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Kosovo Serbs find desecrated cemetery
3 August 2009 | 11:33 | Source: B92
VUČITRN -- Several hundred Serbs from Vučitrn in Kosovo yesterday visited the graves of their loved ones for the first time in ten years.
The Serbs were forced to leave their homes in great numbers during the war in 1999, and left the graveyard intact.
But on Sunday – the religious holiday of St. Ilija (Elijah) – they found almost all the tombstones either destroyed or damaged. There are more than 200 graves there, some the resting places of entire families.
The 19th century church dedicated to the saint was burned down and demolished by ethnic Albanians in March 2004, to now be partially reconstructed.
The municipality in Vučitrn, helped by the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija, decided to clean up the cemetery for this year's St. Ilija. Until two months ago it was covered in weed and undergrowth.
The exiled Serbs say they would gladly return to their town, but Dragiša Murganić, a former municipal official, says they do not believe that they can do that.
"Today's gathering bears testimony in its own way of the Serbs' mood to return to Vučitrn, but I don't think the conditions are there yet. In time, I believe there would be," he said.
A church service dedicated to the souls of the dead was also served.
The Kosovo police, KPS, secured the visiting Serbs. While they were gathered at the cemetery, gunshots were heard from nearby.
Police told our reporter that the shooting was heard from Albanian houses close to the church, who were "celebrating a wedding" in this way.
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