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Velika Hoca, Kosovo and Metohija

January 22, 2001

The life of the remaining Serbs in Velika Hoca

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At the entrance to Velika Hoca, a Serb town in Metohija, there is a large
check-point operated by members of German KFOR. It is slightly more than one
kilometer away from the KFOR check-point at the exit from Orahovac, where
600 Serbs remain in the Gornja Mahala quarter. The German troops inspect
almost every vehicle that passes along this road. In the parish hall of
Velika Hoca, we meet Father Milenko Dragicevic, the priest in Velika Hoca
and Orahovac. We first met Father Milenko in Orahovac on All Souls’ Day on
November 4, 2000 when we wrote about the life of the remaining Serbs in that
ethnically divided town in Metohija.

Before the war, Velika Hoca had a population of over 1,300. Today 789
resident remain. Among them are refugee individuals and also many families
from Zociste, Opterusa, Mala Krusa, Velika Krusa and other villages in the
region. In Velika Hoca and the Gornja Mahala quarter of Orahovac,
spiritually and physically connected into a single life environment thanks
to a sort of KFOR corridor, today only 1,383 Serb residents remain out of a
pre-war total of over 3,000.

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“Since May 12, 1998 we have been isolated and under siege. Even at that time
there were few people who dared to leave the village even with a Serbian
police escort. The first abduction of a local took place on July 16, 1998.
To date five people from Velika Hoca have been killed and four have been
abducted; we know nothing about their fate to this very day. They are here
to protect us. They came to protect us and to see, so let them see. The
longer they are here, the greater the chances that they will find out who is
right. Once a week KFOR provides an escort to Kosovska Mitrovica. The
members of Dutch KFOR haven’t really shown themselves to be peacekeepers.
During their tour of duty all the Serbs in the region were declared to be
war criminals. That’s when the greatest number of Serb houses were burned
down and the most people arrested.”

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“In the region of Velika Hoca four of our churches and the monastery of
Zociste were dynamited and burned down. On the ashes of the monastery site
we found the remnants of several icons which are being stored in the church
of St. Stephen here in Hoca. How are we bothering them? Some people are
bothered by the fact that we chose to stay here. We have no place to go and
those people who have already left, wherever they are, have no place to
stay. More than 95 percent of them live under difficult conditions in their
new homes. Things are not easy for us, either, but at least we are in our
centuries-old homes. In Velika Hoca no one has sold his property. In
Orahovac, however, they have. Recently a Serb man sold his house for only
38,000 German marks; the furniture in the house alone was worth that much.
People are also selling due to a lack of opportunity. There is even no
social health care,” says Father Milenko.

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In Velika Hoca there is a total of 218 children: preschoolers, elementary
and high school students and youth. There is one cafe bar and one coffee
house open. In the center of the town, however, noise can be heard coming
from what seems to be an ordinary business locale. This is the Baltazar
Children’s Recreation Center. Inside, over thirty of Hoca’s smallest
residents play and sing. The music plays loudly. On the shelves there are
many works by the children as well as ready-made, store-bought toys. With
the children are Jasmina Stasic and Violeta Stolic. They say they are
animators. “We have been working with the children according to various
programs for seven months now. This center was opened by the French
organization ADS. The Baltazar Center is a welcome place for the children to
relax in these difficult times, to learn a thing or two while, at the same
time, keeping them off the streets,” says Jasmina.

On the streets of Velika Hoca on a cold January day, the occasional passerby
seems deep in thought. Here and there children play. They say Baltazar is
too crowded. “They still don’t know just how crowded it is for the Serbs
here in Velika Hoca, in Kosovo and Metohija in general,” says one passerby
whom we met in the street.

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“Before the war I worked in Orvin [a company]. I haven’t gotten a paycheck
in almost two years. Two days ago the new regime in Belgrade sent us aid. We
received 30 German marks for each child. I’m grateful to them for
remembering us. We sent a list of people who need social assistance to
Belgrade and now we are waiting. The most essential thing for residents of
Velika Hoca is financial aid for those who need it the most. There have been
a few cases of people from Velika Hoca returning to their centuries-old
homes,” says Nebojsa Dolasevic.

In Velika Hoca they say that the most difficult thing for them is knowing
that among them there are some who in these bad times are receiving
paychecks from both Yugoslavia and UNMIK. Poverty and the evil which has
befallen us forces us sometimes to think about seeking asylum and getting as
far away from here as possible. However, we want to believe in the new
regime in Belgrade and to hope for the better, say some locals.

“Many people need social assistance. As many as 36 families with preschool-
and school-aged children have no source of income. People who were employed
have not gotten their paychecks for almost two years. People are living
under difficult conditions, primarily thanks to the humanitarian aid sent by
humanitarian organizations. Recently Belgrade sent aid in the form of
firewood and food. Last year only 30 percent of our vineyards were
cultivated. If the rest of the vineyards are neglected this year, too, they
will be completely ruined. The Albanians leave the land of the people from
Velika Hoca alone, for the most part. Last year, however, some of them set a
few of our vineyards on fire,” says Father Milenko. He adds that the
residents of Velika Hoca were on good terms with the Albanian population
from neighboring villages in earlier times. Today an Albanian from Orahovac
came to visit me. They come, we talk but we cannot go to those places where
they live. Our future is to live together; and the Albanians who visit me
say the same thing. Kosmet cannot be either exclusively Serb or Albanian,
concludes Father Milenko.

Translated by S. Lazovic (Jan. 24, 2001)
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