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L-I: AN ALBANIAN TRAGEDY: Stranger in Beograd
An Albanian Tragedy:
A stranger in Belgrade
(posted 12/23/99)
[ http://www.emperors-clothes.com encourages everyone to reproduce the
following in full including this note.]
Interview with Agim K., (last name withheld)
by Tanya Djurovic
Transcribed and edited by Greg Elich
Columns of Albanian refugees marched across the world's TV screens for
months. They were all going to Albania. All the world could see them.... What
the world couldn't, or wouldn't see, are the Albanians going to Serbia......
Agim K. (27), an engineer, born in Pristina, is an Albanian by nationality.
He and his family, flying from the terror of their compatriots, found refuge
in Belgrade... I met him in the offices of Serbian Red Cross, where he was
applying for help, and asked him to tell me his story. He agreed, under the
condition his last name and present address not be published for security
reasons.
Q: Why and when did you and your family leave Kosovo?
A: We left Pristina on Friday, 8th of October. We left because we were forced
to. It was no more a matter of wanting or not wanting-it was a question of
survival.
Q: Who was forcing you?
A: No matter how unbelievable it sounds, the Albanians did... You see, my
father was always a loyal citizen of this country. He was born here, and
respected the laws and authorities of Serbia, not of Albania; and certainly
not of a terrorist organization such as UCK. When the bombing started, UCK
was mobilizing Albanian people, young and old, to fight against the Yugoslav
Army. UCK soldiers were making constant threats: they wanted men to go to
war, and their families to go to Albania or Macedonia, as refugees... They
went from door to door; a lot of the men joined of their own free will, but
there were even more of those who joined out of fear. People were scared of
retaliation on their families, more than they were scared for their own
lives...
Q: Did UCK come to your door, too?
A: Yes, of course they did. More than once... My father and me, we refused to
join them. The soldiers said they'll shoot us as traitors, burn our house...
My father answered that they can kill us all, if that's what they want, but
he and his family won't be the butchers and scavengers... Finally they left
us alone, saying that they won't have to kill us and that Yugoslav Army will
finish the job for them...
Q: What did you do during the bombing? Did you stay in Pristina?
A: We stayed, and spent almost three months in the cellar of our Serbian
friends; they had the biggest and safest cellar in the neighborhood, so all
of us neighbors were hiding there with them - about 15 to 20 people. No one
paid any attention to nationality, we were all humans, helping each other to
survive...
Q: And after the bombing?
A: That's when the real trouble started. After the war ended, and KFOR
entered Pristina, UCK came back. But they were not alone - the borders were
no longer guarded, you see, anyone could come in. All the worst scum from
Albania invaded Kosovo... UCK was fully armed and no one cared to stop them;
they could do whatever they wanted. And they did - this time REAL ethnic
cleansing was at work. Serbs were killed on daily bases in the city;
abductions, rapings, burnings, treats; a circle of violence with no ending...
What can I say? You could all see that. All the world could see, if only they
wanted to. Me and my family tried to help our Serbian friends, the way they
helped us during the war. But we couldn't even help ourselves... To UCK WE
were worse then them - we were the traitors! And since we wouldn't join the
mass expulsion of Serbs, UCK decided to make us leave Kosovo, or kill us....
Q: When did the threats start again? And how exactly?
A: The threats started again in July, I think. First only by telephone; later
they began to come to our house, at night - four or five people usually,
sometimes more, in UCK uniforms. They had guns, knives... First they wanted
me to work for them, I am an engineer and they needed qualified people. They
wanted me to make diversions on power stations and phone lines. I
refused...Then they started to break in our house several times a week, to
beat us up, me, my father; my mother and younger sisters had to watch them do
it, at gun point.... We had no more sleep at night; this was thousand times
worse than anything Serbs did, or didn't, or could have done: our own people
was torturing us because we wouldn't be the cut-throats... Still, the thought
of leaving didn't cross my mind yet.
Q: Didn't you try to ask some protection of KFOR?
A: Yes, we did. KFOR said that there's nothing they can do, unless we call
them while the assault is still going on... No, we couldn't hope for any
protection from their part. Then later, in August and September, the
situation became even worse. One night, I remember, three men broke in. They
didn't even bother to put on the masks - we could all see their faces. One of
them put a knife on my sister's throat. He said: "Next time I come, if I find
you all here, I'll rape her in front of you and then cut her throat wide
open....!" And my sister is just 13 years old.... It was then when my father
said, for the first time out loud: "I think we'll have to leave, sooner or
later..." Even I, who was up to that point strongly against it, had to agree
with him... You see, all the time I kept thinking that the situation will get
better, kept hoping there'll be some law and order finally; but as time went
by I saw no improvement - just more killings, more blood... I don't care so
much for myself - but my family, my sisters, that's something else.....
Q: So you finally decided to leave? But why come to Belgrade, of all places?
A: Where else could we go? Besides, we have old family friends here: I lived
in their house for five years while I was studying in Belgrade. We knew that
we can count on their support. So when we finally decided to leave Pristina,
Belgrade was the only logical choice. I knew, of course, that some people
here will look at us with mistrust and disapproval, but that was to be
expected wherever we go. And anything was better than Kosovo. There was no
place there for us anymore... Still, I shall never forget the day we left -
it was the worst day of my life. It's hard, you know, when you have to pack
all your life in one car, leave behind all you have ever known as your own,
lock the house and throw away the key...
Q: Where do you live now?
A: We live in our friends' house - they are wonderful people indeed, the best
I have ever met. There is simply no way for my family and me to show them how
much we appreciate all their help and their support. We'll stay forever in
their debt.
Q: Do you see, anywhere in future, the possibility for you and your family to
go back to Kosovo?
A: I am sorry I have to say it, but no, I see no possibility for that, even
in the distant future. The situation on Kosovo will remain unstable and
unsafe in the years to come. There's no life there for us... Even if things
DO get better someday, we'll always be traitors for our compatriots. They
want to live in some imaginary state, some Great Albania, and they don't even
know this state will never exist... Me, I want to live in Yugoslavia...
***
The Western media portrays stick-figure ethnic Albanians who freely support
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) because of what the media has claimed are
atrocities committed by "the Serbs". But an army of NATO-organized forensic
experts have failed to produce any evidence after scouring Kosovo for six
months. I discuss the attempt to talk around this failure in Spinning the
Kill (http://www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/spin.htm)
So wherein lies the basis of KLA backing? In "Orders" (to be posted shortly)
Cedomir Prlincevic, the Kosovo Jewish leader, argues that the KLA used a)
terror and b) the obvious fact of Western support to "convince" powerful
Albanian clan leaders to command rank and file "support" for the KLA.
In Crimes of Fascism, Crimes of Lies
(http://www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/revenge.htm) George Thompson
documents the historical fact of a virulent Nazi minority among Kosovo
Albanians. It is this minority, many argue, who provide the hard-core of KLA
activists, the types who Agim K. talks about in his interview. The tragedy of
Kosovo is that the US and Germany have brought these forces back to power and
banished from Kosovo the many Albanians who, like Agim K., stood for the
Yugoslav ideal of brotherhood. - Jared Israel
***
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