{"id":1553,"date":"2022-04-14T09:49:43","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T09:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/?p=1553"},"modified":"2022-04-14T13:00:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T13:00:53","slug":"sabri-hasani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/sabri-hasani\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Sabri Hasani"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Interviewer: Rita Berisha<\/p>\n

Interviewee: Sabri Hasani<\/p>\n

R.B.: Let\u2019s start with the period just before the bombings. How do you remember that entire period?<\/p>\n

S.H.:Before the NATO bombings, we expected for the worst, considering what had happened in Bosnia. In the village where I live in the northern part of Mitrovica, we were surrounded by Serbs. There\u2019s a Serbian settlement between my village and village Gushavc. Shortly before the NATO bombings, a lot of Serbian paramilitaries were positioned there, with red uniforms, white uniforms, and we were just waiting for an atrocity to happen. And it did. Right after the NATO bombings, on March 24, 1999, numerous people came from the city of Mitrovica to my village, assuming that it\u2019s safer. We knew it wasn\u2019t, because on March 28, 1999, the Serbian paramilitaries murdered 4 people in the yard of their own house, they were my neighbours. After their murder, we all left our houses because we expected that they start a massacre. We went 2 km south of Ibar for two hours. That\u2019s where the population was concentrated. We were around 25 people staying in one room: my family, my uncle\u2019s family, and my neighbours. There were 25 of us in a single, 4×5 meters room. It wasn\u2019t large. We stayed there for 4 days. All we had to eat was potatoes. The owners of the house weren\u2019t rich. And we were constantly afraid because we felt that we were safer there but it was actually the same unsafe situation everywhere. Later, after 3 nights, we saw that we couldn\u2019t survive there as we didn\u2019t have anything to eat. So we returned home again, although Serbs started burning down some houses in the outskirts of the village. We stayed there for three nights in a house. Then we figured that we can\u2019t really stay there because they started burning down the houses closer to the centre of the village where my house was. And very few families were left in the village. Then we went to the city of Mitrovica, in a house of a later-to-be a very well-known public official in Mitrovica. He had previously left to Montenegro. He had left the keys of his house to his neighbour in case anyone needs sheltering. There was also food, until they\u2019re safe. We stayed in that house, with my uncle\u2019s family and the family of a neighbour\u2026 We stayed there for two weeks. The conditions in that house, to be honest, weren\u2019t bad, but we heard every day about people being killed. It was incredibly unsafe.<\/p>\n

R.B.: Could you ever leave the house? How safe was it?<\/p>\n

S.H.:We could only go out to the yard. The city wasn\u2019t unsafe at all, we could only go out to the yard, not any further. Then, after 10 days or two weeks, we were massively evicted from there.<\/p>\n

R.B.: Sorry. Yes, you were saying that you were evicted.<\/p>\n

S.H.:Yes. There\u2019s a part of the city called Tavnik, we used to call it \u201cTe Bibi\u201d. The entire population was forced to move there. To be honest, we didn\u2019t even know where to go. But we decided to take the road to Albania. We thought they would let us go there. We went to Shipol. They took us to a school in Shipol. We stayed in the desks that night, in incredibly bad conditions, hungry, thirsty\u2026 It also started raining that night, it was very cold. We stayed there in the dark that night. In the following morning, they told us to return home. When we walked down to the main road, they said, \u201cNo, go to the bus station because we will take you to Montenegro by buses\u201d. When we approached the bus station, they changed our direction again towards Shipol, the same road. They kept us walking in circles. This was a very difficult day because there were victims on the sides of the road, which they had killed. We had to walk past them, and we could see masked paramilitaries burning the houses. Then we continued walking towards Albania. We kept walking until evening. We arrived in village Qubrel with a lot of struggles. I had my two-year old daughter with me. I had my father, mother, wife, and a two-year old daughter. I carried her in my arms the entire time, and some clothes we managed to get from home. We took turns with my wife and dad to hold my daughter. We held her in our lap, and covered ourselves with an umbrella. We took turns to hold her, to protect my daughter. That night was extremely difficult. We were cold and afraid too. The following day we started walking again. We arrived in Gurakoc. We spent the night in a workshop, or auto mechanic\u2019s workshop. I don\u2019t know what it was, but it was dark.<\/p>\n

