The witness I speak about stopped by
the house of Stanoje Ljušić before departing, where he saw Stanoje, Radoje
Vulic (Vulić), Misko Vulic, Stanica Vulic, Petar Djuric (Đurić) and Djurdja
Vulic for the last time. He could not see Mikailo Vulic because he was lying in
the house in a death rattle. He was told then that Stanoje managed to arrive at
the Istok police station, which was already occupied by members of UÇK (KLA), and that he was told it was best for
the remaining Serbs to gather in one place, so they can guard them with ease.
The ones gathered at Stanoje’s house were discussing that day about where to
bury Mikailo, who was dying. They agreed they would do it in the yard of the
house after they've wrapped him up in a blanket. One of the Albanians that
found himself in the vicinity of the dire house said only: that it was
horrible, the cries for help and screaming along with the howling of the
murderers was heard, and after that, the house was burnt down".
Other victims from Istok were murdered
individually, how and where they were found at the moment. One of the witnesses
later stated that he saw corpses of Serbs on the market place along the mosque
wall. It is evident that Ljubomirka Đurić wasn’t in the house
with the rest of the Serbs because her apartment was located in the center of
the city. It is most likely that she did not even leave the apartment, where
she probably met her executioners. The stories that state that she was thrown
from the terrace of her apartment (fifth floor) are unreliable because there is
a small possibility that she was carried to the cattle market afterwards. The
body was found in the river, with the poor woman being massacred with multiple
knife stabs.
The sons of Filip Milosavljevic
(Milosavljević) and above mentioned Ljubomirka carry heavy scars on their souls
and bitter memories. They wanted to annihilate them throughout the entire
continuance of their family. In 1979, an Albanian man walked into the office of
Dubrava Company’s director and emptied an entire gun clip into the chest of
Filip Fica Milosavljevic, their father. Only God rescued him from certain
death. The projectiles from Zastava M57 (tetejac-aunty) were so powerful
that they penetrated through his entire body and that’s what saved him. What
was started then was finished a couple of years later. Their mother Ljubomirka,
a quiet and humble woman, guilty or obliged to no one, suffered only because
she stayed in her hometown, in her apartment, because she was Serbian and
because she was a mother. She was guilty of nothing else and it was not enough
for the villains to murder her, but they stabbed the poor woman as much as they
could, apparently even after she was already dead. A similar faith came upon
Radoje and Mikailo Vulic, as well. Radoje Vulic, when he was 14, in 1941, had
his soles cut with a knife by the Albanians from the Redzaj family. In 1999, he
was murdered by the members of UÇK
(KLA - Kosovo Liberation Army). Mikailo Vulic
was wounded on November 16, 1944. Istok was „liberated” the next day. He too was
murdered in 1999. My relative Petar Djuric is among the murdered people as
well.
About the faith of Ljupka – Ljubomirka, about the final outcome, today
we know the following: she was slaughtered at the end of June or at the
beginning of July in 1999. However, about how she has spent her last days of
life, when she was kidnapped and who slaughtered and massacred her, almost
nothing is known or isn’t known for sure. It is known that she was taken and
murdered at the former cattle market in Istok, on the same spot where the
Partisans once shot the former mayor of the Istok municipality and commander of
the Istok Chetnik squad Radovan Rale Vulic, together with Stale Krstic (Krstić)
and Radomir Pumpalovic (Pumpalović).
The attached photos speak of the manner this woman’s life was ended.
They were given to me, alongside the permission to publish them, by her son
Gavrilo. On them, the investigation of at least three bodies is seen, from
which one was probably the body of Ljubomirka Djuric (Đurić). (Five days after
publishing this article a close relative who recognized the personal things of
Ljubomirka Djuric: the ring and the keychain, reached out to me). According to
those photos, UNMIK apparently found the body, performed the investigation and
that’s where it all ended. After all this time, her sons still don’t know what
happened to the body of the unfortunate woman. It is incredible that after 18
years every track is lost, even though it is evident and cannot be stated that
the victim is missing or that nothing is known of her faith. Until this day,
today, no one is being prosecuted for this and many other crimes.
UN Human Rights Advisory Commission on September 12,
2012, with the members Marek Nowicki, Paul Lemmens and Christine Chinkin, by
the subject no. 163/09, and answering to the appeal filed by Ljubomirka’s son
Gavrilo Milosavljevic, on April 8, 2009, in which he “complains about the
lack of proper criminal investigation”, unanimously “proclaimed the
appeal admissible”. The same board, which was in session from December 9 –
14, 2014, to the appeal of Ljubomirka’s son Gavrilo Milosavljevic, „stated
that UNMIK could have done a more thorough investigation“. A few days
later, in the presented document, the board consisting of Marek Nowicki,
Christine Chinkin and Françoise Tulkens, to the same appeal state that „the
appellant stated that in 1999, with the date not marked, perpetrators of
Albanian nationality kidnapped Mrs Ljubomirka Đurić from her apartment in
Istok”.
The investigation was opened with the
first document being entered on April 2, 2001, but it didn’t provide almost any
results regarding the case of Ljubomirka Djuric. What is interesting is that
the investigation presented here is mentioned nowhere. They speak about
searching for the grave of the unfortunate woman while it is more than obvious
that UNMIK themselves buried the body. It is not until January 2005 that an
Albanian witness appeared and claimed that he spoke to D.K., who said to him
that she is moving to the apartment of Ljubomirka Djuric, and he testified that
the two spent their last days there and that they were murdered together. The
cattle market is mentioned as a possible execution/crime scene. The witness is
no longer mentioned. The board states “that investigative actions in the
case of Ljubomirka Đurić were not performed extensively as in other cases, and
that such passivity and omission of the UNMIK police led to the loss of
potential evidence”, and concludes: “that there was a violation of the procedural
commitment in accordance with article 2. of the European Convention on Human
Rights”.
This is everything concerning the
investigation. It can be understood, although it is hardly understandable,
since an entire army of soldiers, police officers and investigators came to
Kosovo and Metohija after our retreat, that any trace of someone was lost, that
there is simply no evidence about the whereabouts of a missing and murdered
person’s remains. The proportions of suffering are especially horrific for the
families who suspect that their loved ones were taken to Albania for the
extraction and sale of human organs. But it is difficult to understand that
every trace of a murdered person, who was found and forensically processed
(which we prove here), gets lost. In doing so, it is unknown of who to blame
more: whether the foreign people who did not care much about the faith of
Serbs, at the end, they didn’t even come because of that, or our State
authorities who didn’t do everything in their power to find the information, at
least what is necessary for the families to bury the remains of their loved
ones.
I do not have doubt that everything
will be revealed someday. Sometimes more, sometimes less time passes until the
facts are revealed. If anyone can help to find out the truth (and get justice)
sooner: they should help. What we will never find out and will never be able to
understand is how all those people, including Ljupka, felt while waiting for their
death to come. What was in their souls, besides fear, we will hardly
understand, except that maybe they were saying goodbye to their loved ones, in
their minds. While they were waiting for death however, I think that they did
not live misguided that mercy will be shown to them. They consciously picked
their victim, in a Jesus and martyr manner. Their sacrifice will, however, be
futile if we don’t do our best to find out the truth about their ending and
executioners. And our sin will be: if we stay silent!
The essence and background of this
appeal is in the following: we want to alarm the public in this manner, which
will then put pressure, across media and public figures, on the EULEX and
Office of Kosovo and Metohija authorities, that based on the recorded number of
cases, which were enclosed as videos, at least the remains be found, so that
the family can bury them with dignity, after almost two decades.
