Page 874 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Metropolitan amfilohije (Radović)
Peć, july 19, 1999. In the village of Opraška, Radisav-Raka Milovanović was found decapitated, with his chest decomposed, while his waist and legs were in a state of decay. Hieromonk David Perović buried him in the vineyard.
new Damjan’s Zelenko show up in Kosovo, like the one from the poem on Mother jugović, into whose lap the ra- vens cast her dead son’s hand plucked away in Kosovo...”
...a famous Priština journalist and publicist, Mirko Ču- pić, has a poem called “The Poplars” which exudes the sim- ilar sorrow a man cannot help but feel in his very bones amid this Serbian disorder and defeat:
Stojanović Sveto from Ljubište, a beautiful village near Vitina, sowed sixty poplars,
to decorate his property.
at every dawn and when the sun sets, He would water them with fresh water, talking to them all day long,
caressing them with his hand.
He protected them from frost and fire,
Fostering them as if they were children,
So that they become high and slim.
There were no such beautiful poplars anywhere else!
Slim, white, high and vivid,
They were truly impeccable.
They were more beautiful each day.
at dawn they would wash their faces with the dew.
One morning, just before sunrise, Svetozar came to his property. His poplars were chopped down. a pain and horror froze his veins!
and he died from sorrow and pain,
Because of the slaughter of his sixty poplars.
The next day they buried him amid mourning making a cross for him from one of his poplar trees!
NaTO Occupation of Old Serbia june 1999
iN PeĆ, aT THe FOOT OF PROKLeTije MOUN- TaiNS, a PRaYeR BeFORe THe iCON OF THe MOTH- eROFGODOFPeĆ
June 1/14, 1999, Martyr Justin the Philosopher et al , vener- able John of Kronstadt, and venerable Justin the New of Ćelije i arrive in the Patriarchate of Peć. There is fear above the city of Peć and the surroundings, at the foot of Prokleti- je Mountains. There is chaos and havoc in the city. The albanians are just arriving; the remaining Serbs are trying to find protection at the italians whose command is locat- ed in the former beer factory. The people huddle outside the gates, no one speaks italian. i arrive asking the soldiers to take me to their commander, General Del Vecchio. The General receives me kindly, obligingly. He does not know anything about the city himself. i explain to him that it is the Patriarchate of Peć that needs to be protected first, as well as the Metropolitanate and the Parochial house in the very city. i know there is a museum somewhere there, too but where exactly—that i don’t know. i mention the Budis-
avci and Gorioč Monasteries.
“We came for peace and conciliation,” the General says.
“We’ll do everything to protect the people!...” i have met him several times before in the Hotel Metohija in the city of Peć and in the Patriarchate near by. That day we already heard about kidnappings and murders [of the Serbs].
...Having arrived in the Patriarchate, i find it in the state of emergency. The Serbs already started fleeing. Djakovica is feverishly becoming empty, as well as her surrounding villages, the very city of Peć and her suburbs. Belo Polje is empty. Goraždevac still hangs in, but a certain number of people started running away even from there, as well as from other villages from this side of the Bistrica of Peć— Ljevoša, Siga, Brestovik... Near Uroševac, the local alba- nians shoot refugees in retreat. They attack the village of Slovinje near Priština...
The nuns themselves being frightened already loaded a truck with the necessities in the monastery backyard of the Patriarchate of Peć. Mother abbess Fevronija was against it, but she could not resist the younger nuns. To her joy, all this was stopped by Patriarch Pavle who gave me the bless- ing to come to this centuries-old seat of the Serbian patri- archs and by my arrival. Not only that such Patriarch’s bless- ing turned out to be beneficial for the monastery, but also, as it happened many other times in the past, for many peo- ple who would find refuge here especially till St. Vitus Day. in the last quarter of the 14th century, during the time of the Holy King Milutin and before the invasion of the asiatic hordes, the seat of the Serbian archbishops was moved here as this monastery used to be a metochion of the Monastery of Žiča. Being an endowment of the Serbian archbishops and patriarchs, the Patriarchate stands under a wondrous
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