25 years marked in Velika Hoca in Kosovo since killings of Serbs and Romani in the municipality of Orahovac

Photo: Pixabay.com/Illustration

In Velika Hoca, 25 years have been marked since the perishing of Serbs and Romani people in the municipality of Orahovac.

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Next to a monument to the abducted and murdered Serbs, the local priest Milan Stojkovic served the memorial service, and flowers and wreaths were laid by the surviving family members, relatives and neighbors of the victims.

The anniversary was also attended by the Deputy Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Borislav Tajic.

On July 18, in 1998, members of the so-called "Kosovo Liberation Army" carried out a mass abduction and execution of Serbs and Romani in the area of the municipality.

In the period from July 17 to 22, 1998, more than 100 Serbs and Romani, mostly civilians, were abducted and taken to so-called KLA prisons and camps.

During the first attack, seven people were killed, and in July 1998 alone, 47 Serbs and Romani were killed in this municipality. The abductions, murders and burning of Serb and Romani houses continued later, so that the entire Serb population was expelled from the villages of Retimlje, Opterusa and Zociste during 1998 and 1999.

From the village of Retimlje alone, 14 male members of the Kostic family were abducted in one day, and on the same day, from the Serbian Orthodox Christian monastery of Saints Kozma and Damjan in Zociste, which dates back to the 11th century, six monks were abducted, who on July 22, after the intervention of the OSCE and the International Red Cross, got released.

Two more women and two sick men from the villages of Retimlje and Opterusa, as well as elderly people from the village of Zociste, were also freed that time.

Many inhabitants of this region, of Serb and Romani nationality, are still listed as missing. Through DNA analysis, 36 persons whoe remains were found in the Malisevo and Volujak mass graves have been identified. They were abducted in July. 1998 in the area of Orahovac. A number of remains of abducted persons from the period 1999 to 2000 were found in individual graves and buried in places chosen by the families.

The Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija presented the details of the kidnapping and murder of Serbs from Orahovac and its surroundings to all competent institutions that collected data on abducted, missing and murdered persons, but no one has been held accountable for the crimes committed in the municipality of Orahovac.

A memorial service was also held on Tuesday at the Orlovaca cemetery near Belgrade, where 25 murdered Serbs from this part of Metohija are buried.

(Telegraf.rs)