<nettime> Letter from Pristina

[Blagovesta Doncheva <Vjara2810@excite.com>]

Letter from Pristina, April 5 2000

On Monday, as on every other day, Metodije Halauska showed up in the morning
at the Center for Peace and Tolerance in Pristina.  Mr. Halauska is 86 years
old, but still very strong and mobile for his age.  He came to pick up
newspapers and fresh food as humanitarian assistance from the CPT.  He
chatted with his friends and left the Center's office a bit after 10am.  The
very same day, in the afternoon, his corpse was found in Grmija, a park and
excursion site near Pristina.  He was shot in the back of the head. 
Previously, he had been beaten and had internal bleeding.  He was dragged
out of an apartment in the center of Pristina, barefoot and probably wrapped
in two blankets, unconscious, by 5-6 persons who carried him to Grmija where
he was murdered.  His body was identified earlier today, Wednesday. 

Metodije Halauska is of  Czech nationality.  He is not a Serb, to be killed,
nor an Albanian to be spared.  Yes, he spoke Serbian and above all felt like
a Yugoslav.  Whom did grandpa Metodije harm?  Did he kill or attack someone?
Perhaps, he was a war criminal???

But grandpa Metodije owned a large apartment.  He refused to move out the
apartment even after numerous threats, attacks, break-ins and robberies. No
one has moved into his apartment so far.  They did not steal his dinars,
because they are worthless in Pristina.  But they did kill him because they
did not like the language he used.

The killing of innocent and really innocent people goes on.  Can anyone hear
how people in Pristina, Kosovo, live?  Especially Serbs who celebrate every
new day. Does anyone want to hear and see the suffering of a people which
has been assisted by the whole world?

We were bombed because we violated human rights, they say.  Those who bombed
apparently did that out of their respect for human rights.  Where are they
now?
Please, send us at least one of those human rights activists, so that we can
treat him with the murder of our grandpa Metodije!

I am a Serb and they want to disconnect my e-mail account because I write in
Serbian in Kosovo!  We are forced to use all sorts of languages, apart form
Serbian.  We do not dare leave our apartments and houses without escort,
while KFOR and the Police check on us periodically.  No one can go to a
store, restaurant, cafe, let alone to a church or cemetery.  We are not
allowed to pray
for the living, nor to mourn our dead.

If someone gets this message, the remaining Serbs in Kosovo beg you o
forward it.  Let the world know that out of 20,972 Serbs in Pristina before
the war, about 300 remain, and that grandpa Metodije is gone.

-------------------------------
The author of the letter is one of the staffers at the CPT office in
Pristina. His or her name is withheld for obvious reasons.












                   BRUTALLY MURDERED AN 87 YEAR
                   OLD MAN
                   April 06, 2000

Pristina, April 6th - Ethnic Albanian terrorists brutally murdered Metodije
Haljauska, an ethnic Czech aged 87, in Pristina's Grmija Park on Sunday,
April 3rd, the Center for Peace and Tolerance said
today. 

The terrorists abused Haljauska in his apartment in downtown Pristina before
they shot him in the back of the head in the park. 

The Center for Peace and Tolerance said the only possible reason for this
murder could be that Haljauska was not an ethnic Albanian. All
non-Albanians in Kosovo receive disturbing and threatening phone calls and
are exposed to constant pressure. 

"Pristina is now a place where extermination is conducted, a place where
non-Albanian citizens live in prison, and the right to move freely they pay
with their lives", it is emphasized in the statement and a question was
posed: Who is now going to bomb Pristina because
of the violation of human rights?

The center reiterated in its statement that there are no classes in Serbian
language in Pristina, no Serb restaurants or cafes, that Serbs cannot move
freely, even to go to church or the cemetery.






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