Now that the Serbian Orthodox church built on her land after the war is about to be removed, Fata Orlovic told the Anadolu Agency that she can finally breathe easy after her 20-year battle and that there are no reasons for her children to refuse to come to Konjevic Polje anymore.
“I persevered in my battle and I showed everyone that whatever was taken away should be returned,” she said in an interview shortly after her four-month stay in the US, where her sons live.
For two decades, Orlovic fought a legal battle to remove the church that was built in her yard after the war. Orlovic was ethnically cleansed from the Konjevic Polje during the war while her husband, Sacir, was killed. She lost numerous other family members as well.
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Orlovic and her seven children became refugees.
When she returned to her village in 2000, she found her home destroyed and the church on her land.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on October 1 last year that the church must be removed.
Orlovic said she experienced a lot during her battle, including threats, lawsuits and attacks. She stressed that a Serbian Orthodox Church never bothered her.
“It just bothers me when it is in my yard,” she stressed.
“I deserved that (land),” she said, arguing that “any true Serb, who knows who God is” would not have a problem with the church being moved out.
“They should bow, give it back and say ‘Fata, we have made a mistake’,” she said.
Now that everything is settled, Orlovic argued that her sons have no reason to not return to the land.
“Now my sons can’t say they don’t want to (return) because there is a church in the yard,” she said. “Mom took care of everything, as well as good Allah and good people did,” she said.
“I will not give this away, because of my Sacir,” she added.
Orlovic said she had a great time in the US with her sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren and that she cried when she was supposed to return home.
“But I love my land,” she said.
“The children can go wherever they want, do whatever they want, I don’t want to. I obligated them to come here, at least when they retire,” she said, adding that only one of her sons promised he would do so.
In any case, “they have a place to go,” she said.
Orlovic also told her children they must never sell the land.
She also told Anadolu Agency about her weekend plans after her long legal battle.
“I want to sit in my yard and look at the street. I have not seen the street in 20 years from there,” she said, inviting reporters to drink coffee with her there on Sunday.
