MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR SERB HARVESTERS IN STARO GRACKO MARKS 27TH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR BRUTAL KILLING

BELGRADE, JULY 23 /SRNA/ – A memorial service will be held today in Staro Gracko, near Lipljan, and wreaths will be laid to mark the 27th anniversary of the Albanian massacre against 14 local Serbs, who were shot dead while harvesting crops.

On this day in 1999, Milovan Jovanović, Jovica and Rade Živić, Andrija Odalović, Slobodan, Mile, Novica and Momčilo Janićijević, Stanimir and Božidar Đekić, Saša and Ljubiša Cvejić, Nikola Stojanović and Miodrag Tepšić were killed.

The youngest victim, Novica Janićijević, was only 17 years old.

The perpetrators of the killings, Albanians from a neighbouring village, have not been found, announced Serbia’s parliamentary Office for Kosovo and Metohija.

Despite the presence at the time of thousands of KFOR troops, including British soldiers, as well as UNMIK personnel and other international missions, local residents believe that the fact of perpetrators never being identified is impossible, the Office stressed.

The international judiciary in Kosovo and Metohija has closed the case.