Information Service

October 8, 2002, 18.00hrs

ERP KIM News October 8, 2002

Albanian Gunmen Sprayed With Bullets Serbian houses in a Kosovo Village
Serb people from Obilic Area asked more active KFOR and UNMIK protection from Albanian extremists

The member of the Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija, Mirce Jakovljevic, confirmed to the Information Service of the Diocese that on Tuesday morning (Oct 8) a group of gunmen, identified by local Serbs as Kosovo Albanians, sprayed with bullets from their machine guns remaining Serb houses in the village of Janjine Vode, Obilic Municipality, 10 km west from Pristina, Kosovo's capital.

The last in the series of recent attacks occurred after the fixed KFOR and UNMIK checkpoints which were set up after the war to protect this small Serb community were dismantled in an attempt to decrease visible KFOR presence throughout the Province. Similar attacks have occurred elsewhere in Kosovo in the last months said Rada Trajkovic, the leader of the Serb caucus in the Kosovo Parliament. Security cannot be improved by lifting the military checkpoints and at the same time leaving armed Albanian gangs rampaging through Kosovo with impunity, said Dr. Trajkovic. For Kosovo Serbs this incident is one more indication that they cannot be at ease in this UN administered province.

Mr. Jakovljevic confirmed that the Serb representatives of the village requested even before the KFOR checkpoints to be reinstalled but they were refused. The first recent armed attack occured on Friday, October 4., when several rounds of machine gun fire were fired at the houses of Radivoje Andjelkovic and Ljubinko Andjelkovic, who died after being seriously injured in an attack two years ago (see down). Local Serbs say that no one was injured in the latest attacks but fear that such incidents may repeat because Kosovo Albanians see that Serb population in this volatile municipality is helpless.

Exactly 54 Serbs at Janjine Vode and few hundreds more remaining Serbs in Crkvena Vodica and Oblic town are the only remaining Serb population in part of municipality. After the end of war and the deployment of NATO led peacekeepers and UN Mission the majority of Serb population had to leave this area in fear of violence by Kosovo Albanian UCK / KLA extremists. Since then the life of remaining Serbs has been very difficult and many of them complain that with such discriminatory treatement no life in Kosovo will be possible for them in future. A bitter feeling remains that the UN Mission failed to bring freedom for all but still tolerates a rule of one ethnicity which almost completely purged Serbs and other non-Albanians from this area.


FROM THE NEWS ARCHIVE - PREVIOUS NEWS ON SERBS IN JANJINE VODE VILLAGE

Blic - Belgrade Daily (August 22, 2002)
Blic: Reporters' notes in the village of Janjine Vode near Obilic

In a mixed village of Janjine Vode near Obilic, in isolation and surrounded by Albanians, without electricity and water, without the possibility to glance behind the high walls of the yard, 54 Serbs live. "Forgotten by the Belgrade authorities, because no official has entered the village since the withdrawal of the army and police in 1999," they expect someone from the authorized ministries to "have mercy" and respond to numerous requests regarding aid, if the inhabitants of the village of Janjine Vode, mostly former employees of the Kosovo Power Industry and the 'Belacevac' Mine, are still on the list of the citizens of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

October 18, 2000 Media Club, Montenegro

ANTI-TANK MINE KILLS SERB, INJURES ANOTHER

PRISTINA - One person of the Serb nationality was killed, another was seriously injured on Sunday night, when their vehicle hit an anti-tank mine in the village of Janjine Vode near Pristina, Serb sources in Kosovo claimed, Beta reported.
Beta was told that Radosav Ognjenovic (41) was killed, and Ljubinko Andjelkovic injured.
The same source claimed that the mine went off only 200 metres from Ognjenovic's and Andjelkovic's house, on the road they usually used. Andjelkovic was transported to the Kosovska Mitrovica hospital in critical condition.

Information Service of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren
Kosovo and Metohija