Rexhep Berisha
The interviewer: Welcome to this interview. Shall we proceed with your story during the war from where you were living when the situation worsen; tell us who you were with and how old you were. You’ve already told me that your wife was pregnant. How do you remember all this period of time living in the village?
Rexhep Berisha: Hello. I am Rexhep Berisha from the village of Godishnjak. I was 34 years old back then and my wife was pregnant. We were all 14 family members including my father, mother, grandmother and…
The interviewer: What were your living conditions in the village?
Rexhep Berisha: We decided… we decided to move to Prishtina because my wife was pregnant. We moved there; we rented a house.
The interviewer: How big was the house?
Rexhep Berisha: The house had two rooms and a bathroom. I left my family there, and I …
The interviewer: You were working?
Rexhep Berisha: Yes, I was working.
The interviewer: What did you work as?
Rexhep Berisha: I traveled. I had a butcher’s shop and I traveled. I went to the village, in Godishnjak every day because the UÇK, the military, got there. They got settled in our house. They asked me whether I could deliver them food and I told them I would deliver them food every day as long as I could.
The interviewer: So you delivered them food every day?
Rexhep Berisha: Every day, up till the NATO bombings started. The day when the NATO bombings started I wasn’t able to go there anymore.
The interviewer: Could you tell us some of the cases of what happened during the time you had to deliver them the food? What were the places the police or the military mainly stayed at? Where were the roadblocks?
Rexhep Berisha: They mainly stayed in Lebanë, Lupç and Lluzhan – at these three places. When I had to deliver the food I escaped by taking the road through other villages so they wouldn’t notice me and know I was delivering food for the UÇK. So, these were the places they would mainly stay at.
The interviewer: Did they stop you once?
Rexhep Berisha: They once stopped me and returned me back.
The interviewer: What was that conversation like?
Rexhep Berisha: Fortunately, among those men was a Serbian from Prishtina whom I’ve known, and because of that fact they let me go. Otherwise, they could’ve decided not to let me go.
The interviewer: What did they tell you? What was the conversation about?
Rexhep Berisha: Well, when I saw that Serbian guy I told them that he knows me. They called that guy, Dragan, and when he saw me he said “Rexhep, what is going on?”. I told him that I had to go home and he knew where I lived. He said that he knew where I lived, but he told me it would be better if I returned back to where I was coming from and grab my children and leave for Macedonia. He said that you never know what will happen and you could easily die here.
The interviewer: So, you returned back to Prishtina?
Rexhep Berisha: I had to go back to Prishtina that night and I couldn’t go to the village anymore. On May 21st the police came to the apartment where I was staying at Xhambazet – the apartment I had rented. They took me, my father, my brother and one of my cousins who was there with us. They put us on a truck. They took us to the police station in the neighborhood of Muhaxher and held us there for 12 hours. They put me then in a different room. They asked me where I had left the gun. I told them I hadn’t had one and that I don’t have one. They tied and beat me up to the point that I wasn’t conscious for three or four hours. Then, they took me to the second floor and got my finger prints. They checked me up whether I had a gun.
The interviewer: How did they check you up?
Rexhep Berisha:. With an elastic tool I don’t know what that was.
The interviewer: So they touched your neck with it?
Rexhep Berisha: Yes, in order to find out whether I have touched a thing, I don’t how those things function. There’s where I once again met the same Serbian guy who let me go at Lebane. He told me to get my children and leave to Skopje since it was dangerous to stay there. In the morning of the following day I got my children and got on the bus at the “Shtepia e Mallrave”. I was with my children and my father left with the other family members by train. We then arrived in Skopje. They stopped us along the way and took 10 bucks from each of us.
The interviewer: Per person?
Rexhep Berisha: Yes, per person – the Serbians, then we set off for Macedonia by bus…
The interviewer: Where did the bus take you?
Rexhep Berisha: …In Bojan and we go settled in tents.
The interviewer: How long did you stay in Bojan?
Rexhep Berisha: We stayed there for three weeks.
The interviewer: What were the conditions there? The food and sleep?
Rexhep Berisha: Just like in a tent, you know. We had food but we didn’t have showers… but it passed and we stayed there for three weeks. Then the doctors came…
The interviewer: Macedonian?
Rexhep Berisha: …I can’t remember whether they were Macedonians or… they were foreign as they spoke in English. So they got there. My wife was pregnant so she went there for a check-up. They took notes about our family; we told them we were 14 members. And then we went to England.
The interviewer: Did you request to move to England or it was what they offered you?
Rexhep Berisha: No, they offered us to go there. That’s how it worked, I don’t know. There were families who moved to Italy, France, and Germany. England was our destiny.
The interviewer: But your father and a part of your family were not in Bojan?!
Rexhep Berisha: No…they weren’t there.
The interviewer: Because you left the country separately?
Rexhep Berisha: Yes, there were in Stankovec. Then…
The interviewer:: How did you get back together?
Rexhep Berisha: I went and picked them up. I explained everything to them… that we were going to England and that they had to come with me. I got them in a taxi and took them to Bojan. We went to England from there, on June 3rd. My wife gave birth on the 5th.
The interviewer: In England?
Rexhep Berisha: Yes, in England. We stayed…
The interviewer: Where did you stay during that time in England? How was the place, the space?
Rexhep Berisha: It was kind of a hotel, I don’t know. I think that place was a retirement home in previous years. We took shelter there and we were around 130 or 140 people.
The interviewer: Were they all refugees from Kosovo, or…?
Rexhep Berisha: All of them. They were all from Bojana, they all came there from Bojana. Everyone was with their own family and they all had their own rooms.
The interviewer: Did you have food and other services?
Rexhep Berisha: Yes. The food was good and we could take showers anytime we wanted to.
The interviewer: Did you have shared bathrooms or how was it?
Rexhep Berisha: No, we had a separate bathroom for our family. Everyone did.
The interviewer: So, you stayed in England for a year. How was your daily routine in England?
Rexhep Berisha: It was fine, not bad. But, after a year, my mother got sick. We took her to the doctor for a check-up and they told us she didn’t have much time left. They told us if we wanted to take her back to Kosovo it would’ve been better to take her during that time as she was still alive. We then returned to Kosovo – it was after a year. After two months that we got to Kosovo my mother died. So from that time up till now we are living in Kosovo.
The interviewer: One of your brothers had to come to Kosovo a day after you did?
Rexhep Berisha: Yes, from England. I told him not to come since we didn’t have a place to stay or anything. We were thinking of a solution but…
The interviewer: How was Godishnjak? How do you remember it when you got there after the war?
Rexhep Berisha: When I came from England?
The interviewer: Yes.
Rexhep Berisha: All ruined. Only the foundation of the houses was left. You weren’t even able to see the foundation of our house since they got there with excavators and tanks and… they had ruined them all.
The interviewer: Where did you stay after the war since your house had been burnt down?
Rexhep Berisha: We stayed in a room… we put a door there, we just hooked it up. We first fixed the doors of two rooms within 3 or four days. Then, later on, we fixed the whole house…
The interviewer: Until you build another one?
Rexhep Berisha: Yes. Life goes on.
The interviewer: Thank you very much!