R.B.: Were there a lot of other people or was it just your family?<\/p>\n

S.H.:There were thousands of people from Mitrovica walking in a line who were massively evicted on April 15. Now I remember the date because people go to Kukes, by buses, every April 15, in memory of that day. We stayed in Gurakoc for a night. The next day we walked to village Gremnik, Klina. Ironically, all the residents of that village had escaped to the woods, and we settled in their houses. We actually visited them after the war, we stayed there in an oda<\/i>. We stayed there for 6 nights, collecting food left in their houses. We caused harm to that population, but not on purpose, just for survival. We ate enough not to starve. After six days, they told Milosevic has signed capitulation and the war was over, \u201cNow go back to Mitrovica\u201d. We knew the line of people walking had continued to Albania, but we returned to Mitrovica, only this time through Skenderaj. They stopped us at the entrance of Skenderaj. They divided 250 people, men only, from the rest. I was one of them. I was holding my daughter in my arms. He told me, \u201cGive your daughter to your wife, and go there.\u201d Knowing what they did in Bosnia, we just expected they would shoot us\u2026 They took us to the secondary technical school in Skenderaj. My family didn\u2019t know anything about me. They kept us for two weeks there. They didn\u2019t torture people in the school, apart from the last night. But they did interrogate us by groups. They would take us to the police station which wasn\u2019t too far from the school. Those who were unlucky were really badly beaten there. We could see them returning with swollen hands, swollen faces because of the abuse they had suffered.<\/p>\n

