Report on
the fieldtrip for citizens from Serbian enclaves from the Municipalities
of Novo Brdo and Klokot, organized on November 21, 2009
On Saturday, November 21, the Priština Office of the
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia organized a fieldtrip for
citizens from Serbian enclaves of Novo Brdo, Prekovce, Bostane, Izvor,
Jasenovik, Klobukar, Straža and Klokot.
A group of 68 people, mostly young people and women,
participated in the fieldtrip. They visited Štrpce and the Brezovica Ski
Center, tourist resort Prevalac on Šara, Prizren (monastery of Sveti
Arhangel, the church of Bogorodica Ljeviška, church of Sveti Spas,
Orthodox Seminary (Bogoslovija), old Turkish bath - hamam, old bridge
over Bistrica, the Šadrvan square and walked around the city trade
center), and the monastery of Visoki Decani. For the majority of the
participants in the fieldtrip, this was the first visit to these parts
of Kosovo. During the visit to the church of Bogorodica Ljeviška in
Prizren, they met with a dozen nuns from Raška, who also came to visit
this shrine. They talked with the nuns, sang spiritual songs and carried
out other religions ceremonies.
The fieldtrip started at 9 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m.
There were no problems, incidents or provocations. The participants
moved freely, communicated in their own language, bought items in shops
and were very happy with the fact that they were given the opportunity
to visit these places.
One of the participants was Milorad Simijanovic from
the village of Klobukar, Novo Brdo municipality, who returned to his
native village in July of 2009, together with 32 other residents of the
same village, where 18 houses were built for the returnees, and out of
this number, 14 houses for Serbian families. Simijanovic expressed his
support for this project of the Helsinki Committee, and stated that: "it
was a concrete way to help the process of returning and integrating into
Kosovo society. I support such activities, which are of great importance
for liberating people from fear, especially the younger population, who
did not have the chance to see anything for 10 years. During the visit,
although we had no direct contact, we did communicate with the
Albanians, walked around, visited our shrines, bought things, and no one
looked at us badly".
Sonja Ivkovic from the village of Izvor near Novo Brdo
also spoke highly of the fieldtrip: "I am happy that I participated in
this fieldtrip", Sonja said, and added: "I value the efforts of the
Helsinki Committee to help the people get away from their daily routine,
which is sometimes not so pleasant. I have to say that by taking these
people on a fieldtrip the Helsinki Committee accomplished a great deed.
It meant so much to everyone. For this reason, I kindly ask you to
organize again something for the people from Novo Brdo and its
surroundings if you have the means, and I believe that you do. It would
be ideal if you could organize a trip to Zociste, Patriarchy of Pec.
this would be interesting for the people, it would help them get away
from their daily routine and, in a way, help them also to relax, and all
generations at that", Ivkovic said. During the entire trip back from
Decani to their homes, the participants were singing, and afterwards,
they thanked the Helsinki Committee for organizing the fieldtrip.
The fieldtrip was recorded by the "Link Produkcija"
video crew, accompanied by the journalist Zarko Joksimovic. "Link
Produkcija" will prepare a DVD about the activities from this fieldtrip. |
