Photos from Our World

Gjakova and Deçani, western Kosovo

Gjakova (or Gjakovë when in a sentence with a preposition as in "to", "in" or "from Gjakova") is a city of around 90,000 people in western Kosovo. The Serbian name is Ђаковица (Ðakovica or Djakovica). Around 95% of the population is Kosovo Albanian, while the balance is made up of Bosniaks, Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians. Almost all Serbs have now left; before the war around 3000 Serbs lived in the town.

Gjakova was very badly affected by the war, suffering great physical destruction and large-scale human losses and rights abuses. About 75% of the population was forcibly expelled from the town by Serbian police and paramilitaries as well as Yugoslav forces, with many civilians being killed in the process. Yugoslav military barracks were attacked on several occasions by NATO forces. In one incident, NATO aircraft misidentified a convoy of Albanian refugees and attacked it, killing dozens of civilians. Large areas of the town were destroyed, chiefly through arson and looting but also in the course of localised fighting between government security forces and members of the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army). The actions of the government forces in Gjakova formed a major part of the United Nations war crimes indictment of the then - President Slobodan Milošević. During the Kosovo war this municipality was heavily affected and many atrocities were committed against the local Albanian population. The number of missing people from Gjakova municipality is among the highest in all Kosovo, numbering over 300. Several dozens of corpses have now been identified and returned to their families, though it still remain a relatively small number compared to the figures of those who are still missing. As a result, any idea of return of the former Kosovo Serb population is unthinkable.

When I visited the town for the first time in 1967, I was asked by an otherwise friendly Serb why on earth I wanted to go there: "Ðakovica ništa" (=nothing) he said, a place only inhabited by Albanians! Yet I found great hospitality there from local Albanian families, like the Çarkaxhiu family. It was a really friendly place, the imam of the local mosque opening then building and switching on the lights so I could take a photo inside and other acts of kindness and friendship. It is really distressing that this town had to suffer so much. The photos on this page give an idea what it was like in the late sixties.

Visoki Dečani (Serbian Cyrillic: Високи Дечани) is a major Serb Orthodox Christian monastery located in Deçani, 12 km south of the town of Peja (Peć). It is the largest medieval church in the Balkans containing the most extensive preserved fresco decoration. The monastery was established by Serbian King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski in 1327. The king died in 1331 and was buried in a carved wooden sarcophagus at the monastery, which became his popular shrine. The construction was continued by his son Emperor Stefan Uroš IV Dušan until 1335, but the wall-painting was not completed until 1350. The church is distinguished by its imposing size and Romanesque and Early Gothic structure and design. The monastery was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site in 2004, its frescoes considered "one of the most valued examples of the so-called Palaeologan renaissance in Byzantine painting" and "a valuable record of the life in the 14th century". Because of the danger of attacks by ethnic-Albanian partisans it was added to the List of World Heritage Sites in danger in 2006.

	Entering Gjakova	Main street, Gjakova	Albanian family	Spinning wool
	The main mosque	In the mosque	Gjakova shops	Back street
	Outskirts of Gjakova	Shqipëtar women	Manastir Visoki Dečani	Frescoes in Visoki Dečani

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