{"id":1508,"date":"2022-04-14T09:30:47","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T09:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/?p=1508"},"modified":"2022-04-14T13:00:28","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T13:00:28","slug":"hazbije-lahi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/hazbije-lahi\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Hazbije Lahi"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Interviewer: Rita Berisha
\nInterviewee: Hazbije Lahi<\/p>\n

R.B.: Thank you very, Mrs. Hasbije. I\u2019m very happy you\u2019re telling us your wartime story. Can you tell us a bit about the time before the bomings. Where were you? Who were you with? What was going on? What did you hear in the news?<\/p>\n

H.L: Okay. Hi, thank you for your invitation. I am Hasbije Lahi. I\u2019m 57 years old, so 21 years ago I was 35, a mother of 3 children. I remember very well; it was March 1999. We were living in Prishtina, at \u201cBanesat e Bardha\u201d. We were 6 family members: myself, three children, my husband, and mother-in-law. The war had already started in Kosovo, in Drenica, Peja and those regions, but it was still calm on this side of the country. There were rumours that NATO forces were going to come. During that week, the Serbs evicted the population of villages of Prishtina where my husband\u2019s uncle and aunt lived, and they came to our two-bedroom apartment.<\/p>\n

R.B.: How many of you were there?<\/p>\n

H.L: It was my husband\u2019s uncle with his wife and daughter, and my husband\u2019s aunt. So, six of us and 4 of them, which totals 10 people. We were also having troubles with food supply. We could move in those areas, we had some stores nearby. We saw a lot of massacres on TV that were committed in different regions. I remember dimly \u2013 because I don\u2019t really like to remember those murders \u2013 but it\u2019s important for your youth to know what we went through, like we learned from our parents what happened to them, I like to remind them sometimes, but personally I don\u2019t like remembering it. We consistently watched the news, and March 24 when the bombings were supposed to take place was approaching. It was a Wednesday, and I could see through my window people running in other apartments. We were waiting for 7 p.m. because we heard from others that the lights would go off, and the bombing will begin in different parts of Serbia and here in some key places, mainly the post office, which were important for communication. We didn\u2019t know what to do that night because there were many Serbs living in our building, and we heard they\u2019re taking Albanians by force from their homes. We listened to the ticking of the clock, waiting for 7 p.m. and waiting for the police to come to our apartment. It was difficult to keep other people too, because they used to ask \u201cwhy are you keeping other people here when you\u2019re not a resident yourself?\u201d My husband and I talked about what we could do, where we could go, because it was usually more difficult for people living in apartments than in houses; if you lived in a house, you could see what was going on from your yard, but in apartments you couldn\u2019t. My children were little: the oldest, Albion, was four, my daughter Eliza, 2, and the youngest, Andi, 9 months old. When the lights went out, everybody was scared. My children started crying, they didn\u2019t know what was going on. We got ready and put our clothes on, so that at least we could leave with clothes and shoes on. We weren\u2019t afraid they\u2019d take, but that they\u2019d divide us because they would usually divide men from women. I have to go back a little because I have forgotten the events a bit. Our phone never stopped ringing. We had a landline, not a mobile phone like we do now. People were constantly asking what to do, where to go. That night, however, they cut our phones too. We just stopped and waited. I put some clothes, food for my children, and some pasta we had on a bag. We didn\u2019t know where we were going, I just made a bag ready. We heard people running through the building until 12 a.m. We didn\u2019t know what was going on. Then, everyone went to sleep, but my husband, who stayed up peering through the window, waiting they would come any moment. When the morning was dawning, I went out quickly. Our building had two entrances: one in the front side, one behind. When we went downstairs, imagine, they had blocked the rear entrance with bricks, for their own personal interests and to prevent us from leaving. When we finally went out, we had only one car: where could we go with that car? What way do we go? My husband had a friend from Drenica who lived in a house in Taslixhe. We decided we\u2019d go there with our children. My mother-in-law went at her eldest son, who was living in an apartment in Dardania. My