R.B.: What did they want to know? What did they ask you about?<\/p>\n

S.H.:The ones who suffered the most were the people who came from the war zones. I was from the area of Suadoll, where there were no KLA, because it was in the northern part surrounded by Serbs. You couldn\u2019t even organize there for that\u2026 So, when they interrogated me, they asked me in details \u201cWhat\u2019s your job? What did you study?\u201d They even asked me about who my uncle is, and where they\u2019re from. Details. But I was lucky because the inspector was Bosnian, and he didn\u2019t keep me for long. Later, two paramilitaries came the last night. We could see they were drunk. They were looking for someone from village Vaganice. According to them, when they passed by on a Geep, the villagers fired at them with shotguns. So they were looking for anyone who was from Vaganice to torture them. They beat a few men but they survived. The following day, they got us in trucks that transport animals. Obviously, we didn\u2019t know where they were taking us. I forgot to mention, the biggest struggle in that school was food. They gave us to eat only once a day. They used to bring us one fourth of a bread and a small piece of cheese, called zdenka<\/i>. We survived on that, once a day. But for three days they didn\u2019t bring us anything, not even that. For three days! When they got us in those trucks, we didn\u2019t know where they were taking us. It turns out they were taking us to the prison in Smerkonica, where there were also other prisoners. The biggest torture happened in Smerkonica. I didn\u2019t suffer any torture myself, fortunately, but I did see them beating, abusing people. For instance, they told a father and a son to hit each-other, and obviously none of them could do it. And they told them, \u201cI\u2019ll show you how to hit!\u201d And they hit both of them, with a shovel handle. We could see them from the prison windows in the the prison yard. It was that on the one side, and on the other I didn\u2019t know what happened to my family. Later, they told what they went through not knowing what had happened to me. They even heard rumours that we had been shot in Skenderaj. A week after staying in that prison, a massive imprisonment took place in Mitrovica. Now, there were about 3600 people in prison. It turned into a trench. It wasn\u2019t a prison anymore because there were 40 people in a room, for sure. You couldn\u2019t even lie down, you just had to sit. There were no beds, only concrete. A week later, as I was saying, when the massive imprisonment took place, they brought my father, my uncle, and my cousins to the prison. Obviously, we couldn\u2019t meet because the pavilions were separated. I saw my father for the first time through the window, and I found out he was alive. The most touching story is when my father saw me. Because I didn\u2019t know what had happened to my family, but my father had heard that I had been shot. It was harder for him. And he saw me through the window. The people who were with him say that he couldn\u2019t stop crying for a long time when he saw that I was alive. They kept us there for two more weeks. They interrogated us, tortured us. Then, they took us to the technical school from there. We also ate only once a day there. The worst thing was that they took us to eat, and the soup was very hot, on purpose. It wasn\u2019t even a soup, just hot water with a few pieces of potatoes. And as soon as we would start eating, they would come and say, \u201cGet up! You\u2019ve eaten enough! Your time is up!\u201d So we had to get up, and all we could take was that piece of bread. We dipped it in salt and ate it, to keep ourselves alive. And, because I never had enough to eat, I couldn\u2019t properly empty my bowels for a whole month. Two weeks later, they got us in buses. As we were getting in the buses, a bus guardian asked a police in Serbian, which I understood, \u201cWhere are you taking them?\u201d He replied, \u201cI don\u2019t know, probably to shoot them.\u201d He said it very calmly. We got in the buses. They didn\u2019t allow us to keep our heads up, so that not to look outside. But we knew what direction the bus took. When we saw we were going towards Prishtina, we thought they were taking us to Ni\u0161, in the prison in Ni\u0161. When we passed Prishtina, we thought they were taking us to the prison in Lipjan. When we passed Lipjan, we thought NATO had announced that it was sending its troops to Kosovo, so they were going to use us as defence before their tanks. We approached the border for about 5 km. They took us out of the bus there, and told us, \u201cGet in line! The border is 5 km away from here. Do not return to Kosovo ever again! Leave and do not return anymore!\u201d A lot of people suffered a lot in those 5 km because they wanted to torture people as much as they could in those last few moments. We went to Albania. But when I went to Albania, I was very sad because I knew my entire family was here, my mother, my wife, my daughter. I knew my father was in prison because they didn\u2019t send all of us to Albania. I was really sad because I didn\u2019t want to be the only one to survive. What kind of life is that? And I knew we wouldn\u2019t return anymore because we saw how the situation was here. There was a large number of refugees in Kukes. There were apparently 600,000 refugees in Kukes. Their number was many times higher than the size of the local population. Obviously, different humanitarian organizations provided assistance and didn\u2019t let us starve, there was enough food. But, we were really sad about our families. We were also unsure about the future; what are we going to do in Albania? No money, nothing. We had nothing but the clothes we were wearing. Not even identification documents, because they made us leave them there otherwise\u2026<\/p>\n

R.B.: Did you reunite with your family in Albania?<\/p>\n

S.H.:I didn\u2019t, because my wife, mother and daughter didn\u2019t leave Kosovo. They returned to Mitrovica, and stayed at my aunt\u2019s house, my father\u2019s cousin. They had a house in the city of Mitrovica. But there were only women and children there. They talk about how much they suffered. They suffered mostly for food and fear of what was going to happen. They had burned our house. My aunt\u2019s house was very close to ours. My father was released about eight days later, if I\u2019m not wrong because I\u2019ve forgotten. It\u2019s been 20 years. My father was brought to Albania, the same way as me, by bus. That\u2019s when I met my father again for the first time, after more than a month. It was a very emotional moment. We hugged for a long time. Every time I think about it, it\u2019s a very, very touching moment. Even the ones who were present cried too. However, we were still sad, we didn\u2019t know what happened to my mother and wife. They took us to the Hamollaj camp, in Durres, since the number of refugees in Kukes was large and they couldn\u2019t accommodate all of them. And more refugees kept coming. So they sent some of us there. It didn\u2019t matter to us whether we were in Durres or Kukes, it was the same. In Durres, I met my sister and her family. Her husband and father-in-law weren\u2019t there either. My sister had gone through the same thing as my family, as her husband and his father had been separated from their family. They were brought to Smerkonica too, they were in the prison as well. So, I met my sister in Durres. I didn\u2019t know she was there. One of my cousins told me, \u201cI\u2019ve seen Valbona. She\u2019s there with her children.\u201d I asked, \u201cWhat do you mean with her children when I\u2019ve seen Faton in prison?\u201d Faton was her husband. \u201cThey didn\u2019t come to Albania. How come she is here?\u201d It turns out the police had gotten her family in a tractor and when they had gone further, the driver had told her husband and his father to get off the tractor, while the rest was taken to Albania on pretence that the tractor couldn\u2019t handle that many people. So they came to Albania, while they were sent to prison. We stayed for a month in Albania. On May 22, if I\u2019m not wrong, we arrived in Albania. On June 24, we returned. We tried to return right after the Kumanova agreement was signed but we couldn\u2019t find transport. On June 24 we found a van, we paid for it and returned.<\/p>\n

