Anonim
Anonim 2 ALB: No, we left two days before the bombings started. In fact, all the roads were blocked in Prishtina. The war had started long before in other cities in comparison to Prishtina. This is because all the media of the world was focused on the capital city. Therefore, Serbians used it as a strategy and didn’t make any big scenes and didn’t torture the people much because they were recording the scenes in Prishtina and other big cities like Peja and Ferizaj. You know, they were acting differently in order to make them think they were not doing anything bad. But, as soon as the sun set they went into the villages and exterminated the entire families. They’d go there by tanks… It was the military and they were not allowed to fight in Kosovo as such so they wore the police uniform and acted like they were only keeping order in the city and protecting the city from the Albanian groups of terrorists whom they called UÇK. They would pretend like the citizens, Albanians, were part of Serbia and they wouldn’t harm them, but they would only look for those groups of terrorists who attacked them. This is what they would say.
The interviewer: So you started to work as an interpreter for the media?
Anonim 2 ALB: Not yet. I was 17 years old. I didn’t even finish High School. I was 17 and my English wasn’t on that level of an interpreter. But… we lived in the center of Prishtina and we heard all those attacks. There was a curfew even before the war started. We weren’t allowed to go out at 4 p.m. in Prishtina. The markets were all empty. It felt like the beginning of the war was close. In fact, the war had already started in the villages, we could hear the gunshots and we would see all the sparks. The war started much later in the city although we knew and we felt like we were in the war. We lived in the city center. Mimi left earlier since the Embassy evacuated its employees and took them to the Embassy of Skopje. They rented a big hotel for the whole staff and they worked from there. Of course, the journalist went there because they felt safe surrounded by Americans. You know, the journalists. Then, after two days before the war started… you couldn’t go out in Prishtina the roads were all blocked, and you could only leave in big groups. The police then would stop you and take everything you had like rings, money, a nice car, and stuff like that. So, you first had to let everything you had there at their tanks or behind the big pinzgauer and then walk away. Everyone was leaving by bus, train, or on foot. People from our region were taken in the direction of Ferizaj in Gerlica – it was the road in the direction of Elez Han to Macedonia. Macedonia accepted us because it was obliged to, they had a lot of pressure from the internationals so they took advantage and benefited from the European Union and America and the Quint countries. Macedonia had arranged a camp for us where the basic conditions weren’t offered. We didn’t have a bathroom, we didn’t have enough water, we didn’t have enough food, we didn’t have… But, fortunately, the weather was warm since it was during the summer so any possible epidemic didn’t happen. So, it wasn’t cold. You know, the spring weather. People were all stressed. When we passed the border we didn’t see any cars along the road. From Prishtina to Elez Han only my parents were by car… before we passed by Prishtina my mother told me to lie down in the back of the car. I had to lie down and cover myself with a thick coat in order for them not to see me. Because they took women or you know men. So it was only my parents. I remember my mother was playing Ceca in the car. So we played the songs of Ceca so when the police stopped us they hear Ceca singing. My parents spoke Serbian because people in the city all spoke Serbian since you encountered Serbians on a daily basis.
The interviewer: You were coved in the back of the car…
Anonim 2 ALB: I was covered…
The interviewer: You stayed as such all the way there?
Anonim 2 ALB: All the way there. Mimi and some Americans were waiting for us with some cars of the Embassy when we arrived at the border. We didn’t have problems passing the border. We were so lucky. We made use of that time, it was the time right before the war 100% started. Fortunately, it was the time when they were dealing with the last touches of the war and they didn’t deal much with us, you just had to be in a higher position or something. When they say you owned a golf 2 car in 1999 it was like owning a golf 8 nowadays. That was the best car back then. If they would see you driving a golf 2 they wouldn’t stop you, because they thought you were a Serbian and that Albanians wouldn’t dare to drive on those roads like that. So, they thought we were Serbians. They didn’t notice me in the back of the car and they thought my parents were Serbians. I saw the paramilitaries of course because I couldn’t stay during the whole road covered it was suffocating. I saw them mining the tunnels. You know, the way they mine the tunnels when the rocks would block the tunnel and then you’d get stuck and wouldn’t be able to escape. They were all getting prepared for the war and carrying out those operations since they were informed about all of it beforehand.