husband\u2019s uncle and aunt went to some other relatives who lived in Dragodan. They weren\u2019t safe in Dragodan either, but we had to disperse. They went by bus because there were buses, although more rarely. We left too. Fortunately, no one stopped us. When we went in Taslixhe, there were over 30 refugees from Drenica who had come to stay at his house. They had some supplies, but they didn\u2019t know how long this would last. We didn\u2019t even know what was happening. There wasn\u2019t enough bread. We started baking, but we\u2019d spend a whole bag of flour in a day because there were too many of us. We were five from our family, plus the rest. We stayed there for 5 days, but more people kept coming from villages. At night, when the lights would go off, the men of the neighbourhood went to Rastigza, to see what was happening in the rest of Prishtina. They were safer to go out because there were no Serbs, only us Albanians with children. They went out in turns, for five nights. We didn\u2019t stay there for long. One night, the men decided to send the women to Kercova. They had some relatives in Macedonia where we could stay. They would stay here, and leave later. We had one car only. We gave ours to my husband\u2019s uncle because he needed it. We were left with nothing. My husband\u2019s friend had a car too. The rest had to leave on foot. My friend was with me too. She\u2019s married to my husband\u2019s friend. She had two daughters, plus my three children, which made 5 of them. Our friend\u2019s sister was there too, and she was pregnant, plus another neighbour woman with a child. All of us got in one car. We decided to leave in the morning. When we went out, as soon as we left our street, we saw a long line of people escaping from other villages. We didn\u2019t even have time to say goodbye\u2026 we just got in the cars as fast as we could. I took my gold with me, the gold I was given as wedding gift. Where do I leave it? I had a cradle pillow, and I hid it in there. Do I take with me or do I not? I wanted to take it with me\u2026 I didn\u2019t even have a passport! Everyone did, I didn\u2019t! Where could I go without a passport? One doesn\u2019t think in those moment. I told them they could go, and I\u2019d stay here. We had no idea what we would do or what was going on. Eventually, I decided to take the pillow, asking my husband what to do. I also had 600 Marks, which would be 300 Euros now. He gave me those, in case I\u2019d have to give it to the police to let me cross the border. He took the gold and hid it in the yard, he just put a stone over it. I didn\u2019t care about the gold, I just wanted to have it to save my children and myself. Then, all of us, four women with 6 children, and a pregnant woman, got in a Volkswagen, and left. It was an extremely long line of people walking! I have to go back again because I forgot to tell you something else. when we stayed in Taslixhe, they had a landline and I could call my parents. They remained here in Prishtina, in Lagja e Muhaxher\u00ebve, four of my sisters, their children and my parents. I talked to my parents that night. They asked me to go stay at their\u2019s. I didn\u2019t know what to do. Two days later, they cult my parents\u2019 landline. I was only able to talk to one of my sisters, and I told her we were planning to leave the next day. I have six sisters. One of them had earlier left to Skopje, Macedonia. She told me our eldest sister had also went to Kamenica, at some relatives, while the other four sisters were at my father\u2019s. I said goodbye to them, crying. I thought I\u2019d never see them again… I\u2019d only talk to them on the phone. We left the following day. I thought I\u2019d be able to stop on our way and say goodbye to my parents, as I was going strolling. Stopping anywhere was out of question! When we left Taslixhe, there were armed soldiers on the street. I was terrified. I thought they\u2019d kill all of us. All I took with me was some cookies. We didn\u2019t have time to take food or anything else. My friend didn\u2019t take anything either, not even a loaf of bread. We thought we would arrive in Kercova that day, and we\u2019d be okay. We drove until Veternik. We stopped there. Apart from the people in cars, there were also people who had been evicted from their houses by force walking. It was cold and rainy. I only had some pyjamas for my children, because there was no space in the car for anything else. We met my friend\u2019s brother-in-law, who had also left by car. When he saw us, he switched with our driver. He drove us. His wife was in Gjakova. He didn\u2019t know anything about her. We left. As soon as we arrived in Kacanik, and wanted to go to Elez Han, they stopped us. There were probably 300 cars there. They didn\u2019t let the cars pass. We stayed there for five nights, plus two days on the other side!<\/p>\n

