by Stojan JOVANOVIC (BETA)
Upon arrival we encounter commotion in the improvised tent set up in the center of the village of Gracanica, where most of the protesters spent the previous night, wrapped in blankets. We witness the attempt to persuade some ten women, hunger strikers, to pass this protest, as the others are afraid that they wouldn't be able to walk for a mile.
Although worn out by hunger and weariness that can be read from their prematurely aged faces, the women refuse to give up. Milorad Spasic, retired policeman, who is searching for his son Zarko and a cousin, both of whom disappeared from work in the open cast mine Belacevac in Obilic, is encouraging them.
"Hold on, hold on, we are doing this for our sons and brothers, not because of politics," Spasic says to an older woman while helping her to get up from a mattress laid on the grass, under the improvised tent.
The line of protesters, led by Milorad Spasic and Sasa Petrenic, slowly sets off towards the Gracanica monastery, on the fifteenth protest walk, which, according to a deal made with UNMiK police and KFOR goes on for one hour. At that time the traffic is stopped and vehicles are sent around the village on the local roads, which is the only time ethnic Albanians are to be seen on those roads, which they normally don't use.
Spasic directs the protesters with a bullhorn in hand. There are more of them than on the previous days. According to our rough estimate, there are more than three thousand protesters, Serbs from the neighboring villages. Only UNMiK policemen and local Serbs, "Kosovo policemen", go in front of Spasic, while KFOR soldiers man the observation tower setup near the improvised tent or stand on the sidewalk quietly watching the line of Serbs that also quietly passes them by.
In front of the gate of the Gracanica monastery the protest walk stops and several members of the Association of Kidnapped and Missing Serbs address the protesters. It's almost as if they read messages from the placards carried by the protesters - "Give us back our loved ones", "Where are 1,300 abducted Serbs?"...
The protesters demand that one of the representatives of the international community tells them where their loved ones are and demand that those who are alive be released as "graves can wait".
Families of the abducted individuals carefully follow what the media report about mass graves of ethnic Albanians found in Serbia proper, about their protests... Every statement of the representatives of the authorities, especially those by minister Dusan Mihajlovic about mass graves, is received here with resentment, with the question "where are our people, minister?"
Several older and tired women step out of the line and sit down on the pavement. This is a signal for the medical team to intervene. They pick up Saveta Perenc and take her to the ambulance in order to give her an infusion. While they carry her to the car, Saveta quietly speaks: "If only my son knew how I feel. I must go on, I must be strong, I must bring him back..."
Slavica Ristanovic, a refugee from Tuzla [in Bosnia-Hercegovina] whose husband Momcilo was kidnapped by Albanian extremists in Prizren, from their apartment, as if talks to herself. "I experienced two wars. I lost everything twice, but I have to go on because of the children. I hide my tears from the kids. I don't want them to see me crying, I don't want to destroy their hope that their father is alive."
Physicians of the health center in Gracanica say that Jelica Andjelkovic from Gotovusa near Strpce is in critical condition and that she is alive only thanks to daily infusions. Jelica says that she is still alive because she hopes to see the return of her "son, husband and son-in-law".
"My son Ivan was kidnapped ten days after his wedding. His little daughter Emilija was born later and he never saw her. It's the hardest during holidays, when we go to the church in the village. Every woman goes with her husband and my daughter-in-law Jasmina waits in front of the door... Maybe Ivan will come," she says through tears.
Serb protesters in Gracanica were visited only by Monica Finberg, the chief of the UNMiK office for human rights. She told them that UNMiK was aware of 1256 unidentified bodies that, as she said, were moved to a cemetery near Suva Reka after exhumation or discovery or were buried in known locations selected by UNMiK in the settlements where the bodies were found.
Families of the abducted persons simply did not want to hear that, let alone consider the possibility that bodies of their loved ones are to be found in those graves. Their answer was simple: "We seek the living, the dead can wait."
As far as Serb politicians are concerned, the attendance of the president of the Federal Committee for Kosovo and Metohija, Momcilo Trajkovic, was noted. One night, after a rain, he opened the doors of the committee's office to the wet and chilled protesters.
They say that he talked with them, informed the highest state authorities about their problems, talked to president Kostunica on their behalf, begged them to stop the hunger strike and to continue the protest but the answer was always the same: "We are doing this for our children, brothers and fathers, not because of politics. This is our pain..."
In parallel with the protests of families of abducted and missing Serbs in Gracanica, a veritable media war about possible participation of Serbs in the forthcoming elections in Kosovo is going on. President of the Association Ranko Djinovic told the gathered protesters that those "who participate in these elections will become the greatest traitors of the Serbian nation," because their participation would "legalize ethnic cleansing". He told the international community that "Serbs want elections tomorrow, but today they want that kidnapped and missing be found and released". About one thousand gathered protesters greeted his words with approval and applause.
Families of abducted and missing Serbs, according to their representatives, reacted to the announced visit of the American president George Bush to Kosovo with hope that "he would make an appearance in Gracanica and see the suffering and troubles of Serbs".
"Serbs know that the US can force ethnic Albanians to provide information about who kidnapped 1,300 Serbs and where they are now," they say.