Bogdan suffered worst wounds: "I took 8th bullet, heard crying and screaming. Injustice hurts more"

Exactly 17 years ago, at the Bistrica River in Gorazdevac, near Pec, in Metohija, one of the most horrific crimes in recent Serbian history took place, when unknown assailants fired from automatic weapons at Serb children and teenagers swimming in the river.

Ivan Jovovic (19) and Pantelija Dakic (12) died in that crime in Gorazdevac, while Djordje Ugrenovic (20), Bogdan Bukumiric (15), Marko Bogicevic (12) and Dragana Srbljak (13) were seriously wounded.

No one has yet answered for the crime

On this day, a memorial service for the victims will be held in the village church, while those who survived the massacre will face another year without justice, because not only have the perpetrators not been arrested and punished, but they have not even been identified.

No one has yet answered for this crime, and EULEX has, as stated, closed the investigation due to lack of evidence. After the murder of the children, UNMIK said that an unknown number of people had shot at them from the bushes, using AK-47s.

August 13, 2003

Metohija is certainly one of the most beautiful parts of Serbia, known for its clean and clear waters. When the sun is high, before fresh air descends from the mountains, it can be humid and hot in its planes, as in any valley. That was exactly the case on August 13, 2013, when a group of children from Gorazdevac headed to the Bistrica, in order to cool off and feel carefree and relaxed at least for a while, because they lived without freedom for years, surrounded by Albanians. They had no idea what was waiting for them, and although they had felt hatred against them very early on, not even in their worst nightmares could they imagine that someone could shoot at a group of children, out of the blue.

Bogdan Bukumiric, who was only 15 at the time, was the most severely wounded in the attack. He remembers that he asked his father to let him go to the river, and that he said no at first because the water was cold, but soon relented and the boy ran to the river, where he joined many more children and adults.

Bogdan's story

"Although children in Kosovo and Metohija matured and grew up too early, this event was something that changed our lives completely and threw us off. From this time distance, I look at the whole event differently, but then as a child I was not aware of what had actually happened and how terrible it all was. Even after so many years, the pain is the same, the pain for Panta and Ivan, and what hurts the most is the injustice, that the criminals, the monsters, the villains have not been punished, that hurts more than my wounds and scars. The years go by, but the pain remains," Bogdan begins his story.

He says that he has been waiting every day, for 17 years, for a call letting him know that the monsters have been brought to justice, but that it has not yet come.

The water was so cold, as his father had warned him it would be, that he soon went out of the river and approached a fire his friends had started to roast corn. At that moment, gunfire started from a nearby forest.

"Three bullets hit me in my left side and threw me away. I know that part of the forest from which the monsters fired, I turned abruptly, two more bullets hit me in the chest and stomach. I could no longer stand on my feet and as I was falling, a bullet hit me on the right side of my head, and the eighth grazed my left leg. I tried to get up, I heard crying, screaming, and I was still not aware of what was happening," Bogdan brings back memories of that day.

Bogdan, who was seriously wounded, was first transferred to an Italian KFOR base where he was given first aid, but while they were waiting for their doctors to arrive, he was transferred to the village hospital.

"Two neighbors, Milovan Pavlovic and Rajko Jandzikovic, as well as my brother went to the KFOR base in Pec, then our car broke down at the market, Albanians saw Serbian license plates and attacked us, hit us, our neighbor tried to protect me. I was conscious at that point. Two KFOR patrols came by and that group ran away. Then I fell into a coma. They told me that I was transferred to the hospital in Pec, my bed was next to the father of Panta, who was killed, he was holding our hands. After three hours of convincing the doctor to transfer me to the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica, KFOR finally provided a helicopter, and my friend Marko and I were on it."

Only a 4 percent chance of survival

"The helicopter was on its way to Prizren, Marko was left at a German KFOR base, and I was transferred to the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, to the French hospital. In the meantime, Dr. Milena Cvetkovic, an anesthesiologist from (northern) Mitrovica, ravely decided to come on her own, unaccompanied, to the southern part of the town to supervise the surgery on my spleen, which had to be removed because a bullet passed through it. She asked what was wrong with my head, they called a neurosurgeon, but she panicked and insisted that I should be transferred to Belgrade, to the Military Medical Academy. Surgery could not be done then, because I had too little blood in my body. They told me they gave me only a 4 percent chance of survival. I had two surgeries the next day. On the day of the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, I started waking up from the coma, I didn't know what was happening," says Bogdan.

During the six months he spent in the hospital, Bogdan had six major surgeries, four on his head and two on his abdomen. He found out about the death of his friends from the media.

"It was very hard for me when I read that, when I found out that they were killed and that others were wounded. My fate was uncertain, too, although I survived. I arrived in Gorazdevac in March 2004 and making sure that no one knew, I went to the place where we were swimming and where everything happened. At first I cried, it was very difficult for me even though eight months had passed. Every second and minute, for 17 years, it’s here inside me. There is no desire for revenge, only for justice. The families of the dead and the wounded deserve justice, because we are all victims. I continued to go to school and have my check-ups," says Bogdan.

Due to the frequent check-ups and examinations, Bogdan lives in Belgrade, and is now married and a father of two girls. He often returns to Metohija in his thoughts, walking on the bank of the Bistrica.

"Summer scenes from the Bistrica are remembered for bad things, but the winter ones are nice. I tell the girls about Metohija and we go there often. Because of the force of circumstances, I am in Belgrade," he added.

Silence is also a crime

"My future was stopped then, I dreamed as a boy of living freely and carefree, without wars. My plan was to finish school and realize myself as a parent. However, my youth, the best years, were taken away from me by the monsters. Silence is also a crime," was Bogdan's message for all competent institutions and individuals involved in the case of shedding light on this crime.

(Sladjana Tasic)