I22 War in Kosovo

Narrator: Basri Arifaj

I am from Kosovo. When I was seven there was war in Kosovo. During a month they started attacking and destroying our village and there were thirteen dead people. When we heard the shots we went to my father’s aunt who lived in a village called Pagarush. After two weeks we went back home. Our house was burnt down and our dog, the cow and the calf were dead. My grandparents, my two aunts, my cousins, my brothers, my mother, my uncle and I, we all slept in a living room together.

My father, an uncle and his wife, were in Italy for work and they were preparing our documents. After eight or nine months they started attacking and we escaped to my mother’s parents. On that day the NATO bombarded at midnight. The following day many people were killed by the Serbians, but we were not killed because our grandparents knew their Serbian neighbours well and so they protected us. The day after they told us to go away from that city threatening us, saying that we had to go to Albania because that that land was their land.

So we left for Albania in a Honda car. We were nine in that car. I remember there were a lot of people walking and some were on tractors. Those who were on foot, had to walk for days. The ones who could not walk were killed by the Serbians.

In Albania we got to a stadium. There we found some people who wanted to help us; so we were hosted by them. After two weeks, when the documents were ready, my father came to bring us to Italy where my uncle was waiting for us.