R.B.: In the car?<\/p>\n

H.L: In the car. We slept in the car. We had no food. Children were asking for food. Interestingly, they understood \u2013 not the little one, I was breastfeeding him \u2013 when I told them we didn\u2019t have food, only cookies. I used to give them all two cookies. And they\u2019d tell me, \u201cIt\u2019s okay mum, we\u2019re not hungry.\u201d All of them! Some women used to collect nettle and cook them. I didn\u2019t have a pan or anything because we left fast. A woman gave me some nettles she had cooked. He added some flour that she had probably taken from home, and she brought it to me. Andi, the youngest one, ate it in a second. We stayed in the car the whole time. We didn\u2019t know where to go; we didn\u2019t even know what was happening on the other side of the border. Later, they said they\u2019re letting people cross one by one. When they let the cars pass, everyone crowded. Just when we approached the border, they turned us back. While we were staying in the car, I took my kids and went to an abandoned house. A lot women were going there. When I went there, I saw they had already taken the flour and every food article they had found, and they were cooking. I didn\u2019t have anything, and I just watched them. I didn\u2019t know what to give to the children, so I turned back to the car. I remember there was a little fountain on the side. It\u2019s closed now, I\u2019ve seen on my way to Skopje recently that it\u2019s closed. There was a Macedonian soldier on the hill; the border was probably there. He saw us, and he saw the children didn\u2019t have anything to eat, and waived at us to approach. He gave us have a bread. Who do I give it to first? I was also afraid to give it to my children. I was afraid it was poisoned or something. I still gave it to my kids, and they ate it. We divided that bread into 10 pieces for all of us. When they started letting the cars pass, we approached there, and a truck arrived to distribute bread. We didn\u2019t really care, we just wanted to pass as soon as possible. They stopped us again. They took us to a factory in Elez Han. I think it\u2019s a stone factory, I\u2019m not sure. It was raining, it was crowded, and we didn\u2019t know what we were doing. I remembered some movie scenes when they send refugees to factories and burn them alive. It was a factory cafeteria. They said they were providing food. Unfortunately, when we went there, it was closed. Not that it wasn\u2019t closed, there was just no food. They said the police were letting us pass. When we left the factory, they took us near Bllace. Another factory, but on the other side. They told us we had to leave the car if we wanted to go to Bllace. We didn\u2019t want to leave the car; we thought they\u2019d still let us pass. I wanted to take my kids to Kercova.<\/p>\n

