Half a year before the first NATO bombs, the war at Košare began with the blood of five Serbian soldiers in an ambush by terrorists. Among them was nineteen-year-old Vladimir Radoičić, a young man who told his uncle in America that Serbia was the only country where he could live. Killed on his first border patrol, Vladimir became the face of a struggle that continues to this day – the one for the truth about heroes whom the perpetrators robbed in front of cameras, and for whose deaths no one has yet been held accountable.
Vladimir Radoičić, a hero of Košare, was born on March 23, 1979, in Belgrade. After finishing elementary school, he enrolled in training to become an auto mechanic. He developed a love for engines, which became his preoccupation and passion. Alongside school, he also devoted great attention to his family.
He especially loved his sister Jelena, who was five years younger. She was born as the third child thanks to Vladimir, who, in addition to a younger brother, wanted to have a sister with whom he got along as if they were one.
After finishing high school, Vladimir rejected an invitation from his uncle in America, saying that he would not flee Serbia and that Serbia was the only country where he could live.
He went to serve his mandatory military service in a reconnaissance-sabotage unit in Niš on June 23, 1998, at the age of 19. After a little more than two months, he was reassigned to the Košare border post.
Whether any of the soldiers informed their families that they were going to Košare is unknown, but Vladimir did not inform his loved ones. The day before he was killed on the Albanian border, he told his mother:
“Don’t worry if I don’t get in touch in the coming days. I’m here, in training on a hill near Niš.”
On that September 30, 1998, he set out, together with four other soldiers, on his first and last border patrol.
Hidden in an ambush, members of the KLA, led by Agim Ramadani, had been waiting for them since early morning.
“On the morning of October 1, they came to inform us that Vladimir had been killed, and on October 8 my struggle for the truth began, for legal justice, for Vladimir, for all those killed at Košare…
That struggle continues to this day” – are the words of Vladimir’s mother Lozanka.
Along with Vladimir, Miladin Gobeljić, Ilija Pavlović, Miroslav Jocić and Miloš Pavlović were also killed.
According to the testimony of Colonel Duško Šljivanjčanin, then commander of the 53rd Border Battalion, that day marked the beginning of the war for the soldiers at the Košare border post – half a year before the NATO aggression.
The terrorists filmed the killing and looting of the dead Serbian soldiers, and that footage was the key evidence for their conviction. They were tried in absentia, as none of them responded to the court summons. The Higher Court in Niš issued arrest warrants for them, but the verdict has not been enforced to this day.
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Source: Serbian Times, Foto: Printscreen Facebook