{"id":1801,"date":"2023-01-30T20:38:19","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T20:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/?p=1801"},"modified":"2023-02-24T07:44:25","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T07:44:25","slug":"anonim-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/anonim-5\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Anonim"},"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]The interviewer: Welcome to this interview. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Shall we start the story by first telling us where you\u2019re from, who you were with during the war, in which city you stayed, and what you remember from when the situation started to worsen?
\nAnonim 5: During the war in Kosova I was in the city of Peja with my family; we were 5 family members, my parents, my two older sisters, and I. I remember only some sequences. I was 4 years old during the war. I remember that during August or September, we had a kiddie pool in the garden where the children swam. I recall how the wind would bring the sparks of the burnt stuff into the garden while we were in the kiddie pool. A coat of ashes always covered the yard every morning. I can remember my parents and other adults saying that Loxha was on fire. Loxha is a village near Peja. So, they started burning down the villages of Peja. But, we always thought that they would do nothing in the city. The situation started to get tense and worsen. My parents, sisters, and I were left there. We experienced 54 days of the war. We were there. People, the neighbors, were running away. We were all in panic but hoped that things would get better and the situation would calm down. We remained in Peja. My parents went through a lot, and although I saw the whole situation from a child\u2019s lens, I knew what was going on. For example, I thought why the neighbor\u2019s house was burning. And now when I think of it I can only imagine what my parents were going through back then; in what emotional state of being they were and in what kind of danger they went through. They knew that Serbian militants could walk in at any time and harm us.
\nThe interviewer: You previously mentioned the lack of food before you decided to leave. Can you recall those moments regarding food and how much food you could provide for the family during the NATO bombings?
\nAnonim 5: Fortunately, my father had a store in the yard \u2013 it was the neighborhood\u2019s market. We didn\u2019t struggle for food during that time, until the end of our stay when the Serbian militants started to raid the houses and take all the stuff. I remember when they came with a big jeep and took most of the food we had. That was a difficult time. It was only us in the neighborhood at that time. We didn\u2019t feel safe going out. My parents could only go out and take the basic stuff in the morning. That\u2019s because the part of Peja across the river was all habited with Serbians. The Serbians who stayed there during the war were not harmed, only the Albanians were at risk. I remember how we got the news about the families who had remained in the neighborhood of Kapeshnica in Peja. My father then met two of his friends there and brought them to our house. Those people had contacts since they had authority in Peja. This means that they had important positions at work. So, whenever they met their colleagues in Peja, of Serbian nationality, they gave them information about our safety. Before we left, they had met their colleagues 24 hours earlier and they told them we had to leave because they were coming after us. It meant that we had to leave because the worst could happen. Fortunately, we left 24 hours before they got there. When we got back from Ulqin, Montenegro, we saw that the house was burnt down. We found bullets spread in the yard and\u2026
\nThe interviewer: Before you tell us the story of how you escaped, you mentioned the time when a paramilitary came to your yard. Can you retell that part?
\nAnonim 5: As a child, and I still do, I loved animals. During the war the dearth of food was evident. So, the cats from the street started approaching our house and we would feed them. The number of cats was high and I used to play with them. Whenever I think of war I remember the cats I played with. I remember we were having lunch, were in the living room, and we heard a noise \u2013 it was like something dropped off the wall. I thought it was one of the cats that came to play with me. I ran out but I can hear my mother\u2019s voice calling \u201ccome back, come back, come back\u201d. She was like yelling in a way of whispering. She panicked. I ran out in the backyard and I didn\u2019t see the cat but a man, a soldier, a Serbian military\u2026 I was stunned for a moment and he grabbed me by the arms \u2013 he got me from the back and I didn\u2019t see what he was doing from behind. But, as my parents describe it he pointed a gun at my head. When my parents got there, my mom and dad got there immediately, and when they saw all that happening, they started speaking in Serbian to explain to him that it was just our family there and that we are not dangerous. He held the gun on my head until he got to the gate\u2026 he opened the door, went out of the yard, and let me go. I remember my mother fell on her knees and started crying and sobbing. Then, I ran to my father. He got me up and that\u2019s when I saw that he wasn\u2019t alone but with a group of militaries in a van who were breaking into houses. I don\u2019t know what the reason was, but I believe they wanted to take stuff, munitions, and food. That\u2019s what I remember from that moment and this is something my parents still talk about. There were a lot of cases when Serbian commanders came into our house and asked my father why we were still there and didn\u2019t leave. Those were times when my parents went out to buy something and had to leave the neighborhood. They saw a lot of blood marks on the way. They felt that the situation was not good and people were getting killed by the Serbian militaries.
