least for now. Betrayal is obvious. We were not discussed at the negotiations. it appears that the Regime in Belgrade again needs massive victims and the tragedy of the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija. Occasionally, we follow news from the side (VVS, O\U, RTV Montenegro). No light from anywhere.
On Monday, june 14, the KFOR Commander in Priz- ren, called me for talks. We went to the KFOR command. We spoke for more than an hour and i, upon presenting our situation, asked for protection for the Serb population here, in Orahovac and Hoča. Upon returning to the church, i conveyed a message to the gathered people to stay here, and that KFOR had promised to reestablish law and order. The message was not convincing. During the day many had left. Perhaps ten percent of the Serbs in the town re- mained. about 200 people were housed in the Seminary for the night. The others were still in their houses. The eu- phoria of the albanians in the streets. especially the young. and the appearance of the KLa in the streets, in the hos- pital, everywhere. in Ljubižda last night they were search- ing houses, confiscating weapons, beating people up...
The next day, june 15, we learned that the remaining Serbs from yesterday left this morning at about 6:00 a.m. with the last convoy of the army. The ones from the Semi- nary, too. The army ordered buses for them. The few fami- lies that remained asked what they should do. They asked the Church to order buses for them so they can leave. We cannot do that because the Church will not and cannot take part in the permanent dislocation of Serbs from Koso- vo. i said to them: Let everyone make his own decision and take care for himself... just like during two and a half months of bombing and during the entire time of the negotiations (and before the war) the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija were not mentioned anywhere and just like they were no- where mentioned in the signed agreement, the official state media of Belgrade today did not mention one word or talk about the departure of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija (Prizren, Orahovac, Djakovica, Peć, Dečani). The last task of the army was not to leave any Serbs behind. and the army made the effort both in its earlier work and now dur-
802