Illegal woodcutting, frequent thefts and usurpation of the properties threaten survival of the Serbs in the village of Gojbulja, Vucitrn municipality RTK 2 reports on Saturday. The latest incident occurred few days ago when the Church of Saint Petka in the village was robbed for the seventh time.
“This is very much concerning, we understand it as a message ‘there is no place for you here,’ or ‘how long will it go.’ Number of people have sold their houses and left over the last couple of years, so I think that someone is not in favour of us being here and wants to exert additional pressure, to make those determined to stay leave,” leader of the village Bratislav Kostic said.
RTK 2 further reported village residents they spoke to say they do not cultivate all the properties they have since it is usurped, and forest cut down.
“I do not dare to come to the land alone, when I see a neighbor working on his land, then I come too. We have orchards up there, there is a disaster, I managed to collect some fruits last year when my son was here. They destroy the trees intentionally, let the cows into our gardens. But we must live on something, what can we do? They take over the house, place a flag and no one dares to enter. I have 6 hectares of forest, but have nothing of that, everything is cut down,” Ljubinka Djordjevic said.
Young people are also leaving the village in a pursue for a better life. There are less than a dozen pupils in the primary school in the village, and this year no pupil will sing in for the first grade, RTK 2 said.
