The 16th anniversary of the crime against Serbian children in Gorazdevac was marked in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and with a visit to the graves of the murdered boys. Due to the disagreement between the parents of the murdered young men Ivan Jovovic and Pantelija Dakic, no memorial plaque was erected at Bistrica.
About a hundred residents of Gorazdevac attended the prayer served by the abbot of the monastery of Visoki Decani Sava, the abbot of the monastery Draganac Ilarion, with the service of local parishioners.
“They were taken as the most beautiful fruit in their childhood. I will never forget when I saw that crime scene where blood, sneakers and their clothes were seen. Thank God some have recovered and thank God there were no more casualties,” Father Sava said at the beginning of his speech.
“The investigation was suspended, they called me personally when the investigation was suspended. There was a Slovenian girl there and she simply said (shrugged), I was only ordered to suspend it,” said the father of the late boy Panta Dakic.
The prayer was attended by Assistant Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Zoran Bojic, who said that the Office had plans to erect a memorial plaque at the site where the children were killed, but that it was abandoned due to disagreements between families.
On August 13, 2003, Ivan Jovovic, 19, was killed on the spot, while the 12-year-old Pantelija Dakic died at the hospital in Pec. Bogdan Bukumiric (14), Djordje Ugrenovic (20), Marko Bogicevic (12) and Dragana Srbljak (13) were severely injured at the time.
