House of Milivoje Vasic destroyed in Stupelj near Klina

Radio KiM, Caglavica, September 12, 2006

The house of returnee Milivoje Vasic was completely destroyed in an explosion that occurred last night at about 11:30 p.m. in the village of Stupelj near Klina. At the time of the explosion no one was in the house. A fire was set in the house next to Milivoje, which belongs to his brother Velimir, but there was no serious damage. These houses were built as part of an individual return campaign for Serbs to Kosovo and Metohija. Members of KFOR, UNMIK police and the Kosovo Police Service conducted the investigation.

Despite the fact that the explosion that completely destroyed the house of Milivoje Vasic, according to local residents from surrounding villages, occurred around midnight, local Ranko Kostic of Vidanje only informed police of it this morning at about 8:00 a.m. "Every morning I go to the village of Grabac because I drive the director of the Office of Communities and so I set out (this) morning. On the road I encountered the owner of the house who asked me to drive him up there to clean up a little. When we arrived there, we saw that the house had been destroyed. I told him he could not stay there, that we should go to the village of Grabac to report it. That is what we did, and then members of the KPS and municipal officials took over the case."

Brothers Milivoje and Velimir presently live in Klina and were scheduled to move into their new houses in the near future. An ethnic Albanian who wished to remain anonymous for reasons of safety says that the Vasices have been warned several times not to return to the village. Velimir's wife, Stanislava, also confirmed this. "They won't let us come back. It's not to their advantage because there are only two Serb houses in Stupelj. Our neighbors in Stupelj won't let us return. They say there are a lot of dead and missing," says Stanislava.

The latest incident in Klina municipality has caused more unrest among Serb returnees in Vidanje and Klinavac. They said they were unwilling to discuss the subject out of fear. Prior to 1999 Stupelj was home to 18 Serb families and approximately 100 ethnic Albanian families.