The killing in Gorazdevac is a terrorist act [1] , which was carried out on August 14, 2003 at 14:00 local time by Albanian terrorists [2] , a group of children who bathed in the Bystrica river in the town of Gorazdevac near the town of Pecs were shot at. As a result of the attack, two children were killed and six more were seriously injured. The injured children were taken to a local hospital, where one of them died from his injuries.
| Murder in Gorazdevac | |
|---|---|
| Overview Information | |
| Place of attack | |
| date | August 14, 2003 at 14 hours local time |
| Attack method | firing from automatic weapons |
| Dead | 2 (3) |
| The wounded | 6 |
In the village of Gorazdevach, where the children were shot, mainly ethnic Serbs lived, who were regularly attacked by the local Albanian population [4] [5] .
Content
Reaction
KFOR
The commander of the KFOR international forces in Kosovo, General Fabio Mini, also promised to take all measures to ensure a “safe life” for Serbs and other national minorities in the province.
Arriving on the same day in Kosovo, the new head of the UN Interim Administration in the province, Hari Holkeri, strongly condemned the attack. He promised that the murderers of children will be brought to justice [6] . He said that he was deeply concerned that the first day he arrived in Kosovo, such a terrible tragedy happened, stressing that the world community does not intend to allow extremists to "undermine the security and future of the region."
GSICH
The Serbian authorities regarded this tragedy as new evidence that the Kosovo governing body of the UN Civilian Mission (UNMIK) and the peacekeeping contingent under NATO command failed to stabilize the situation in that province, which at that time was part of Serbia. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Čović demanded the urgent convening of a meeting of the UN Security Council, saying that the attack "confirms the existence of fascism in Kosovo" [4] . The Foreign Minister of Serbia and Montenegro Goran Svilanovic regarded the incident "as a tragic confirmation of the failure of the work of UN and NATO missions in the region."
Regarding this tragedy, the Patriarch of Serbia Pavel stated [7] [8] :
We call on the honest Albanians of Kosovo and Metohija, as well as the provisional political authorities of Kosovo, to stop these and the like, all the more frequent cruelties and crimes that are committed in Kosovo on behalf of the people, and in reality to the detriment of him and his moral condemnation.
Investigation
Despite the fact that the crime was immediately condemned by the UN Mission in Kosovo , KFOR , officials from Kosovo, the EU, Russia, France and the United States , no perpetrators were found. The UN mission in Kosovo offers $ 1 million for any information about the organizers [4] .
Mass protests took place the next day. Demonstrators blocked the highway Pec - Kosiv Mitrovica, demanding the detention and punishment of the perpetrators, whom they considered Albanian extremists [9] .
See also
- Riots in Kosovo (2004)
- Serbophobia
Notes
- ↑ Dragolyub Gaevich. "ANA" ćuti i ubija (Serbian) // Svedok.
- ↑ Paul, Patriarch of Serbia. Statement by His Holiness Patriarch of Serbia Pavel in connection with the shooting of Serbian children in Kosovo (Russian) // Pravoslavie.Ru . - September 27, 2003.
- ↑ Albanians shot eight Serbian children in Kosovo
- ↑ 1 2 3 Petar Miletich. Gorazdevac one year after the massacre (Eng.) // ERP KIM Info-Service. - August 6, 2004. Archived February 14, 2013.
- ↑ In Kosovo, a gunman shot young children playing on the banks of a river (Russian) // NEWSru.com . - August 13, 2003.
- ↑ Serbian children brutally shot in Kosovo
- ↑ Statement of His Holiness Patriarch of Serbia Pavel in connection with the shooting of Serbian children in Kosovo
- ↑ In Kosovo, Albanian militants shot Serbian children swimming in the river
- ↑ In Kosovo, Serbs held protests, demanding to find the murderers of executed children (Russian) // NEWSru.com . - August 14, 2003.