We spent two nights there, without eating anything, not even the kids. All we had was that kilogram of cookies which they shared for a week. When we arrived there, you could cross the wires and get to the other side of Bllace. My friend\u2019s brother-in-law came from that side and told us, \u201cThere\u2019s food on the other side, but I don\u2019t know how long we will stay there, and we\u2019re all staying in an open field. We don\u2019t know where they will take us.\u201d What do I do? Where do I go with my children now? I talked to my friend about what we were going to do. We were all women, only my friend\u2019s brother-in-law was a man. Meanwhile, I saw another friend. It was her and my sister-in-law\u2019s sister, Rosa. She was looking for her fianc\u00e9 too. She used to live in the same neighbourhood as my parents, and she told me, \u201cThey\u2019re okay. They haven\u2019t bothered people in that side of the city.\u201d I had previously heard that they had evicted by force everyone from Matican and below. She told me they were okay. I didn\u2019t know anything about my family. I had been staying in cars for almost a week. It was the fifth night. Actually, I spent five nights in Elez Han, and two in Kacanik. The second night, we decided we were going to leave in the morning. We didn\u2019t have another choice. We took our children and left. While we were staying at the border, the police evicted by force my husband, his friend and everyone else, the entire neighbourhood of Taslixhe. They had planned to join the army, but they hadn\u2019t had enough time. They got in a truck. There were mostly women there, only 4-5 men. And they took them to Tirana, Albania, until Kukes. They suffered a lot too. They stopped in a few places. The women tried to cover them to protect them from the police getting them off the truck. He had a different experience, but I\u2019ll tell you about mine. So, we got to the other side. When we went there, I couldn\u2019t believe my eyes, people were packed like sardines! Everyone was staying in an open field. You may have seen it on TV as well. There were sick people, people lying on the ground. I will never forget, I saw a piece of bread on the ground, maybe it was stale, but when my children saw it, they said, \u201cMum, look. We don\u2019t have any bread to eat, and they\u2019ve thrown it on the ground!\u201d They started distributing bread, but they\u2019d just throw it; some would end up in the mud, if you couldn\u2019t get it. we saw the family of my husband\u2019s friend, which we had left at home. They had been evicted too. That night, they had built some tents with nylon they had distributed. My friend and I didn\u2019t know what to do. At least, she reunited with her husband\u2019s family. It started getting dark. The train used to come, and people who had left from Prishtina and other places would arrive. I didn\u2019t see any person I knew! I hoped I\u2019d see at least someone from our neighbours, relatives of my sisters\u2026 No one! I just kept walking, hoping I\u2019d see someone. Then, I saw my husband\u2019s uncle\u2019s son. I asked him, \u201cFaruk, have you seen anyone?\u201d He replied, \u201cNo one! We\u2019re staying here, do you want to come with your friend and stay with us?\u201d I told him, \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d My son caught a cold and had fever. The ambulance was there. The doctor examined him and told me, \u201cYour son is very ill.\u201d I didn\u2019t have any medication, nothing. I had some phone numbers on my pocket that I had taken just in case. My brothers-in-law were in Germany, so I thought I\u2019d call them when I arrive in Kercova, and then they\u2019ll inform my husband in Prishtina, and I\u2019m fine. In the meantime, my husband had gone to Kukes. He thought we had crossed the border. When I talked to them in Kercova, they told me he had already escaped. I\u2019m going back and forth because the memories coming. When we were staying in the cars, a few buses came from Ferizaj and Prishtina. The Serbs had packed them with people. Some of my friend\u2019s neighbours were among them too. Their daughter-in-law was in the car with us. And a woman among them told us, \u201cThey\u2019ve killed your husbands in the square. We don\u2019t know anything about our son or your husbands.\u201d My friend passed out. I just prayed to God that it wasn\u2019t true. Since she was telling about her son, they\u2019ve probably killed him. She told us what she had heard. I decided not to stay in Bllace that night. There was a hill we needed to pass to go to Stankovec. I didn\u2019t know where they were taking us though, I could just see the line of people walking, and us behind them. I told our friends from Drenica that Faruk was taking me to Stankovec. My friend tried to leave too. You could apply for an asylum in other countries. We didn\u2019t know what it was. They just said they\u2019re making a list of people to send them somewhere else. Maybe the rest had more information. I had three kids, I was stuck, I didn\u2019t know where to go! I got my bag and my children. My husband\u2019s relative helped me climbed the hill. It was difficult for my children to cross the wires. The police got some people, whoever they wanted to, into buses. I saw a young man and asked him to help me with the bags. He said, \u201cI don\u2019t even know how I will get to the other side!