Remainsof14thc.churchonthehill
The city of Prizren, the medieval capital of Serbian King Dusan, went through very difficult times immediately after the end of the bombing in 1999, when mobs of Albanians (from the Republic of Albania) entered the city and looted Serb houses. Over 8,000 Serbs were forced to leave their homes before the tidal wave of furious Albanians. In the last convoy to leave the city was Bishop Artemije of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija with a large group of remaining Serbs, accompanied by the curses and spitting of the Albanian mob. The German soldiers who had come to establish order did nothing except enable the evacuation of the Serbs. Despite the efforts of Bishop Artemije to provide for the stay of the Serb population in the city, the Germans were not ready to guarantee security for anyone. Consequently only a few dozen mostly elderly people stayed in the city who did not want to leave their centuries-old homes. During the first days and weeks, several dozen Serbs were murdered or abducted. They were mostly elderly natives of Prizren who believed that their Albanian and Turkish neighbors would protect them, as they protected their Albanian neighbors during the bombing, and allow them to remain in their homes. Serb houses were torched in a campaign that lasted days; chaos and disorder ruled in the city. A few Serbs who had been expelled from their homes found sanctuary in Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary, the pious endowment of a renowned native of Prizren from the 19th century, Sime Igumanov. The Seminary became a sanctuary not only for expelled Serbs but for all those who met with the disapproval of KLA henchmen who, despite the KFOR presence, immediately assumed power in the city. All this was calmly tolerated by German KFOR. Albanians from neighboring villages forced their way in and usurped Serb property. During those first days, in June 1999, Monk Chariton Lukic of Holy Archangels Monastery disappeared in the streets of Prizren near the former Yugoslav People's Army Hall on his way to visit a Serb family. His body was found in the summer of 2000, beheaded and with signs of torture. The bodies of many kidnapped Serbs have not been found to this day.
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