The reporters of Novosti from Belgrade were only journalists beside their colleagues from the Washington Post who managed to reach Podujevo. The Albanians treat Podujevo as "their town" and behave accordingly.
In the town hall we met Mr. Milovan Tomcic, the mayor of Podujevo, and Mr. Srba Bisercic, the president of the City Council. They were having an urgent meeting on which they discussed how to stop the ongoing ethnic cleansing. Almost daily, more and more Serbs are leaving their homes under the pressure from the Albanian rebels. At the moment no one has any idea how to stop this silent ethnic cleansing.
"Sajkovac village is empty too," Tomcic continues. "In Svetlje local Albanian villagers could not protect the Andric family from the rebels and they had to leave for central Serbia. The Serbs in Podujevo aree are suffering from the worst kind of Nazism.
Mr. Bisercic, visibly irritated with the situation continues:
"As you drive from Podujevo to Pristina, on the right side of the road you can see Shqiptar trenches and barricades. Only they know when they will strike.
The local Albanians from Podujevo say that they do not have anything to do with this because the "KLA" rebels from Drenica, Salja and Bajgora, and Glogovac are doing all these misdeeds.
"And we, what we can do," asks Mr. Bisercic. "We are waiting for our authorities to protect us. Everyday we write appeals and letters but so far there has been no reaction."
About 100 meters from the Podujevo town center, in the appartment of Dragisa Rakic, we met his uncle Milan and his aunt Ranka (both 80 years old) as well as Desimir and Stanka, who are in their late sixties. They are the last Serbs from Velika Reka village who were evacuated by the verifiers. Their village has been surrounded by "KLA" for more than a month.
Two Serb homes were cut off by "KLA" for ten days and no one knew anything about those people, Milan Rakic said. The local Albanian villagers did not harm them. They also claimed that they did not recognize the "KLA" soldiers who searched the houses.
Leaving for Podujevo with the verifiers, Milan and Desimir Rakic asked their Albanian neighbors to take care of their livestock and their houses. Milan says that he wants to go back as soon as this madness is over.
"My son Dragan was killed in 1997 in Surkes village, just on the outskirts of Podujevo," said Slavka Rakic, Desimir's wife. "He was in a car with a police inspector when they were ambushed on the road. My daughter-in-law and my grandchildren are now in Nis (central Serbia) and only I have remained here with my husband."
Mother Slavka caressed the photo of her killed son and her daughter-in-law who is now far away. She cried and said that they had left a farm with 40 acres of best land, lots of agricultural mashines and all the belongings in their homes.
As we were leaving Podujevo we noticed that it was very lively in the town that day. All around the town, in the main square, on the sidewalks, everywhere, one could see Albanians walking and laughing. Some were even amazed to see a car with Belgrade car plates. On one junction we noticed five, six policemen. We did not dare to ask how they felt.
The remaining Serbs in Podujevo sincerely hope that a border would not be a reinstalled again in this town as during the Turkish occupation. In 1912, the Serbian army liberated this old town after five centuries Ottoman occupation.
"In the last seven years we tried to increase the number of the Serbs in this area by trying to find jobs for all the young people," says Milovan Tomcic the mayor and the local representative in the Serbian Parliament. "Annualy 40-50 Serb children were born in Podujevo and it gave us hope that we might stop the negative demographic trend. But, just when we were on the point of restoring some kind of ethnic balance "KLA" terrorist attacks started and our people are leaving now. At the moment our school is closed and more than 200 Serb children have been evacuated to central Serbia. We are waiting to see what will happen. Serbia and Yugoslavia must help us to survive.