Dejan Simić (59) and Radovan Milošević (64), who were seriously wounded in Dečani on January 12 of this year, said that they were shot at only because they Serbs and that the state Serbia she showed no interest in them and their families.
Simić, Milošević and lawyer Daut Cacaj were wounded in a restaurant in Decani, when Ismet Zukaj from Istinić shot at them, Beta agency writes.
Milošević was shot in the stomach with several shots and was operated on in the hospital in Pec, while Simić was hit in the pelvis and forearm and was operated on at the Clinical Center of Serbia.
Cacaj was hit in the abdomen and has severe liver injuries.
Simić is a displaced person from Peć, and Milošević from Dečan. They have been living in Belgrade since 1999.
Simić spent 30 days in the hospital, while Milošević was in intensive care for 23 days.
"I was hit by two bullets, one went through the forearm, while the other remained in the pelvic region. The doctors were not allowed to remove the second bullet because it is located in the immediate vicinity of the aorta," Simic said.
"One Albanian shot me, another Albanian saved my life"
Milosevic himself said that "an Albanian shot him" and that another "Albanian saved his life".
"I was brought to the Pejka hospital with severe internal bleeding. The surgeon on duty, Naim Ljođa, immediately operated on me, sewed up the punctured intestines, and thus saved my life. I am grateful to the medical staff of the Pejka hospital for the excellent treatment and care," he said.
The two are currently undergoing treatment at home, and Milošević, who is a disabled pensioner, will soon have another operation due to his injuries in Decani.
"We are very disappointed in the attitude of the state authorities towards this attempted murder. In two and a half months, no one even called us to ask how we were doing. They did not even communicate with our families while we were in the hospitals in Pec and Pristina. The President of Serbia (Aleksandar Vučić) woke up at three in the morning due to the shooting of a folk singer (Ana Bekuta-January 13, Čačak), while because of us who were riddled with bullets the night before just because we were Serbs, none of the representatives of the state institutions reacted, nor visited us, nor offered any help", they pointed out.
Photo: Slobodan Miljević/Government of the Republic of Serbia/TanjugPetar Petkovic
"It turned out that the country of Serbia is not our country"
Simić says that none of the state authorities know what happened to them in Decani.
"We are citizens of Serbia, I am registered in Peja, and I live in Belgrade, and it was our duty for the representatives of the competent authorities to visit us and give them a statement regarding the events in Dečani. It turned out that the state of Serbia is not our state, because it did not pay any attention to us. We are badly wounded, we will bear the consequences for the rest of our lives, but what hurts us the most is the state's negligence and attitude towards us, as well as the inaccurate reporting of certain media close to the authorities," he said.
Milošević points out that he is the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Petar Petković promised help for their families, but nothing came of it.
"Nobody contacted us, not even from the Office for Kosovo and Metohija. I am a disabled pensioner and the father of two minor children, and I thank all my friends who helped with the postoperative recovery. If an Albanian was wounded in Belgrade, it would have been heard all the way to Brussels and Washington, and all of Kosovo would have stood up for him," he emphasized.
Malicious disinformation from pro-regime newspapers
Simić and Milošević were particularly outraged by the reporting of certain pro-regime newspapers that announced that they were in Dečani for the purpose of selling property.
"It is malicious disinformation. We went to Pec to visit the monasteries and graves of our relatives. Radovan's brother and my mother are buried in the Pec cemetery. Their graves were desecrated and we were supposed to make an agreement with the stonemason the next day to restore the tombstones. There was no question of any sale of property," said Simić.
When asked by Beta how the armed attack in Dečani happened, Milošević said that after the feast of the Patriarchate of Peć and the cemetery, they went to Dečani to see their friend Dauta Cacaj.
"We sat down in a tavern whose owner, also our friend, Sherif Cacaj. We evoked memories, talked about some old times and get-togethers... We talked in Serbian all the time. Suddenly, an unknown person approached our table from the next room and asked us: 'a jeni škije' (are you a škije - a derogatory term for Serbs). He took out a gun and started shooting at us. First he fired two shots at me, then he shot at Cacaj and Radovan. He shot Cacaj because he probably thought he was a Serb," Simic said.
Milosevic says that the assailant was overpowered by a plainclothes policeman who was in the tavern at the time.
"The ambulance arrived quickly and transported us to the hospital in Pec. Simic and Cacaj were transferred to the hospital in Pristina, and I was immediately operated on," he said.
When asked if they will go to Peć and Dečani again, Simić and Milošević say that they have never done anything bad to anyone and that they will regularly visit the Peć cemetery, Visoke Dečani and the Patriarchate of Peć as long as they are alive.
Source: Beta
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