Podgorica, October 28 - Early this morning four buses from Kosovo arrived to Podgorica. The buses carried 200 Serbs and Montenegrins who left Orahovac for Montenegro two days ago and went through a real life drama in Pec. The convoy, with four buses and 21 cars, was attacked by ethnic Albanians in Pec. After that, about 200 Serbs and Montenegrins were taken in KFOR armored troop carriers to the Montenegrin border. From there, they were transported in buses to Podgorica. We encountered a sad picture at the Podgorica bus station. Men, women, and children with visible wounds, were sitting next to buses with meager possessions they managed to take along to exile.
"We left from Orahovac yesterday morning at around 9 am. We passed through Djakovica and arrived to Pec. The transport was organized by UNHCR, as the only organization that is allowed to do that. The security for the convoy was provided by KFOR soldiers. At first by the Dutch and Germans, while the Italians joined them in Pec. When we reached the crossroads from where a road leads to Montenegro, the convoy stopped next to the former Police station in Pec, because KFOR wanted to take us to the center of the town," says geologist Dragan Sulejmanovic, who was in the convoy last night. "I warned UNHCR representatives that we should turn right in order to continue towards Montenegro. However, they told me that they knew the directions and to stay in the vehicles. We continued towards the center of the town, where the Kosovo Albanians had already blocked the road. That's when the real terror began. They started to slam the vehicles with hands, clubs, bricks, wooden planks, anything... Since their numbers were increasing with every passing minute, KFOR soldiers from the Netherlands could not do anything but, together with Italians, they started to pull back."
"At that moment," continues Sulejmanovic, "I noticed that one of our vehicles was burning. That's when we tried to pull back. The last four vehicles in the convoy managed to get out and drove away towards Savine Vode [and border with Montenegro], while the remaining 17 cars stayed behind. All of them were later destroyed. We escaped to the building were the Italian soldiers are quartered. They treated us well and gave us first aid. About 3,000 to 4,000 ethnic Albanians again gathered in front of that building. They were demanding that we get out. All of this went on between 4 pm and 9:30 pm, when in armored troop carriers we were taken to the border with Montenegro. From there, we were taken in buses to Podgorica. The most important thing," emphasizes Sulejmanovic, "is that no one was killed, although most of us lost all of our documents in the attack. I have injuries all over my body from the blows inflicted with bricks and clubs by the Albanians once they pulled me out of the car. There are about 3,000 Serbs and Montenegrins in Orahovac. They are the victims of bad and failed policy of Slobodan Milosevic. Life in Kosovo is impossible and there is no hope that 3,000 citizens of Orahovac will somehow preserve Kosovo [for Yugoslavia]. Multiethnic Kosovo is a fable for small children. I wouldn't want even my worst enemy to have to go through what we went through last night," concluded Sulejmanovic.
Three-year-old Jovan Kujundzic was also hurt last night. Visibly agitated, his eighty-year-old grandmother Vidosava says that Jovan was in a car with his parents, while she was in a bus. "I only care," says she, "that Jovan is alive". The Italian soldiers stitched up a wound on his head, while his parents have also been hurt.
Student Nenad Stankovic was in the car at the head of the convoy which arrived from Orahovac to Pec. "When we arrived to Pec," he recalls, "suddenly two cars appeared in front of our convoy. Since I was in the first vehicle, at first I tried not to panic and to keep calm in order to avoid an incident. However, the Albanians were urged by their leaders to attack us. Their numbers were increasing all the time. When they smashed all of the windows on the car, I was hit in my head with a stone. After that, they tried to pull me out of the car. Then, I managed to push the Albanian who had attacked me with the door and run away towards a KFOR vehicle, which drove me to the former Police station," says Stankovic.