The interviewer: They were armed.
Anonim 2 ALB: Not only armed, but the Serbian military had the best armament of the time. They had saved all the armament for the war since they knew that sooner or later that would happen. We passed the border and we didn’t have a problem. They were shocked when they saw us, Albanians, at the border. It was just our car, not a single dog, cat, bird, crow, or insect did move. You could smell the gunpowder, you could see tired faces, and young soldiers and policemen. They were some young nationalists; they were kids dressed in a police uniform who came to fight and it felt like they were lost. They didn’t know their job position yet so we were able to pass the border… we arrived at the neutral zone.
The interviewer: You went to Skopje…
Anonim 2 ALB: We went to Skopje… first, we went to the hotel where Mimi was staying, the Alexander Palace at the beginning of the city of Skopje – the one which the Embassy had rented. We first went there and then we went to my aunt who lived in the suburb of Skopje. When we went there the other aunts were also at hers and quite a lot of people, too. She had her own family there as well as her husband’s family. It felt like a mini-camp and we felt bad about going there. Even though you would do your part to help around the house – we spent our salaries to buy food, flour, cheese, and everything, you still felt bad about being there. My other aunts’ children were young and you had to share everything. It was just like in the war. We stayed there for 2 weeks and then after 2 weeks Mimi told me to go and help them with the translation; a friend of ours would pick me up. I told her my English wasn’t good enough to be an interpreter.
The interviewer: the level…
Anonim 2 ALB: It was understandable that as a journalist you had to speak English or any other language. She told me it was okay, as much as I could speak. I had to translate for the ones who just arrived there and she told me I would be fine… although the first expressions by the people were “they stabbed us, cut us…” – I didn’t know how to translate that. But when they spoke it felt like I experienced the whole situation, too. I started working as an interpreter in the camps in Macedonia. There were people who suffered and went through a lot, people who had babies, elderly people, people in wheelchairs, women who had just given birth in the camp, and elderly people who had died in the neutral zone but then Macedonians didn’t let their dead bodies in… They still have their graves in that neutral zone because people had to bury them as they weren’t allowed to take them to the other side of the border. The Macedonians didn’t accept them and then they weren’t able to return to Kosovo. It was a hard time. Then, I started working with OSBE in Oher. Me and my sister’s husband, who was working with OSBE a bit before the war started, he was working for that mission you know Organization for Security and Cooperation OSC – he worked as an interpreter; we worked together. OSBE’s budget was lower in comparison to the the Embassy of America. Embassy of America had fewer employees. So, OSBE, with the money they had rented three hotels in Oher and then we went there to work. I worked there with Diki. Mimi was working in Skopje. We traveled by car and turned back there. I worked in the reception and sometimes I had to work shifts since there were too many people and it was wartime. You would see and hear bad stories. Sometimes Diki and I had to work night shifts and then had to work outdoors the following day.
The interviewer: When did you return to Kosovo?