R.B.: Did it bring you to Mitrovica?<\/p>\n

S.H.:It brought us to Mitrovica. I went to my uncle\u2019s house. His house wasn\u2019t burned. My mother, wife and daughter were there.<\/p>\n

Shkova te shpija e daj\u00ebs, atij i kish pshtu shpija n\u2019qytet aty. Aty ish kon nona, gruja edhe qika. Qika kish fillu me m\u2019harru, sem njihke se dy vje\u00e7are o kon. M\u2019kqyrke diqysh si \u00e7uditsh\u00ebm. E dike q\u00eb diku m\u2019ka pa po kush o ky njeri nuk e dike. Masanej sigurisht iu ka kthy kujtesa, e s\u2019mu dajke.<\/p>\n

R.B.: E qysh o kon fshati kur je kthy?<\/p>\n

S.H.:Fshati o kon komplet i djegun. Bile Jetoni, pas luft\u00ebs ka ardh me na vizitu. Komplet, komplet o kon i djegun. Nuk e di a kan\u00eb pshtu 2-3 shpija edhe ato kan\u00eb pshtu se kan\u00eb q\u00ebndru vet\u00eb ata paramilitar\u00ebt. Sht\u00ebpin\u00eb e kom nd\u00ebrtu prej temelit t\u2019re. Osht dasht me e nd\u00ebrtu se s\u2019kom mujt me riparu kurgjo n\u2019to.<\/p>\n

R.B.: S\u2019ka pas kurgjo p\u00ebr me riparu a?<\/p>\n

S.H.:Kurgjo s\u2019kom mujt me riparu. Prej temelit o duft.<\/p>\n

R.B.: E ku ke nejt n\u2019fillim si je kthy?<\/p>\n

S.H.:N\u2019fillim kom nejt te kunati i hall\u00ebs n\u2019banes\u00eb tij. Ai ka qen\u00eb n\u2019Gjermani e derisa o kthy ai un\u00eb kom nejt n\u2019banes\u00eb tij. Po mandej n\u2019pranver\u00eb ve\u00e7 fillova me e nd\u00ebrtu sht\u00ebpin\u00eb. Me ni shatorr rrishim derisa e nd\u00ebrtum sht\u00ebpin\u00eb po ish vera, nuk ish fort problem. Masi ish mandej liria, nuk e ndishim as t\u00eb ftoftit as kurgjo, n\u00eb krahasim me luft\u00eb. Kjo \u00ebsht\u00eb n\u2019pika t\u2019shkurta historia.<\/p>\n

R.B.: Faleminderit shum\u00eb!<\/p>\n

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[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: Sabri Hasani R.B.: Let\u2019s start with the period just before the bombings. How do you remember that entire period? S.H.:Before the NATO bombings, we expected for the worst, considering what had happened in Bosnia. In the village where I live in the northern part of Mitrovica, we were surrounded […]<\/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\/1553"}],"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=1553"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1555,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions\/1555"}],"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=1553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}