\u201d Everyone was worried about their own lives. In that moment, a police officer, said in Macedonian, \u201cLet the women and children pass first. Men will stay.\u201d So, I passed the border. My children started crying; everyone wanted to hold my hand; one of them was holding my bag. All of them were little, the youngest wasn\u2019t even 5 yet! I saw a family, and I would really like to know who they were. I didn\u2019t ask them anything; I just know their house was in Tophane. They were a married couple, with a son and two daughters. But their children were in their twenties. They helped me until we went to the camps. But my children didn\u2019t want to hold them. The main thing was that I was next to them. And the couple told their children the whole time, \u201cStay close to the woman, help her!\u201d When they told us they don\u2019t allow baggage because there\u2019s no space in the bus, I didn\u2019t know what to do. I only had a purse and a bag. So, I dressed my kids in all the clothes I had taken from home. They looked like snowmen! I didn\u2019t want to leave their clothes there; I was afraid I wouldn\u2019t have other clothes for them. All I took was my photographs and some undeveloped films because my sister told me, the night before I left, \u201cI didn\u2019t take anything. I just took the photographs to keep as memory. If I\u2019m not anymore, at least someone will find them.\u201d We got in the bus. The family from Tophane still stayed close to me. I don\u2019t know how long the journey lasted, but I don\u2019t think it was too far, but it felt like Stankovec was so far from Bllace that I almost fell asleep with my child on my arms. Then they told us, \u201cWe\u2019re here!\u201d We arrived there. The soldiers had torches on their hands. They gave all of us blankets, and they didn\u2019t care if you could hold them or not, and they told us in what tents we were going to stay. It felt like they took me miles away. When I went there, another family was staying in the tent. They were from Dardania. A married couple with three children. it was so cold that I had to put my kids to sleep in their jackets. The man who was with his family in the tent didn\u2019t stay there, he went out. I guess he didn\u2019t want to make me feel uncomfortable. He had other family members in other tents. I never slept! I couldn\u2019t sleep, I just cried the whole time. I felt like everyone was with their loved ones but me. I didn\u2019t see a single relative, not even one! I woke up that morning, and prayed to God to help me. I lost the phone numbers I had taken from home. I couldn\u2019t call anyone. Maybe I dropped them on the way. I got up that morning, and the woman who was with me in the tent asked me, \u201cWhere are you going? \u201cI don\u2019t know, maybe I\u2019ll find someone I know,\u201d I said. I took my children with me. I saw a neighbour in another tent. She was from Taslixhe too. They had left earlier. I told her, \u201cMerita, can you stay with Andi, and I\u2019ll go see if I can find anyone I know?\u201d Because they said we could leave from there and people were migrating to other countries. She told me, \u201cNot just Andi, leave the three of them here,\u201d but they didn\u2019t want to, so I took them with me. As I was walking, I asked myself, \u201cWhere am I going? Who am I going to talk to? Who am I going to call?\u201d I saw a group of people talking on the phone. One of them had a mobile phone, and he was giving it to everyone to call. When I got closer, I recognized him. He was the fianc\u00e9 of the friend that I mentioned earlier. They had reunited and were staying in those camps. He stopped everyone and said, \u201cNo one will make calls for now. Let\u2019s give the phone to this woman,\u201d he was talking about me. He asked me, \u201cDo you want to come and stay with Roza and I in the tent?\u201d I told him where I was staying. Then we went and took Andi whom we had let with that friend and the bag we had left with the few clothes we had. We went to Roza\u2019s tent. She had talked to my brothers-in-law because she was married to my brother-in-law\u2019s wife\u2019s brother. I took the phone and talk to him first. He told me, \u201cStay with Roza. Go wherever she goes, because I think she\u2019s coming to Germany; they\u2019ve applied for an asylum.\u201d You had to register and write the number of your family members, I don\u2019t know. I had no idea about anything. I said, \u201cOkay, I\u2019ll go wherever she goes.\u201d We food for children there. But, still, I didn\u2019t see any of my family members. I wanted to know what was happening. I stayed there for two nights.<\/p>\n

