Part Three
Anita Susuri: How… how did the war find you?
Beqir Maliqi: To tell you the truth, the war found my whole family in Kosova, because we worked and that’s how we survived and we thought this situation will pass and we will go back to normal life, we will… the goal as to pass it, to survive and we will always be here in Kosova. Since ‘80, we don’t live in Kutllovc anymore, we are living in Vushtrri there, in a village called Dobërlluk, so we live there. We were all here, then… the war began in Shala, I remember when the war began, us brothers were there, six brothers, why wait, the atmosphere was created to leave.
Me and my fourth brother came from the Great Dobërlluk, we didn’t dare come to Tuneli i Parë because there were police there, but we went to the village Reka through the mountain to our village where the headquarters were. They were formed and guarded because there was a point of the Yugoslav army in our village there, they call it Maja e Madhe [Great Peak], it was there since the Second World War, not to say even before, it is a strategic point where there were permanent soldiers. As a child, so when we kept the sheep there, the army was there in the summer and winter, so we took our sheep there and they had a military base {explains with his hands} at the top. It’s a high level, the whole Kosovo is seen from that point, you can even see Prishtina.
We went to Kutllovc, we said, “We’re from Kutllovc,” an officer there, he was called Feriz Kapetani. We came, “We’re from Kutllovc, we want to to join you.” We stayed there all day, it was the house of an officer who was in Shala, Hysni Ahmeti, Hilmi Ajeti stayed in their house, and the headquarters was there. The officer who was there said, “We have soldiers here,” he said, “but we don’t have armament,” he said, “we need food and help, if you could go get aid.” Our village dealt with agriculture and it had rich people. “No, it’s not a problem.” And we went, during the night, we went and organized the village. We took potatoes, money, we filled a tractor and took it to Kutllovc, in my village, we took that aid there.
But war continued. The ‘98 offensive took place sometime in September, in Shala, where all {points left} the infantry entered, the army, they killed a number of people here in Melenica as well. However, they were relocated from, from Shala at that moment. Then, they came back late in ‘99 and they got us in Dobërlluk, in Dobërlluk, they entered on April 16 sometime, on April 16, they ruined the village of Dobërlluk. Those of us who were part of Shala left to go Albanian with them. But we relocated to a village near the prison of Smrekonica, village Smrekonica, our brother-in-law was there. But a huge number of people didn’t go to Albania, they relocated in some villages that were more quiet and so on.
To tell you the truth, then… in April there was another offensive, I didn’t know what to do because we were a lot of people. I took my nephew, he was 20 years old and I went to Shala so we wouldn’t all be in the same place. I thought maybe someone could survive. We didn’t know what was happening. And we went to the village… in Bajgora to a relative, we spent the night there. I remember I was going to the headquarters, it was a neighborhood further away. As I was going there at the school of Bajgora, I was with my nephew, as we were walking there at the school {explains with his hands} an airplane flew above. Fast vuuup {onomatopoeic}, I told them, “Get down!” I got down {puts his hands behind his head} I protected myself like we learned in the military to protect our heads.
Vuuup {onomatopoeic} it dropped a bomb, a few bombs, the last bomb was 30 meters away from us. So, from behind the school, it hit the school and the airplane flew away {explains with his hands}. We went to the school and some women came out, they were from Tuneli i Parë, they went to the school… three or four people were killed there. I remember Adem Trepça, Ismet Haliti was injured, until there {point in front} in another village where there were doctors, he died there. And Adem’s daughter, I don’t know how but it happened that day. We went to the headquarters, to tell you the truth I wanted to take some aid because I was a burden to them. When I went there, he said, “There’s 400 grams of flour.” I said, “Don’t give me any.” I wanted to take a sack of flour to them or something.
However, it didn’t last long, and the offensive went back to Shala and they relocated them completely from Shala, we went down there. It was the night of May 2, 1999. When the offensive in Shala was over, they cleaned it up and the Studime massacre took place. We were… we didn’t know what was happening in Studime, we were in Smrekonica with my brother-in-law, the army came and threw us out of Smrekonics. We were… only two of my brothers were at the houses in Dobërlluk, the rest of us were in Smrekonica. They threw us out of our houses, they gathered us in Smrekonisa, we were around 26-27 members and to tell you the truth we scattered because it was crowded..
My father, may he rest in peace, was with my oldest brother, he said, “I can’t stay in this crowd.” And he headed home in Dobërlluk and he knew his two other sons were there, to tell them what’s happening. And when he got to the school of Dobërlluk, there’s a school there, they had killed him in the yard of the school. The road to Prishtina is there, from that road they shot him. Maybe they told him, “Stop!” He didn’t stop. They had killed him there, we didn’t know. They gathered us at the prison that night around ten-twenty thousand people, because it wasn’t just that village, but also the villages around. But there were probably ten thousand people because we couldn’t fit in a huge meadow. And on the other side they said they had gathered others but we didn’t see.
