The killing of Serbian children in Kosovo: the story of the surviving Bogdan Bukumirich
In 15 years on the river bank, Bogdan Bukumirich received eight bullets for being a Serb. The boy survived and came out of a coma a few days later, on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, but he still hasn’t received an answer to the question: who shot the bathing children from the Kosovo village of Gorazdevávac? In an interview with the Voice of Russia, Bogdan told an amazing history your salvation.“It’s not so terrible to die as to be buried alive,” says the inscription on the monument to the victims of Albanian terrorists and NATO aggression in the small village of Gorazdevac, an oasis and at the same time a ghetto of the Serbian population in Metohija. On the monument there are also portraits of two guys - Panto Dakic and Ivan Jovovich. They died 13 August 2003, on the banks of the river Bistrita, when unknown persons opened fire on the people who had rest. Four more teenagers were injured then, in relation to one of them, 15-year-old Bogdan Bukumirich, the doctors gave the following prediction: 96% - will die, 4% - will survive.
He survived. He now has 24, he lives in Belgrade and, after reading the material about the recent antics of the vandals in Kosovo on the website of the Voice of Russia (and they shot at the monument in Gorazdevitets), he agreed to share with his journalist his memories of the terrible crime for which no one has responded.
Bogdan was born in Gorazhevtevets, where, as he says, the people with 1999 developed immunity to the sounds of firing. After the war and the NATO aggression, which ended with the withdrawal of the Serbian troops, life was hard. The village is populated with people in 1000, around are only Albanian settlements, the nearest major city is Pecs, where KFOR (international forces led by NATO responsible for ensuring stability in Kosovo) had to go for shopping.
Albanians' provocations did not stop: Aunt Bogdan, Militsa Bukumirich died on the threshold of her house - a grenade was thrown into her yard. The youth was in isolation - there was no entertainment, there was no way to leave the village, only communication in the school and beyond. There was not even a pool. Why “even”? Perhaps it was his absence that played a fatal role.
"I have a house closest to the river in Gorazhevtsev. On August 13, all the friends who were passing by, called me to bathe. I asked my father if I could? And my dad seemed to have some kind of premonition. He says no, son, the water is still cold But I asked again and, as a result, I went with my friends. There were many children, young people, their parents on the shore of Bistrita. I went into the water, she was really cold, so I went to the fire. Not ten minutes later, when suddenly a gunfire rang out. We were closest to the terrorists with the company. Three bullets hit me in the left I and the guys knew well the forest where they were shooting from. I realized that if they came out of the bushes, I could see them. I turned sharply in the direction from which they were shooting - I got a few more bullets into my chest and stomach. My legs buckled, I began to fall, and at that moment a bullet hit my head. And the eighth bullet caught the shin of his left leg, "- Bogdan Bukumyrich recalls what happened.
Bogdan began to call for help and still tried to get up. The fellow villagers took the guy to the hospital at the KFOR base, but the doctor was not there. First aid to the wounded had in the local clinic, first of all - tried to stop the blood. Bogdan was conscious and asked everyone to be taken out of the room of his brother, because he did not want him to see him in this state. The locals began to demand that the KFOR men be transported the boy to a hospital in the city of Pecs, but they found a million excuses.
As a result, Bogdan’s brother and his neighbor went at their own risk by car to a fully Albanian Pec. “Bogdan, hold on, you are a hero, you will survive,” they said.
“I will not give up,” answered Bogdan.
“Unfortunately, near the market in the Furnace we had a car stalled. And we had Serbian signs, so the Albanians attacked us. They destroyed the whole car, broke the windows, wanted to pull us out. My neighbor, who tried to start a car, punched him on the head, Brother - a stone. There was neither mercy nor regret, although they saw a man in whom there was no living place. If we were pulled out, we would not have survived, but fortunately two KFOR patrol vehicles appeared, they started shooting in the air Up to this point, I was still conscious, and then fell into a coma. it was further know the stories of those who were with me. "
Bogdan Bukumirich first placed in a local hospital. Here was another victim - Panto Dakic.
