Page 888 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Metropolitan amfilohije (Radović)
has a new mission—to protect the Serbian people in Koso- vo from the edge of Kosovo!”
We leave for Visoki Dečani with His Holiness from where the Patriarch continues his trip for Belgrade in order to attend the regular session of the Holy Synod. after the Liturgy in Gračanica, Bishop artemije holds a Great Na- tional assembly in Kosovo Polje, and then leaves for Gn- jilane and the surrounding areas. Bishop atanasije of Her- zegovina is in Kosovska Mitrovica, and then in Lipljane and Uroševac where there are only a few Serbs left. Vučitrn has remained without any Serbs, the church and the paro- chial house there have been burned down. i return from Dečani to the Patriarchate with my associates. a bunch of albanians have looted and burned about twenty Serbian houses in the village of Grace, near Babin Most. all resi- dents have fled. The British soldiers from KFOR, although being very close, did not intervene, but continued to peace- fully regulate the traffic on the road during the looting of villages, while the albanians drove tractors and cars full of Serbian property returning them empty to get new quanti- ties.
Radovan Bulatović (69), son of Blažo, has been killed in Peć. They inform us: the people near the institute toward Vitomirica are under siege—they are in need of urgent aid. a fresh news: the albanians are breaking the buildings at the Metropolitanate—the parochial house and the rest. The italian guards are not there.
Drenovac: a sick old woman, Božana jovanović and her son Vojislav have stayed. Nothing is known about them. We went and visited their house. We did not find anyone there.
We find out: Serbian Klina completely moved out on june 17.
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How are we going to bury the killed in Belo Polje? We leave, with Father Miljko Korinćanin, Father Radomir Nik- čević and others, for Belo Polje at 5pm to bury the sorrow- ful brothers Radomir and Čedo Stošić as well as Filip Kostić. all three of them were killed by a bullet in the forehead. One of them we found on the first floor covered in blood. Right above him, there was a portrait of Slobodan Miloše- vić along the entire wall, all the way to the loft. The other two were nailed by the wall in front of the entrance door, a bullet pierced their brains. They had rubber footwear on their feet, dressed as if they had just returned from the fields, doing their daily rustic work.22 We rapped them up
22 The only survivor, Mirko Stošić, later on testified that, while they were sitting at home, a group of albanians came and called Čedo to come to them: “Come here and look at me in the eye!” and when he approached, one of the albanians fired two shots in his fore- head. Mirko ran to them stunned: “You’ve killed my brother!” “This is your brother? You, too come here!” and they fired two bullets in his head, too. He was taken one of the bullets out in the hospital, while the other one has remained in the forehead because it got stuck in an awkward place, so he still carries it. Then they killed Filip and Rado.
in the blankets we brought from the Patriarchate. One can- not even think of the coffins here. We carried them on our hands closer to the cemetery, placing them next to one an- other on a table we got somewhere and held a funeral ser- vice. The funeral service was filmed by some foreign TV crews. There were italian carabineers around us with their machine guns at the ready. The desolate villages looked petrified, and the mountain ranges were silent. The birds were quiet, you could only hear the boom shots from the buildings on the other side of the cemetery... The italian rushed us. and rightfully so. We were a good target for the KLa bandits. The italians took Pavle Djukić and his elderly mother jevrosima out of the village.
We find out from the italians this, too: Miloš Ćirković, a 38 year old forester, a guide of the Serbian special forces in war who “knew perfectly every tree, every crest,” stayed completely alone in his home village. He stayed to defend the village. i send Father Radomir Nikčević together with a young man from the Stošić family to greet him and ask in my name to please move with us to the Patriarchate. Fr. Radomir finds him armed and dressed in his military uni- form. He does not want to take it off. The only Serbian sol- dier in uniform in Kosovo and Metohija after the june 1999 withdrawal. Fr. Radomir extends the greetings to him and the message. He begs him for the sake of Christ, persis- tently trying to convince him to come with us. The young Stošić begs him, too. and he replies, unearthly determined and earthly harsh: “You’d better shut up, so that i don’t kill you! Shame on you, you all betrayed!... You go, i am stay- ing!...”
The last defender of the Serbian Church and the people in this pogrom, ready to die “for the king and fatherland,” Fr. Radomir tells us upon his return. “His house is all drilled. He is barricaded in the blind concrete corner on the ground floor with a bunch of ammunition lying around, deter- mined to defend his door step to the death. He thanks us for the care and greetings, but steadfastly refuses to leave home, pronouncedly stopping any further persuasion... “Shaken by the determination of the lone warrior, Father Radomir greets him at parting blessing him on his last ven- ture with these words: “You have chosen a good part, Miloš of the Obilić heart! May God bless you in your good en- deavor, Miloš Ćirković!...”
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Upon returning to the Patriarchate, we soon went to Petrič. We were informed that Aco Grujić, Radomir and one more person were kidnapped. We visited their desert- ed house. There were two dogs tied next to it. already run- ning wild with hunger, they howl. The wailing is heard to the sky, they look more like wolves. My soul still hurts me today ...We should have told the italians to deliver them from pain. after the albanian attack, the village of Slivovo of 40 Serbian homes, all poured in Gračanica. in Sofalija there were 25 Serbian homes burned. Vladimir and Persa Stanisavljević refused to leave the house in Priština and
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