Days of ethnic cleansing and nights in which centuries of Serbian existence burned, recorded in the frescoes of Orthodox shrines.
March pogrom - chronology of events in Kosovo and Metohija 15 - 19.03.2004.
On the main road Skopje - Pristina, Albanians are 15.03.2004. wounded the boy J. Ivić, who was in a serious condition, was transferred to the Mitrovica hospital in the north of Kosovo and Metohija for further treatment. Serbs from Čaglavica, an enclave 5 km from Pristina, and the surrounding villages, block the main road in protest. There is an incident with local Albanians, and due to KFOR's ban on Serbs from Gračanica to join the protest, the Serbs block the Pristina-Gnjilan road leading past the Gračanica monastery.
Two days later, 17.03.2004. following the fake news published by the local RTK, that in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, where Serbs mostly live, "2 Albanian boys drowned because the Serbs chased them with dogs", general Albanian organized chaos is moving throughout Kosovo and Metohija, first of all by occupying the police station no. 3 in the Vranjevac settlement at the exit from Pristina towards Podujevo. After setting fire to the police station, they start to forcibly enter Čaglavica and at 7 pm they first gather, stone and then burn the YU Program building in Pristina, where at that moment there are 30 Serbs with 15 small children.
During that time, the attempt to evacuate the Serbs from Pristina fails, the local Serbs who work for the UN are transferred to central Serbia, and we in the mission are recommended not to return to our apartments, but to go to Skopje. We who did not want to leave are sitting imprisoned in the main UNMIK building in Pristina.
Through a local acquaintance, I manage to get out of the building with a few others on my own responsibility and head towards the YU Program and to all the addresses in Pristina where I knew another Serb lived. Towards Caglavica chaos. The Swedish KFOR, which is under the command of the MNB Center (Multinational Brigade under the command of the British), is no longer able to resist any kind of attack by armed Albanians who have already set several houses and cars on fire at the beginning of the village. The Kosovo police are silent under the pretext that the chain of command is in the hands of the UN police. The local Serbian population of all generations, together with the Swedes, enters into a direct conflict with the Albanian demonstrators. At 10 p.m., the YU Program in Pristina is already on fire. The evacuation of the Serbs upon learning that among the remaining Serbs gathered in one apartment is a journalist who works for foreign media, is carried out by American special forces with full military equipment, tanks and combat vehicles. They rescue them and hand them over to British soldiers. I am among them, I am waiting for them by the chariots. As soon as I took the child from the hands of a woman, a volley of fire started on us, and then there was an attack by KFOR, military special forces and armed Albanians in the Ulpijana settlement, 10 steps from the headquarters of R. Haradinaj's party. The British placed that group in their base at the exit from Pristina. Veternik, a settlement at the entrance to Čaglavica, looks like a battlefield. The Albanians move across the fields and the main road through the village of Ajvalija to occupy Gračanica. At that moment, the attack on the place of Obilić, where Serbs also live in one of the buildings of the YU program, and the burning of the Church of St. Nicholas in Pristina. At 02:00 in the morning, I received a call that priest Miroslav was hiding in the parish house behind some barrels and that I should go there. I am asking the British who are becoming powerless because they are bringing all the Serbs who are barely alive from the surrounding areas of Pristina to the base, but we are still heading towards the church. The smell of fire, smoke, soot in the nostrils, soot and tears down the face. I don't know where mine are, I don't know if they're alive, I don't know if I'll ever see them again. With these thoughts, we arrive in front of the church of St. Nikola disappearing before my eyes in flames. The battlefield around the church, I get out of the chariot to accept Father Miroslav, who at that moment is carrying a lamp and 3 icons in his hands.
The UN is silent. Pristina too. Shut up, what's worse official Belgrade too. And MPs of Serbian nationality who have already entered Kosovo* institutions are also silent. They are not found anywhere, and they are even in the government* so-called. of Kosovo*. My heart is in my throat. They report that they have started on both bridges and that the fighting for northern Mitrovica is ongoing. I'm leaving for Obilić. I request that professionals and the team conduct an interview with the boys. I feel a lie because everything is thought out in such detail and memorized to the letter!
On March 18, the American KFOR units leave, and when they refuse to withdraw for the third time, an armed attack is launched against the Albanian demonstrators. That opened the way for Serbs from Lipljan, Kišnica, and K. Polje to come to Gracanica. Through the connection, I hear that 9 churches and monasteries are burning in Prizren, that 1 Serb is dead, and that the German KFOR managed to extract and defend 58 Serbs in their base, which was also attacked by the Albanians. The seminary and the Episcopal building also caught fire.
In Peć, after the UN killed a KLA, 3 churches next to the Old Metropolis were set on fire and the Orthodox cemetery was desecrated. In the night between 18.03 and 19.03 after Obilić, where the buildings and the local police remained on fire. station, I'm going to Mitrovica.
I sat there, dirty, sooty and distraught...next to a French soldier and a few Serbs near the bridge from the Serbian side. Below, in the southern part, Albanian flags are flying because they managed to break through the blockade the day before, but were sent back to the south. Then 2 persons of Serbian nationality were killed and a Bulgarian UN police officer was seriously wounded. Mitrovica hospital full of wounded, people on their feet, general panic and fear. The surviving Serbs from places closer to northern Mitrovica (mostly from the village of Svinjare) as well as part of the Serbs from Obilić who lived near the Kosovo B TPP are being brought in armored vehicles. 19.03. while the shelling of the northern part from the direction of the Tamnik settlement continues, we expose the lie of the boy who clearly said that he was instructed to say what he said. It is true that on the way to the Ibro they did not meet a single Serb, not one with a dog chasing them. During the exchange of fire with KFOR, 1 Albanian sniper killed her. The next day, March 20, I returned to the British base. That evening, the soup with onions and a piece of steak in a plastic plate with a plastic spoon, was the first thing I took in those 4 days, apart from water. Finally, the Red Cross got involved. In those days, RTK continued to fuel the fire by allowing cameramen to enter the operating theaters where there were Albanians who were shot by KFOR.
The balance is terrible. KFOR briefly admitted that the powerless called on the local population of the Serbian nation to defend itself because they could not "guarantee the protection of life, property and the SOC". UNMIK washed its hands, although the UN police and special units did their best, but they were not an army, nor did they have weapons for such organized armed operations. Due to this shameful impotence of the international mission in Kosovo, the head of UNMIK, Harry Holkeri, resigned as the head of the mission. It's useless!
Some pictures can never be erased or the shame washed away.
P.S. The photos are only part of my private archive.
