Service held for Orahovac victims
18. July 2011. | 18:15
Source: Emg.rs, Tanjug
A service was held Monday at the St. Procopius Church at the Belgrade cemetery of Orlovaca for the victims of Albanian separatists, members of the terrorist organization known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who were killed 13 years ago in the Kosovo town of Orahovac.
A service was held Monday at the St. Procopius Church at the Belgrade cemetery of Orlovaca for the victims of Albanian separatists, members of the terrorist organization known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who were killed 13 years ago in the Kosovo town of Orahovac.
In the attacks of July 1998, a total of 47 people were killed on the spot or kidnapped and later executed. Three of them were Roma, the rest Serbs.
After the service, members of the Association of families of kidnapped and missing persons in Kosovo lit candles and laid wreaths at the graves of their loved ones.
They also laid wreaths at the grave which holds the remains of two unidentified victims.
Of the 36 identified victims, the Orlovaca cemetery is the resting place for 23 victims from the villages of Retimlje and Opterusa, and Svetozar Tomic from Pristina, who was kidnaped on the road from Djakovica to Orahovac. The other victims were buried near their displaced families.
Association President Olgica Bozanic, originally from the Kostic family which has 14 members buried at Orlovaca, told Tanjug that "the victims' families are angry nobody has been held responsible for the exile, abuse, kidnappings and killings of civilians."
"Our property is still usurped, houses destroyed, burned down, and overgrown by weeds," she said, pointing out the names of the 21 KLA members who committed the crimes were known.
She noted that the organ trafficking report from Council of Europe raporteur Dick Marty contained a testimony from an Albanian who transported kidnapped Serbs from Kosovo to Albania.
The Orahovac case was investigated by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which did not bring any charges, and later by UNMIK's international court.
In September 2010, the EULEX prosecutor's office started an investigation which led to the arrest of two Albanians from the village of Opterusa this spring. They are being tried on charges of the exile of Serbs from the villages of Retimlje and Opterusa, but no one has been charged with the murders, kidnappings and abuse.
The Serbian war crimes court brought charges against Albanian Sinan Morina, but he was released due to lack of evidence.
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