“Panto lay on the next bed. Both the staff and the patients were having fun:“ They wanted Kosovo, here you are Kosovo! ”,“ Whoever did this, well done! ”. Pantin's father held his son’s hand in one hand, and mine in the other. Albanian doctor, but Pant's father did not allow him to examine us because he didn’t trust him. At that moment my friend passed away. Doctors thought that I also died. However, the doctor from our village, who came to the hospital, found that I still signs of life. She insisted that I was taken by helicopter to the northern part of Mitrovica. KFOR members said that zhny permission. Three hours she convinced them, and then, finally, the helicopter brought another wounded, Marco Bogićević in Prizren, and then I was in the hospital of the French KFOR in the southern part of Mitrovica. "
The most important role in the rescue of Bogdan was played by the doctor from the northern part of Mitrovica, Milenko Cvetkovic. Upon learning of what had happened, despite the risk, she went to the southern, Albanian part of the city, where the French KFOR members Bogdan underwent spleen surgery (the bullet passed two millimeters from the left kidney). But when there was a delay with a neurosurgeon, the doctor insisted that the boy should be taken to Belgrade. Naturally, the Serbian helicopter was not allowed to sit on the territory of Kosovo (but at first it was kept in the dark for a long time), so Bogdan was taken by car to central Serbia, and then from there - by helicopter - to the military medical academy of the capital.
Bogdan’s pressure dropped to 40, but the doctor took all the necessary measures and it returned to normal. The whole transportation of the barely living guy due to the endless administrative delays of KFOR took 11 hours.
“When the doctors at the Military Medical Academy found that I had 1,4 liters of blood from possible 5-5,5, they did not do the operation right away. I had a transfusion, and the surgical intervention was planned the next morning. Their prediction was: 4% if I survive, 96% is fatal. August 19, for the Transfiguration, I came out of a coma. My neurosurgeon said: I didn’t believe that you would regain consciousness, everything depended on your body. "
But this was only the beginning of the journey: Bogdan had a fever over forty, it turned out that bone fragments damaged the cerebral cortex. Bogdan survived four operations, suffered from meningitis, for four months he was still — only the right side of the body worked. But thanks to the exercises and, of course, perseverance, he rose to his feet. Many high-ranking officials visited him at the hospital, including the then chief of UNMIK (United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo) Harri Holkeri.
“He was in a hurry to get on a plane, asked me about his state of health, wished to recover faster and return to his native village, where he is now peaceful and under control. I asked: Mr. Holkeri, can I ask you a question? Did you detain the villains? He didn’t expect a question from a 15-year-old. He was confused and replied that we were supposedly working on it, but we didn’t gather enough evidence. "
Bogdan corresponded for many years with international structures in Kosovo, who promised to "turn over every stone" and find the killers: nothing was done from 2003 to 2007, then a new group began an investigation from the beginning, then he was told that if there were new evidence, the investigation will continue. But in the end it all ended in nothing. But justice sooner or later will prevail, I'm sure Bogdan:
"The monsters did it. Shoot the children who are resting on the beach ... After all, the youngest was five years old. And this was a specially worked out plan to scare us. They could not drive us out of the village and decided to hit any person in pain on children. "
Bogdan has completed many rehabilitation courses, but even now his left hand does not completely obey him.
“Maybe there are doctors in Russia who could help me, because after all that has fallen to my lot, I deserve to be all right,” the young man says.
However, fate has prepared another Bukumirichu "surprise." In 2003, he was given an apartment in the Serbian capital, for long-term use with right of redemption. And then the decision was changed - and every year they bring a lease renewal agreement. Bogdan fears that one day they will come to him, will remind him of such a concept as market relations, and they will say - evict:
"Edition" Evening news"started a fundraising campaign for the purchase of this apartment. They valued it at 59 thousand euros, I don’t have that kind of money, so I have to ask for help from others, as the government, apparently, is not interested in my problem. Now we have collected about 6 thousand, where I don’t know the remaining ones. But this problem should be solved in a month or two. "
Bogdan lives with his brother and father, two sisters have been married for a long time, and his mother died when the boy was five years old. Now Bogdan does not work, although he graduated from an electrical school, he is all focused on health. Bukumirich cannot return to Gorazdevávac, because he always needs to be under the supervision of the best metropolitan doctors. But all the other guys injured on 13 on August 2003 of the year continue to live in the Serbian village of Gorazdevac. In the same place - and families of the lost Panto and Ivan.
"The oldest church in the Balkans stands in the cemetery of Gorazdevka. It was built without a single nail of 8 centuries ago. And I think it protects my small homeland. all subsequent events, my village again survived, "- said Bogdan.
Irina Antanasievich, a teacher of Russian language and literature, who lived for many years in Kosovo, in her memoirs of the early 2000th wrote:
"The disarmament of Kosovo is the disarmament of Serbian peasants, the shooting of which turned into a kind of sport. Not even extreme. There is no danger. Go ... shoot ... go away ... and then there will be soldiers who will evacuate the bodies and turn over the stones."
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