Anonim 2 ALB: Me and Mimi were the first ones to return… in fact, everyone wanted to return as soon as possible. You know we had that intense feeling on the 12th of June. It was the best feeling and we were waiting to see who would be the first to return. The border was crowded with people. I returned with UNHCR. I didn’t care if I was barefoot or not, dressed or not, I didn’t care whether the house was burnt or not, I wanted to leave with or without other family members… during those months many countries gave the opportunity to families to go abroad because the camp was full. They had to help out Macedonia as the Macedonian government stated that they couldn’t bare it any longer. It felt like the whole Macedonia was full of Albanians. There were Albanians everywhere. They weren’t welcoming from the first day but then America, the Netherlands, and other countries were taking families abroad… it was like an airplane would fly to the Netherlands once a week, another would fly to Paris once a week, and so that all would spread out. But, the conditions were way better abroad. The emigrant centers were all better, they had apartments. The camps in Macedonia were all improvised by UNHCR with nylons – the camps weren’t in barracks but in nylons you know like tents. A big surface of the land was taken and it was all muddy because the winter just had ended. So you had a tent. People were fighting over who to write their names on the lists to leave abroad first. They wanted to go anywhere just not to stay there any longer. So, families were taken to Europe, America, also a great number of them were taken to Canada. People wanted to leave because they claimed they didn’t have shelter back home.
But, there were also many others who were determined to return. We didn’t experience what others had since they didn’t maltreat people in the city because of the media. For example, Mimi and the Embassy had the mission to observe the whole situation in Kosovo. They would only observe. They had some big cars, they looked like half jeeps but that were made out of steel; they were military cars. The cars were painted in a red-orange shade in order to stand out from other cars. They would go out for this mission during the day. They slept in Skopje in that hotel but during the day they came to the war. They visited all the regions in Kosovo. Mimi would tell us everything and how they went through the woods and opened up tents in the middle of the woods. People felt safer coming down the mountains during the day and leaving up the mountains to hide during the night. But, the region of Dukagjin didn’t have any mountains close…. I mean the ones who didn’t have any mountains close to them had to fight. People in Drenica fought and they fought at a 200 meters distance; the front line of the army was that close between the Albanians, the UÇK, and the Serbian military – 200 meters distance. Some others had mountains close to them so they could hide over there. During the day they had to go back home and prepare something to eat since they also had young children. It also…
The interviewer: Do you remember anything about June 12th? When did you pass the border? What did Kosovo look like?
Anonim 2 ALB: Empty. It was all empty. But, the traffic lights were working. The place was empty, it felt like nothing moved. It smelled gunshot powder… a place that I left looking differently… In fact, the country was looking miserable when I left it but when I returned it was in an even worse condition. It was interesting how the traffic lights were working. Anarchy. People were confused. They started breaking into the markets and stealing food because they were starving. The markets were empty but they’d do anything to survive. Nobody stopped at the traffic lights; cars were going in the wrong direction… it was wild. KFOR got here first and then of course we got here after them. They were on patrols non-stop. They tried to keep order and keep people safe.
The interviewer: Did you find your house?
Anonim 2 ALB: Yes. I found my neighbors there. First, I returned to my house and then I went to my grandma’s. When I arrived home I found the door unlocked, obviously, but the apartment was empty and broken… not broken but like the door was broken so that they could enter. Somebody had been living there. While the war was going on…
The interviewer: Someone had been living there…
Anonim 2 ALB: Serbia had made its people come there and occupy our houses. It was a lame political move. There were two Serbian women in our apartment. They had taken their clothes with them and had the intention to occupy the Albanians’ property. They thought that we left and wouldn’t return to Kosovo. It was their strategy to make people flee the country and bring their population, within the night, into our houses – everything readymade.
The interviewer: Did they refuse to leave?
Anonim 2 ALB: No, they left immediately when KFOR arrived. I saw two of my neighbors and asked them where had they been. They were scared to speak, they only said they were leaving now that we had arrived. I told them okay leave just like we did – go there and try how it feels like, but at least they’d go to their own country, and we went to someplace we didn’t feel welcomed. Those Serbian neighbors had lived in Prishtina from long time ago, I’d known them since I was born; they weren’t like the ones who came during the bombings. But, I will never understand the audacity to come here from Serbia. They brought people from all over Serbia to occupy our property. But like the audacity to come during wartime, during the bombings – to come and occupy someone’s property. Who in their right mind would risk their life for an apartment?!
Somebody else: They forced them.
Anonim 2 ALB: No, no, nobody can force you to leave your country.