His sister Trpana Isaevska explains us what happened on the fateful day. She says that on July 23, somewhere about 8:30am, her brother headed on his bicycle to the village of Dzepiste to water the vegetable garden. The family not only originally hails from Dzepiste, but also owns land that they have been working for many years. In Dzepiste, he had grape wines, a vegetable garden, a field, that he has been tilling since the spring. Dimitrija worked the land in order to provide additional income for the family. He also used the land to get cattle feed (grass and straw) for four cows he held in a stable in Tetovo.
In Tetovo, on that warm day in July, Albanian terrorist gangs started another one of their big offensives. Detonations and shots were echoing in the area between Tetovo and Dzepiste. Dimitrija met his neighbor, an ethnic Albanian, in the garden. They chatted, about everything, but mostly about the war. They spoke as usual, in a mixture of Albanian and Macedonian, because both of them spoke well both languages. The neighbor let Dimitrija decide whether to go back to Tetovo, but suggested that he stay with him that day. Dimitrija, nevertheless went to the house of his relative Tomislav Dobrievski in Dzepiste and phoned back home to Tetovo around 4:50pm. He told his wife that he was leaving towards Tetovo.
During that time the main road towards Tetovo was shut for traffic. But, that did not stop Dimitrija, who knew all the local roads and paths. He decided to leave towards Tetovo on the Treboski road. Riding his bicycle through the area known as Maslarski, he met a mother and son, ethnic Albanians, on the road. They told him to go back, because they were also returning to the village. Dimitrija did not heed their warnings, simply waved his hand and said: "I'm going home". He had almost reached the main road Tetovo-Skopje, where his wife and son waited for him next to the railroad tracks. As the time went by, they were slowly loosing patience. Just before the start of the curfew they had to return home to Tetovo. Without Dimitrija.
There have been no news about Dimitrija's fate ever since. His family has been searching for him for 75 days. Days that seem to turn into years, full of uncertainty! After every knock on the door, every phone ring, all family members run in hope that they may find out news about the missing head of the family. Grandsons are asking for their grandfather, crying and asking.
"We asked everywhere we could. We shall go anywhere we can, all the way to the president of the state. We beg everyone to tell us what happened with Dimitrija. We were in the government, in international organizations, OSCE, EU, NATO, International Red Cross. They could not provide encouragement, or information. We do not know whether to cry or to greave Dimitrija. God damn those who toy with human fates!" says Dimitrija's sister.
Dimitrija knew all the villagers in Dzepiste. Even the smallest children joked with, as he was known in the village, good man Dime. Ethnic Albanian neighbors sent their condolences. At one point they collected peppers from Dimitrija's garden, together with watermelons and pumpkins, and brought them in a tractor to his family in Tetovo. They said: "We don't know how else to help you." They also confirmed that they had been enquiring around, that they had visited the mayor of the Dzepiste municipality, Vebi Ismaili, and had an open conversations with him. They asked for his help, for their neighbor.
As days go by and uncertainty continues, Dimitrija's loved ones are full of foreboding. But, they encourage each other to persevere as long as there is hope. They still hope that Dimitrija will knock on the door one day and hug his loved ones. Will that happen?
We pass through Dolna Maala [lower hamlet]. At the entrance door of one home, a man stops, and crosses himself. He is crying. He whispers: "What have we done to deserve this?" In front of the neighboring house, the same scene, but this time there are two persons, a man and a woman. The woman is pulling her hair and screaming. "We've been building this our whole life, and evil men have destroyed and looted it," she says. A man comes our way. He is a local, from Neprosteno. He stops and starts talking, reluctantly. It is clear that he is ashamed because some of ethnic Albanian neighbors participated in the destruction of property. He says that the Isllami family stole two tractors from the courtyard of Boro Gorgevski. Sulo took the "IMT" tractor, while his brother Isllam Isllami took the "Rakovica" tractor. They also stole Boro's car, Skoda, and a truck, which is now stuck in the center of the village. When Bore Gorgevski returned for the first time to Neprosteno to check on his house, he went to visit Isllam as soon as he found out what had happened with the tractors. Sulo tried to avoid him, but when he failed, he said: "I'll return everything, if the headquarters agree" (referring to the so-called UCK headquarters). Boro pulled out a weapon and said: "If you don't return my tractor in five minutes, there'll be blood in your family" and thus got his two tractors back.
