The anniversary of the pogrom in KiM: Six towns and nine villages were ethnically cleansed

In the two-day violence of Albanians, Serbs were killed on their doorsteps, and hundreds of them were injured. 4,000 Serbs were expelled, more than 800 Serbian houses were destroyed, 35 churches and monasteries were set on fire and destroyed. The memorial service for the victims will be held at 12 noon in the Cathedral Church of St. Michael the Archangel.

Just a few years after the NATO bombing and pogrom in 1999, a new pogrom of Serbs followed in Kosovo and Metohija. The reason for the two-day violence by the Albanians was the drowning of three Albanian boys in the Ibar, for which the Albanian media, reporting inflammatory statements by local politicians, blamed the Serbs.

According to the Albanian version of the event, the boys drowned in the river on March 16, fleeing from people from the Serbian village of Zupče who unleashed dogs on them. This was claimed by the head of the local branch of the Kosovo Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, Halit Barani, emphasizing that it was an "attack by Serbian bandits".

Even 19,000 members of the KFOR were not able to control the anger of the Albanians.

From the early morning of March 17, attacks on Serbs began throughout Kosovo and Metohija: in Kosovska Mitrovica, Lipljan, Obilić, Zubin Potok, Laplje Selo, Čaglavica... In addition to numerous Serbian homes, Serbian churches and monasteries were destroyed and burned.

During the violent attempts of Albanians from South Mitrovica to cross the main bridge on the Ibar and deal with the Serbs, 36-year-old Jana Tučev was killed on the terrace of her home, along with 63-year-old Borivoje Spasojević, who was killed near his apartment.

On the same day, in the evening hours, UNMIK denied the accusations that the Albanian boys had died fleeing from the Serbs. As it was said, the violence in Kosovo was planned in advance, and the commander of NATO's Southern Wing characterized it as ethnic cleansing.

954 people were injured, including 61 KFOR and 65 UNMIK policemen. Around 150 Serbs were seriously injured in their homes. Another 90 Ashkali houses, as well as two Albanian ones, were set on fire.

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More than 4,000 Serbs were expelled. Most, like those expelled in 1999, never returned to their homes. Six cities and nine villages were ethnically cleansed.

More than 800 buildings, including 35 churches and monasteries, were severely damaged or completely destroyed.

According to UNMIK estimates, around 60,000 Albanians participated in the riots in 33 locations. 72 vehicles of international forces were set on fire.

Sixty hours of "high voltage" in Kosovo ended after NATO sent reinforcements led by the commander of the southern wing of that Alliance, Admiral Gregory Johnson.

According to the reports of the UNMIK police, several policemen were wounded in the confrontations between international policemen and their Kosovo colleagues, but the motives of those conflicts, if it was not a product of general chaos, have not been clearly elucidated.

At the same time, a series of political events was launched, such as the report of the Special Envoy of the Head of the United Nations, Kai Eide, and the observations of Western officials that the unresolved status was one of the key drivers of unrest, which four years later was used as one of the explanations for the unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence.

The pogrom was then condemned by the UN Security Council and the European Union. There is still no word on possible new details of the investigation, and the organizers have not been revealed.

Memorial to the victims in the Cathedral Church in Belgrade

Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Porfirije will serve at 12:00 in the Cathedral Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Belgrade, commemorating the victims of the March 2004 pogrom in Kosovo and Metohija, the Serbian Orthodox Church announced.

As the SPC emphasizes, the pogrom hit the Serbian people and their Church particularly painfully because it all happened not during the chaos of war, but in the presence of thousands of members of the international peacekeeping force KFOR, Kosovo Police and UNMIK, none of whom publicly took responsibility for numerous oversights.