\nThe interviewer: Can you tell us about the journey to Montenegro and Ulqin? Where did you go as refugees after you got the information that you had to leave within 24 hours?
\nAnonim 5: So\u2026 there was a family left there five houses away from our house. We stayed in contact with that family and we shared food with them. They had a mini-farm with chickens and they provided us with chicken meat and eggs. We had contact with them and we had to jump over the walls to get the things. Their daughters were older than 18 years old so they weren\u2019t allowed to go outside during the day. They stayed isolated in the basement during the day and hid inside the cupboard and closets because they were scared that Serbian militaries would come and get or rape them. We all then bought the tickets to leave after we found us the militaries were coming to our houses. I remember that after we set off, at the border, the Serbian militaries took all the men outside the bus and pushed them against the bus. They made them open their legs and they were all armed. They stayed like that for a long while. They let them go in the end. I was sitting on my mother\u2019s lap and she was crying. She asked me to wave my hand at the Serbian military. When I think of it now I think that that hand wave made the situation a little softer. The military smiled and then the bus set off and we went to Montenegro.
\nThe interviewer: When did you stay at first?
\nAnonim 5: We first stayed in a tent in a camp which was built on the main beach in Ulqin. I remember they brought some toys for children as charity. I won a toy and I was really happy. I started to go to kindergarten. There was a big tent and it was like a classroom where we used to learn some poems. Later on, we moved to a friend of my father who had a house in Ulqin. We stayed there till we got the information that the war ended. My father decided to return alone at first and then got back to pick us up\u2026
\nThe interviewer: Okay. So, the house was all burnt down\u2026
\nAnonim 5: Yes, it was all burnt. I also want to highlight the fact that one of our neighbors had mental issues and we insisted he came with us but he refused to. He decided to stay there. My mother, to make sure he was okay, told him to stay in our house because we had food there and so he wouldn\u2019t be seen going out of his house often to go and get food. He decided then to stay there. The door was closed with a door latch \u2013 a steel one. When we returned the door was opened and the door latch was broken and that was a sign that the door was violently opened. We saw bullets on the ground. That man was never found and he remains one of the missing persons.
\nThe interviewer: Do you remember what the other part of the neighborhood looked like? Were the other houses burnt or were there similar cases to yours?
\nAnonim 5: Yes, I remember that the situation got tense and we were waiting to leave for Montenegro. The neighbor\u2019s house, which was opposite ours, was on fire \u2013 the Serbians set it on fire. I remember that we were sitting close to the windows and the windows heated up because the house was close to ours. My mother always tried to have some activities with us in the house so we to forget what was going on and not go through trauma. I remember there was no electricity but the fire brightened up our house. That\u2019s what I remember because the living room looked red and my parents wouldn\u2019t let us stay close to the windows.
\nThe interviewer: Thank you very much![\/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]The interviewer: Welcome to this interview. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Shall we start the story by first telling us where you\u2019re from, who you were with during the war, in which city you stayed, and what you remember from when the situation started to worsen? Anonim 5: During the war […]<\/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\/1801"}],"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=1801"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2400,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions\/2400"}],"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=1801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofrefugees-ks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}