R.B.: In Stankovec?<\/p>\n

H.L: In Stankovec. We set out to wash our children\u2019s clothes with a bucket they gave us, and I suddenly heard someone calling, \u201cHazbije Lahi! Hazbije Lahi!\u201d Who was calling me by my first and last name? It was an officer whom my brother-in-law had asked to find me, because he had gone earlier to Tetovo with my mother-in-law, his wife, children and sister. They heard we were in Stankovec, and they had asked the officer to take me from the tents because they had heard my son was ill. My mother-in-law cried, saying \u201cI am here all comfortable while she is in a tent with the kids, in this cold, rainy weather.\u201d The officer told me who had sent him. They were in a village in Tetovo, called Razhd. We went there. I said goobdye to my sister-in-law\u2019s sister and we went to Razhd, a small but very welcoming village. Obviously, we didn\u2019t suffer for anything there. We were given help. At least I felt comfortable that I reunited with someone I kew. But, still, I didn\u2019t know anything about my family…<\/p>\n

R.B.: When did you find out your husband was alive?<\/p>\n

H.L: I dind\u2019t for a while. When I went to Razhd, they said they had taken Idriz (my husband) to Kukes, because I didn\u2019t even know if he was alive. When I went there, my mother-in-law told he was in Tirana. He managed to escape, at least he\u2019s alive, and he\u2019s well. He called the next day. And he said I could go there after a few days. But we needed to get a permit first. I stayed in Tetovo for ten days. During those ten days, we went to the market. I had 600 Marks. I thought I\u2019d buy my children some pyjamas and I needed some clothes for myself. While I was waiting for the bus with my sister-in-law, we met some girls from Kacanik. They said they were staying in Skopje and they knew about my sister. My sister lived in Kacanik. She went to her sister-in-law in Skopje from there. And I told her, \u201cPlease tell her, if you see her, that your sister is here with her children, in Tetovo\u201d, I told her my name too. She said, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll tell her.\u201d We went to the market and came back. I wanted to leave for Albania the night before. We decided my husband would wait for me at the border, in Elbasan, and we\u2019d meet at the border between Macedonia and Albania. We left in the morning. The owner of the house where I was staying accompanied me. He said, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. I\u2019ll take you there.\u201d Can you imagine: we left at 7 a.m., and we couldn\u2019t even get out of Tetovo. I was so unlucky! I had a really hard time there, too. My mother-in-law wanted to bake some pancakes for us, but I told her not to bother because we\u2019d arrive there in no time. She told me, \u201cTake it with you because the kids will get hungry.\u201d So she gave me some. When we wanted to leave, the police stopped us at the outskirts of Tetovo. They said, \u201cNo, you need a special permit to leave Macedonia.\u201d He told us where to get it. I stayed in the car the whole time. The driver went to get it, but they told him the administration is closed now because it\u2019s 12 o\u2019clock\u201d. We didn\u2019t even know where to stay. We tried it again, believing that the police had changed shifts. They turned us back again. Our car broke down, too. We took it to a mechanic. He said, \u201cYou have to leave it here for 2-3 days until I can fix it.\u201d We tried to rent a car, we couldn\u2019t. My husband had called a few times because he was waiting at the border, and he thought I\u2019d be there in 2-3 hours. At home, they told him we had left. We didn\u2019t have a mobile phone to communicate. Then we called a taxi. We tried for the third time. They turned us back again. It was Friday. We returned at 10 p.m. The kids were tired and hungry. They ate those pancakes but\u2026 When the driver went to rent a car, I got out and two women saw me through the windows of that building \u2013 I don\u2019t know if it was a Ministry or what \u2013 and asked me if I needed anything. I told them what happened. They said they\u2019d seen me waiting for a long time.
\nWe returned home that night. My husband waited at the border. When he saw that we weren\u2019t coming, he went home disappointed. The next day, on Saturday, unfortunately the phones weren\u2019t working. You know those days when everything just goes wrong. They didn\u2019t work on Sunday either! I gave up. Since I was there, I didn\u2019t mind if I couldn\u2019t go to Albania. But we still wanted to be together. On Monday morning, as I was waking up my children, the lady of the house told me, \u201cThe taxi driver is here to get you.\u201d He told me on Sunday that he would try to get that permit. We left quickly. I said \u201cI\u2019m going, but my husband doesn\u2019t know and he won\u2019t wait for me at the border.\u201d My brother-in-law couldn\u2019t leave because I was a refugee. The owner of the house said, \u201cI\u2019ll accompany you and I\u2019ll take you to Tirana myself, if need be.\u201d At home, they said they\u2019ll try to call him if the phones work and he\u2019ll wait for me at the border. We left with his car. My kids didn\u2019t stop singing \u201cXhamadani vija-vija\u201d all the way to the border. I wish I had a phone to record them. My eldest son was 4, my daughter would turn 3 in June. It was April. The bombings started on March 2; on April 2 we went to Tetovo. They didn\u2019t stop singing for a second out of happiness that they were finally seeing their father. When we arrived, the taxi driver told Isak, the owner of the house, \u201cI\u2019ll wait for half an hour across the border. If you don\u2019t return in half an hour, I\u2019ll now you managed to cross the border and you\u2019re going to Tirana.\u201d In the meantime, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law had called my brother and told him, and he was waiting for us at the border. I saw someone waiting but\u2026 I just recognised him when I heard his voice. I was holding my little son in my arms, and the two others stared running towards him. They didn\u2019t notice it was him first, until my husband said, \u201cHey, welcome!\u201d I was so surprised when my youngest son recognised his dad\u2019s voice although he hadn\u2019t seen him for two weeks. They hugged him tightly. The owner of the house returned once we reunited. My husband was staying in Durres, at a friend\u2019s house. He was living in Switzerland so they stayed at his house. He had made a long journey to arrive in Durres when the Serbs evicted them. The friend that I left in Stankovec stayed there for two other nights, then left to Kercova. She remained in Kercova; I went to Durres before her. A week later she came there too and we reunited. We were again two families living together, in a house that only had a living room and a bedroom, but we didn\u2019t care. We had food there and we were all together. Still, I didn\u2019t yet know anything about my family. When we stayed there, a neighbour had a phone. I don\u2019t know how my mother found his number. Oh, now I remembered. My sister\u2019s son was in Switzerland and he communicated with my brother-in-law in Germany. I think he got the number from him, I never asked him\u2026 And he called me. I asked him, \u201cWhere did you get the number?\u201d He said, \u201cDon\u2019t worry. Everyone is okay.\u201d He told me where everyone is, \u201ceveryone is safe and sound. What matters is that they\u2019re alive.\u201d They lived in fear for three months, not knowing if we\u2019d survive. \u201cThey\u2019re okay. Let me know if you need anything and I\u2019ll bring it to you.\u201d But we were receiving help in Albania already.<\/p>\n

