Many families in Kosovo still know nothing about the fate of their relatives who were forcibly disappeared by Serbian forces during the 1999 war.
Not only is it still unknown what happened to them and where their remains are located, but Aleksandar Vučić’s regime is doing everything it can to keep hidden the evidence of some of the most monstrous crimes a human being can commit.
The latest case involves the discovery of a suspected mass grave in northern Kosovo.
Immediately after the excavations began, Serbian authorities arrested a Kosovo Serb in Serbia.
He is believed to have told UNMIK and the Kosovo Police in 2003 what had happened in an incident in which more than 20 Albanian civilians were killed. As part of the ethnic cleansing taking place at the time, they had been expelled from their homes by Serbian forces and were traveling on foot toward Montenegro.
Below is the shocking testimony describing what allegedly happened on 19 April 1999.
“During the war, when I arrived in Velika Kolludra, my grandmother informed me that a group of Albanian civilians had set off on foot and had reached the village of Malla Kolludra, on the ‘Orlujak’ mountain of this village. The group was spotted by the villager Jovica Utvić (Bučak-Artemije). He immediately stopped them and ordered them to hand over all the money they had with them, as well as their other valuables and gold.”
But robbing them was not enough for him. After taking the last possessions they had left, after they had already been expelled from their homes by the Serbian army and police, he decided to take their lives as well.
“They gave everything to him, hoping that Jovica would allow them to continue toward Ulcinj, as the Albanian civilians had said. After taking their money, Jovica ordered them to continue walking, but immediately after they turned their backs, he emptied an entire magazine, 30 bullets, into them, tearing them apart and killing them.”
But the horror did not end there.
Several witnesses informed the Serbian police, who not only failed to perform their duty, but immediately became part of the crime.
“Several other people who were present ran to help them after Jovica had killed them, while one of them went and reported the incident to the police. The police immediately arrived to see what had happened.
The police ordered them: ‘Bury these people you have killed.’”
That same afternoon, Jovica Utvić took a cart belonging to his father-in-law, who was not at home.
He did not explain why he needed it. Together with five other men, he loaded the bodies onto the cart and buried them in an isolated place below the village of Malla Kolludra, where no one normally passed.
Because the owner of the cart was not at home, his brother, Miko Bishevac, brought two other men from the village of Crepula with the surname Đurić, as well as another man from the village of Prevlaka, a certain Vukajlović, who was then working at the “Jovan Cvijić” Primary School in Zubin Potok.
“Five people took part in digging the grave, and no one else. The police and the army did not help them dig the grave,” Tepavac told police investigators.
Questions and answers from the testimony
Question: Who else took part in this event?
Answer: Miko Bishevac, 40 years old, from Malla Kolludra; Vukajlović, whose first name I do not know, but who works as a caretaker at the “Jovan Cvijić” Primary School in Zubin Potok; and two members of the Đurić family from Crepula.
Question: What is the name of the father-in-law from whom Jovica took the oxen and the cart?
Answer: His name is Živko Bishevac, but Jovica Utvić took the oxen and the cart without asking him.
Question: How many journeys did Jovica make with the oxen and the cart to transport the bodies?
Answer: I heard that he made two journeys.
Question: Who dug the grave?
Answer: Jovica dug the grave together with the men who helped him transport the bodies from the place where they were killed to the grave.
Question: Can you show us where the grave is?
Answer: Yes, but you must protect me.
Question: Did you see blood or cartridge cases at the crime scene?
Answer: I saw blood and some other belongings of the victims, but I did not see any cartridge cases.
Question: What type of weapon did Jovica carry?
Answer: A Yugoslav-made automatic rifle.
Question: Does Jovica still possess the same weapon and revolver?
Answer: Yes. He still has the same automatic rifle, which he either keeps in his house or in a cave at the bottom of the hillside.
Question: What did Jovica say he had taken from the group of civilians he killed?
Answer: Jovica boasted that he had taken a large amount of money, German marks and gold from them.
