15 years since murder of 14 Serb reapers

LIPLJAN - A commemoration was held in the village of Staro Gracko on Wednesday to mark 15 years since the killing of 14 Serb reapers in the municipality of Lipljan in northern Kosovo-Metohija (KiM).

Director of the Office for KiM Marko Djuric said after the commemoration that the state of Serbia will insist on bringing the perpetrators to justice.
“Fifteen years have passed, and there is still no sign that those accountable for this horrendous crime will be brought to justice,” he noted.

Djuric said that the objective of those who committed the massacre was to ensure that “there are no Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija” and underscored that Serbia will fight for this objective never to be achieved and crimes never to happen again.

He underlined that Serbs want to live in peace with their neighbors Albanians.

Slavica Popovic, whose father and uncle were killed, notes that no one has been held responsible for the crime so far, while Serbs in KiM are being arrested on false suspicions.

Serbs in Staro Gracko still do not have the freedom of movement, and visit the graves of their dearest ones only in organized groups, as they are afraid they might step on a land mine, she added.

Verica, mother of the killed minor Novica Janicijevic, said that it is possible to locate killers everyone in the world, but not in Kosovo.
“They did not do any harm to everyone. My son was only 17 when they killed him,” she said in tears.

The commemoration brought together ministers in the Kosovo government Slobodan Petrovic and Dalibor Jevtic, mayors of certain municipalities, Serb MPs in the Kosovo parliament, and MP from KiM in the Serbian parliament Vladeta Kostic.

On July 23, 1999, 14 Serb...