R.B.: Where was your family?<\/p>\n

H.L: Sorry?<\/p>\n

R.B.: Where was your family? Here in Prishtina?<\/p>\n

H.L: Here, in Prishtina. He was alone in Switzerland. He had left earlier, before the war. But he kept in touch with his mother, that is my sister. Later, the lady of the house told me, \u201cSomeone is asking for you on the phone but I don\u2019t know who it is.\u201d She knew but she didn\u2019t want to tell me. When I got the phone, I heard my mother\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n

R.B.: I think you missed your mother more…<\/p>\n

H.L: When I got the phone, I heard my mother\u2019s voice. I hadn\u2019t heard her voice for months. She had gone to the post office with my sister, because the landlines weren\u2019t working. She kept asking me, \u201cHow are you, are you all alive?\u201d She was afraid something had happened to me, but then she found out I was well, she just kept asking \u201cAre you all alive?\u201d I told her, \u201cMother, tell me about you. How are you all?\u201d She said, \u201cWe\u2019re all okay.\u201d My father had a heart condition. \u201cWhat about father?\u201d I asked. She said, \u201cYour father and everyone else is okay. You have nothing to worry about.\u201d The call didn\u2019t last for long though; maybe she didn\u2019t have a lot of money to pay for the call. We couldn\u2019t talk, both of us kept crying, and we hung up. I told her, \u201cI believe we will meet very soon.\u201d I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever see them again. She hung up. She was crying, I was crying. Fortunately, the girl from Kacanik that I met in Tetovo, told me sister. But she confused the name. She said, \u201cI\u2019ve met one of your sisters with three children, but her husband is not with her.\u201d Another sister of mine had three children, two daughters and a girl. She said, \u201cWhich one could it be?\u201d She set out with her husband to find me. But I left for Albania the day she arrived in Tetovo, and we couldn\u2019t meet. I was gutted at my luck! I couldn\u2019t meet anyone, our car broke down. However, what matters is that we survived and we didn\u2019t lose any of our loved ones.<\/p>\n

R.B.: When did you decide to return?<\/p>\n

H.L: We stayed there for another three months. I didn\u2019t talk to my mother anymore after that. When Kosovo was liberated, people started returning. My brother-in-law used to call us, asking, \u201cWhat do you want to do? Do you want to come here, or do you want to stay?\u201d He was in Germany and he would tell us, \u201cyou can\u2019t go back. You don\u2019t have a house; you don\u2019t have a job. You have nowhere to return to. Come here!\u201d We couldn\u2019t go abroad from Albania. So, we decided to return here and meet my family and other relatives. My husband\u2019s mother was there too. What matters is that our family, our relatives and ourselves survived. Nothing happened to us.<\/p>\n

R.B.: Can you describe what Prishtina looked like the day you came back?<\/p>\n

H.L: Believe me, when we returned that day, I didn\u2019t even recognise the place where we had lived. They\u2019d made a mess of our apartment; my mother-in-law had gone before, and tidied it up a bit. She went back to my brother-in-law\u2019s in Dardania. When we went there, I didn\u2019t recognise our home. The Serbs had settled in our apartments when we left. My apartment was a huge mess. But that\u2019s okay. There were soldiers on all sides. Something else I will never forget is when my husband tried putting up a curtain because the blinds were all ruined, and we suddenly heard a soldier screaming, \u201cWhat are you doing there? Are you going to jump?\u201d He thought my husband was going to commit suicide or something but we couldn\u2019t understand him. But, yeah, Prishtina didn\u2019t look good. We got used to seeing it in that condition. We returned with that Volkswagen, we found it again. I have to go back again because I forget some details sometimes. When we were staying in Durres, my husband\u2019s uncle had found the car, and was staying in Elbasan. We went to Elbasan to visit them and we found our car. Then we used it as long as we stayed in Durres for three months. We came back with that car, and we were again 6-7 people or even more because we took some other people who wanted to come back here. I forget some details. I should write down all of them.<\/p>\n

R.B.: That would be it. Thank you very much!<\/p>\n

H.L: Thank you!<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Interviewer: Rita Berisha Interviewee: Hazbije Lahi R.B.: Thank you very, Mrs. Hasbije. I\u2019m very happy you\u2019re telling us your wartime story. Can you tell us a bit about the time before the bomings. Where were you? Who were you with? What was going on? What did you hear in the news? H.L: Okay. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1508"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1510,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions\/1510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}