Dimitrije Popović (17) was killed in Gračanica on June 5, 2004. Albert Krasniqi and Labinot Gashi from Pristina were accused of the murder. Krasniqi, who was still a minor at the time, was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison, while Gashi was acquitted. In 2021, Krasniqi was killed by his father after a family dispute.
Dimitrije Popović was from a family that has produced priests, teachers, and writers for almost two centuries. A small chapel, modeled after the Gračanica monastery, was built in the very center of Gračanica. It is dedicated to Saint Great Martyr Demetrius, as a memorial to the suffering of this boy, wrote journalist Živojin Rakočević for Politika.
On that June 5, 21 years ago, Dimitrije was killed in front of the fast-food kiosk “Pera Ždera” in Gračanica, next to the Gnjilane–Pristina road. He was killed by a single gunshot to the head.
As his brother, Srđan Popović, stated at last year’s memorial in Gračanica, Dimitrije’s murder followed the crime of March 17, 2004, after the international community did not listen to the locals and remove two checkpoints at the beginning and end of Gračanica.
“No matter how much we thought that after every crime, and there were many until that March 17, 2004, when we thought it would stop, it always continued. I remember, as if it were now, that after March 17, two checkpoints were set up at the beginning and end of Gračanica, and there were many meetings about those checkpoints not being removed because the situation was not good, and the locals were afraid. However, the international community did not listen to us, the checkpoints were removed, and a few days later Dimitrije died. This speaks to the current situation; no matter how much we warn about certain things, no one wants to understand us. We only hope that there will be no more victims,” said Srđan Popović, now the Head of the Kosovo District.
Dimitrije’s uncle, writer Ratko Popović, previously noted that in his nephew’s diary, which they found immediately after the murder, they found a message that surprised them.
“‘Never from Kosovo – eternally in Kosovo,’ was written in this boy’s diary. “I don’t believe he wrote it consciously, but it seems like divine providence, that he eternally endures and lives with us here near thečanica monastery,” Ratko Popović said then.
In 1999, the Popović family was expelled from Pristina and moved to live in Gračanica, their place of origin. His Albanian peers from Pristina, Rakočević wrote, made a plan for a showdown. According to one version of the tragedy, young men in Pristina made a bet that they would go to Gračanica and kill a Serb. Albert Krasniqi and Labinot Gashi were accused of the crime. Krasniqi was a minor and was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison, while Gashi was acquitted. Krasniqi was killed by his father in 2021 after family disagreements.
Dimitrije’s mother, Jorgovanka, stated at last year’s memorial that every year, before the anniversary of the murder, Albanians come to her and ask her to sell her house.
“The house is not for sale, I am not leaving here, nor is my family… I told them that my Dimitrije is not leaving Gračanica,” was Jorgovanka Popović’s message.
In memory of the deceased Dimitrije, an art award has been established within the Vidovdan Art Colony and bears his name. A football tournament under the slogan “Let’s play for the future, remember Dimitrije” is also traditionally held in Gračanica.
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Source: Danas; Photo: Printscreen YouTube / RTV KIM