Untitled

Podujevo 1999 – Beyond Reasonable Doubtcould not believe that something like that happened and that there was noopportunity in that moment to find out the details about what had happened.I saw my children on 1 May for the first time. That was in the hospital whenthey made all of us leave the forest and go towards Priština. After we wentfrom Priština to Podujevo, they forbid us to stop by Podujevo, but we hadto continue going further towards the village of Šajkovac.I realised that the children were seriously wounded. Jehona had three gunshotwounds. Two were in the back and one was in the leg. She was agedonly 11 at that time. Lirrie was wounded in the neck, in the trachea, whichwas almost completely destroyed. She was almost nine years old. Fatos waswounded in the leg with five or six bullets - he was almost 13 years old.Genc was wounded in the left thigh and the bullet has not yet been removed.He was six years old. Saranda, my brother’s daughter, was the mostseriously wounded. I think she had nine or ten bullets in her right arm andthe back. She was 14 years old at the time of the event.I found out from the children what happened with the rest of the family. Idid not bury any of them because I did not find them. Some people whohad the authorisation of the Podujevo Municipality buried them. I heardthey were buried in the town cemetery. Then I heard that there were 19graves inside the town cemetery. There was a wooden plate in front of eachgrave. Each grave was marked and only one name was written clearly. Thatwas Ambi Duriqi 23 , Enver Duriqi’s father, and his mother Isme 24 , and hiswife’s name and nee Neda Shabani 25 . That was Enver Duriqi’s wife. Basedon that, we concluded that our family members died together with themand that they must be buried together, since they were all together at thetime of the event.During the war, nobody called me to identify the bodies. I was not allowedto go to the cemetery and see the graves. I even did not have access to myown house. Then representatives from KFOR, OSCE, and the Hague tri-23 Amdi Duriqi24 Esma Duriqi25 Fitnete Shabani Duriqi129