The killing of Albanians by the Serbian regime in the pre-war years

In this Prishtina Talks conversation, Professor Qazim Berisha — a teacher of Albanian language and literature for more than 24 years, a member of the Kosovo Writers' Association and the author of several books on the victims of Serbian violence in the pre-war years — speaks about the research he began in the late 1980s: documenting the Albanian soldiers killed in the Yugoslav army and sent home in coffins under the official diagnosis of “suicide”. Starting from the funerals he attended with a notebook in his pocket, Berisha published in 1995 the first book of its kind in Kosovo — “Plot Gjaku” — and later the substantial work documenting 135 soldiers killed between 1981 and 1993.

Berisha recounts the method of the research, family after family; the system of “biographies” the regime used to target young men from families it considered unreliable; the identical diagnosis of “suicide” repeated without exception; and the indifference of the federal institutions, where Albanians of the nomenklatura took part but never reacted. Through concrete cases — Sami Gashi, the first killed in Prishtina; the only brother from Struga, raised by five sisters; Aziz Kelmendi and the tragedy of Paraćin; the Boja family of Kërnica; and the story of Enver and Mira Maksutaj, the sister who swore an oath over her brother's body and avenged him as a KLA soldier — the conversation moves from the statistics to the concrete memories of mothers and sisters. He closes with his second book, devoted to the 450 Albanian teachers killed during the war, and with the final figures of the destruction: 120,000 houses burned, more than a thousand schools, and around 200 mosques.

Some of the points covered: 📌 How the work began: a notebook at the funerals after the 1981 demonstrations 📌 The first book, “Plot Gjaku”, published in 1995 and distributed overnight 📌 “Suicide”: the one diagnosis repeated as a formula for 135 soldiers 📌 The system of biographies, and the targeting of men by family background 📌 The case of Aziz Kelmendi, and the tragedy of Paraćin 📌 Enver and Mira Maksutaj — the sister who became a KLA soldier 📌 450 teachers killed during the war, and the final figures of the destruction

📍 Prishtina Talks