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The massacre museum in Krushë e Madhe

2024-03-29 19:17:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

A bag that once belonged to Valon Hoti, a 16-year-old from the village of Krushë e Madhe in the west of Kosovo, is today part of the museum dedicated to the massacre in this village. Valoni dreamed of becoming a doctor, but his dream remained unfulfilled since on March 25, 1999, he and about 250 other people were killed by Serbian forces. The museum is full of artifacts and stories that recall the events of that day.

"Here we have somewhere over 60 artifacts, a few more have been collected, but not all of them are exposed because there is very sensitive material. There are also screens that present the interviews, 202 interviews taken from the villagers by the professors. The interviews are also translated into English and Serbian and everyone has the opportunity to listen to them, three large televisions continuously broadcast these testimonies", says Irfon Ramadani, who works as a cameraman in this museum.

Twenty-five years ago, while NATO was conducting an aerial bombing campaign against Serbian forces, it was used by Serbian forces on the ground for retaliatory attacks against Albanians.

The Krusha e Madhe massacre is one of the worst according to humanitarian activists. The survivor of the massacre, Milazim Duraku, tells the Voice of America about her memories.

The massacre museum in Krushë e Madhe

"In those two days, we saw murders, rapes, running, escapes, killings, everything we saw and those are memories that will never be forgotten, never be forgotten," says Milazimi.

He says that Serbian forces entered his house and killed his brother Nuhi and took his other brother, Ali.

Milazim had managed to hide on the half-burnt roof of the house, taking the brothers' seven sons with him.

"We didn't dare to leave the ceiling and the children got tired when they went two days without drinking water or eating. It was the same for three days, the fourth day - they started and closed their eyes. The youngest was 14 years old, he only looked into my eyes when I told him to go out, he looked into my eyes.. and I decided and said, 'Get out, let's go, I'm alive, I'm dead, let's go,' Milazimi confesses.

His primary purpose was to feed the children.

"When I went to a house we found bread, the women had cooked a loaf and left it wrapped. But when I took the bread and gave it to the children, they could not eat. I took a bucket, I couldn't see it in the dark, it had been burned and I filled it with water, the children drank water in it, you got a little spirit," he says.

Milazimi says that amid many difficulties he managed to join the rest of the family, his parents, his wife and his brothers' wives, and together they fled to Albania.

He returned to his village after the entry of NATO troops into Kosovo. He immediately started looking for the brothers' bodies and found one of them near the house.

"We see here on the shore immediately a towel and a wristwatch hanging, this is my brother's watch, I said. The one who buried him is from Pirana - a KLA soldier, he knew his brother because they worked together in the cooperative. He buried it and left the watch for us to see when we return", he confesses.

But, 25 years later, Milazim still knows nothing about the fate of his other brother, Ali, who is among the more than 60 people still missing from this massacre.

"This is the most difficult.. his sons fled through France, Germany and Austria, the daughters as well, the house was emptied. My sister-in-law always asks me if there is anything new, she stays with the girls, I say no sister-in-law, there is nothing, but she always has hope. Until a few years ago, he came here on the anniversary of his other brother's grave, to vent his anger on his brother-in-law together with his daughters. they have been missing a lot", says Milazimi.

Their photographs are part of the museum of the massacre in Kruše e Madhe, which on the day of the inauguration was praised by the American ambassador, Jeff Hovenier, as an essential part of transitional justice which aims to deal with the past and build the foundations for a future of healing and reconciliation.

He said that NATO intervened 25 years ago to end the ethnic cleansing war in Kosovo precisely because of events like the one in Krushë e Madhe.

Kosovo came out of the war with over 10,000 killed and over 5,000 missing. 25 years after it, nothing is still known about the fate of over 1,600 people./ VOA