We pass through Neprosteno and note the burned buildings. Buildings owned by Borce Boskovski (house and object for storage), Slavco Bogdanovski, Dobre Cvetkov, Mitre Vojnovski, Jorda Isajlovska, Stojca Jovanovski, Boge Tomovski, Tome Gorgevski, Bita Bogdanovska, all of them from Dolna Maala, have been burned to the ground. In the other hamlet, Preku Reka [over the river], Gorgo Zafirovski lost a house and a restaurant "4 Asa", Bore Gorgevski a house and three barns, and in the hamlet Pod Orae [under walnuts], Cedo Jovanovski and Stojce Jovanovski lost their houses. In Zbiralo, houses of Trpce Blazevski, Veljo Tomovski, Dusan Nastevski, Vojno Atanasovski, Vase Mihajlovski, and two houses owned by the retired teacher Krsto Gogovski, have been destroyed.
"The night between Sunday and Monday, July 22 and 23, was the worst," the man standing next to us tells us. "We were attacked from all sides. Albanian bandits entered every house during the night. They demanded that we leave immediately. We had no other choice, except to leave towards Ratae. The villagers from Ratae welcomed us and gave us accommodation. Only a few elderly villagers, all of them almost 70 years of age (Bozana Zafirovska, Nikola and Pavlina Nedelkovski, Milica and Tripun Isajlovski, Mile Atanasovski, Blagunja and Blagun Kukovi and Stojan and Lada Bogdanovski) stayed behind in the village. On Monday, 145 village cows, normally taken care of by Stojan Mihajlovski, gathered in the center of the village, near Zbiraloto. They spent the whole week in the garden of Petko Zafirovski, and then Stojan took them out to the pasture. He was slaughtered immediately, the first day, by the Albanian bandits. His body was found under a walnut tree, in the state of advanced decomposition, and the cows were gone, says one villager.
The villagers from Neprosteno can still not go back to their homes. For now, they are staying in the hotel Pelagonija in Skopje, together with children who still do not attend school. Vase Mihajlovski, Cvetko Mihajlovski and Krsto Gogovski from Neprosteno have been kidnapped and held for almost three months now.
"We do not know to which cemetery to go first. We buried Dosan Gersimovski and Todorka Stankovska at the eastern orthodox cemetery in Tetovo, slaughtered Stojan Mihajlovski was buried in Brvenica, while Trpo Ristovski was buried in Sarakino. We can't even hold our dead together anymore, and bury them with dignity," says our interlocutor.
During the most recent robbery and demolition of the several times so far looted and demolished gas pump "Makpetrol" in the "Ilindenski" boulevard in Tetovo, the police caught in the night between Friday and Saturday an armed minor on the spot. It is assumed that other armed members of the gang, who managed to escape, are under 18. Although caught red handed, the minor was registered and handed over to his caretakers. The armed civilians, who on Saturday morning stopped, attacked and shot at the driver of "Teteks", also included minors. Armed minors were involved in another incident, in which workers of "Tetovo-construction" were forced to show their documents and searched by armed civilians.
Terrorists, young or old, in any case, are achieving their goal. Fear and uncertainty of the local ethnic Macedonian population are obvious. According to the recent analyses, a new wave of emigration of ethnic Macedonians from the city and the surrounding villages has started, which is one of the basic goals of these attacks on civilians, obviously motivated by ethnic cleansing of this territory, which has been ethnically mixed for centuries. On the other hand, all warnings or protests regarding these attacks can be neatly deflected by ethnic Albanian representatives, especially the signatories of the Ohrid agreement, with an explanation that these attacks are not conducted by members of the officially disbanded UCK, but by minors. Yes, they are minors, who cannot be held accountable in the same manner as adults, but adults are behind their actions and are without doubt responsible for them.
In this phase of the crisis in Macedonia, children are again being abused. Consciously or unconsciously, they are used for the accomplishment of dirty political and ideological goals of their ethnic group, political parties, or uncontrolled, raging and well-armed gangs. And that, it must be admitted, does not absolve either the children or their mentors of responsibility, whether they are their idols, leaders, role-models, parents, or caretakers. However, it does not either absolve the authorities from responsibility, if they continue to ignore this tendency of spreading of fear and uncertainty.