26 YEARS SINCE THE MURDER OF SERB HARVESTERS, CRIME REMAINS UNSOLVED

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, JULY 23 /SRNA/ – Today marks 26 years since the brutal massacre in the village of Staro Gracko near Lipljan, where 14 Serb harvesters were killed while gathering the summer crop near their homes.

On this day in 1999, Milovan Jovanović, Jovica and Rade Živić, Andrija Odalović, Slobodan, Mile, Novica and Momčilo Janićijević, Stanimir and Božidar Đekić, Saša and Ljubiša Cvejić, Nikola Stojanović, and Miodrag Tepšić were ambushed, killed, and mutilated. The youngest among them, Novica Janićijević, was only 17 years old. The perpetrators remain at large, and international justice institutions in Kosovo and Metohija closed the case. This is one of the biggest crimes committed in Kosovo and Metohija after the arrival of international forces. The massacre occurred about ten days after the arrival of international troops. Staro Gracko was under the control of British KFOR soldiers. KFOR troops found the bodies of 13 Serbs lined up near the combine harvester, while the 14th body was found riddled with bullets on a tractor about ten meters away. The British soldiers conducted an investigation and identified possible perpetrators among local Albanians, but for UNMIK investigators, the perpetrators “vanished without a trace.” After EULEX took over the case from UNMIK, the investigation was closed due to a lack of evidence, despite the fact that one of the murdered Serbs’ gun was found during the investigation at the home of one of the Albanian suspects. Records note that in October 2007, Miljazim Bitići from the village of Veliki Alaš was arrested on suspicion of participating in the murders, but he was released two months later due to lack of evidence. The cemetery in Staro Gracko where the victims are buried has been desecrated and destroyed multiple times. The Office for Kosovo and Metohija stated that the crimes of the terrorist KLA are covered by a veil of silence, but Serbia and the Serbian people will never remain silent or let their martyrs on Kosovo be forgotten. “They were executed cowardly, with bursts of gunfire at close range, and although it is clear that the perpetrators of this horrific crime were members of the then still un-disbanded terrorist KLA, none of the murderers has been brought to justice,” the Office reminded.