And they came in there… it was afternoon, the police came in there and started {counts in his fingers} to separate the young people. They said, “You, you, you.” They put them in prison, “You, you, you.” To tell you the truth, I was 45 years old, I didn’t hide, youngsters hid {point under the table} to not go to prison. I wasn’t scared, I thought if they called me I would say, “I’m old, I’m fifty years old.” It wasn’t so, they took people of different ages, even old people, the next day we saw that they had tortured them {touches his face} bloody because they beat them. But, we didn’t know they had killed our father. They gathered us that night, but during the night, we also found out that the massacre in Studime had happened, because people came from there. But, they brought trucks from Studime and put them in prison. We stayed there until morning.
Anita Susuri: Only the men?
Beqir Maliqi: No, no, women and children, all together. No, no, no all together. The next day around 12 o’clock, they took a huge number of them to prison. Those who were still there, they said, “Take your stuff, tractors and head to Albania.” We went to Smrekonia and took them, we had a tractor, truck… Actually my brothers were at the house… that night there was information going around that one of my brothers was killed, but it wasn’t so, they had shot him at the bridge, but they had killed a man in Novosella, his last name was Maxhuni, he was killed. My brother went inside a house there all night, he said, “I went out in the middle of the night from there.” He passed through Sitnica in the other villages. And then we took the tractor and trauch and we got in there… even other people who didn’t have transportations mean came with us and we headed to Albania.
We stayed the night somewhere in Klina, the next day we went to Kukës. In Kukës we scattered. When we were at the border we got sad because from torture, to tell you the truth, and maltreatment and beatings they gave us. Before we got to the customs,they asked for bribes {extends his hand as if he’s asking for money}, they didn’t let us in, they said, “500 marks,” or they would remove us from the row, we had to give them the money. I remember I had a gold ring here {touches and looks at his hand}, “Give it to me, give it to me.” I couldn’t get it out of my finger. He wanted to cut my finger, he almost cut my finger, I had some marks {puts his hand to his pocket} I gave him 50 marks or I don’t know how much. Fast because we were in front of the costumes in Kukës.
Anita Susuri: Serbians?
Beqir Maliqi: We didn’t… yes, Serbians. When we passed the border… it was a feeling, it was hard, a feeling, when they wanted… half an hour ago they they wanted to kill me on the other side, on this side, “Brother,” they welcomed us, they gave… I remember I started crying, I told my brother, “We’re lost,” you know? He said, “You know what happened, our father,” he said, “Was killed.” “Where?” He said, “During the night at the school.”
Korab Krasniqi: Your brother didn’t tell you until you got to the border?
Beqir Maliqi: I found out when we passed the border.
Korab Krasniqi: He knew the whole time?
Beqir Maliqi: He knew and didn’t tell me. They had told him…
Anita Susuri: How did he know?
Beqir Maliqi: He knew because people had moved during the nights {moves his finger} walking. A man from the village Mazhiq who lives in Dobërlluk told him, “This and that, when I passed by I saw they had killed you father.” During the night, that night we were at the prison.
Korab Krasniqi: What happened to your father’s body?
Beqir Maliqi: My father’s body, the brothers who were there… because we went to Albania, those two brothers had found out that night that our father was killed. But the next day they went looking for his body at the graveyard, as my brother says. They buried him. They heard that at the school but during the day the workers of Përparimi from Vushtrri, actually the Roma workers, they took my father and Shefqet Maxhuni who was killed at the bridge. They had removed them from there. Later through those Roma people who stayed in Kosova and they had taken my father and they had buried him in the graveyard of Nadakovc, not Dobërlluk, but in Nadakovc. So, when we came back from Albania after all… on our road back we stopped there and found him, we found him {pretends to stick something in the ground} they had stuck the planks R.M, Rexhep Maliqi there.
Korab Krasniqi: Let’s go back to Albania, what was it like in Albania, where were you?
Beqir Maliqi: We were in Kukës to tell you the truth, we stayed in Kukës to tell you the truth. We were many family members. For two or three days we didn’t settle anywhere there, there was an Arab camp there and they said the conditions were very good, they didn’t accept anymore. On the third day we stopped at Mjekët Pa Kufi [Doctors Without Borders] in Gostil, a village there, and we stayed in a big tent {opens his hands}, but we couldn’t fit. But we had the truck, five or six people slept there, we slept in the truck, because it was covered {shows with his hands}. In the truck, the rest in the tent.
But the conditions were very hard, food didn’t come to Kukës, the bread in trucks was moldy. Like bricks, the truck wasn’t covered, like that {pretends to throw something} on the floor. We had some money and we bought food, to tell the truth, in Kukës, otherwise we would have died from hunger. To tell you the truth, as a family, we went everywhere by truck, we had a thousand kilos of flour in the truck. We thought they would stop us on the road in Drenica or somewhere, what would those people eat? Actually I remember I sold it, because the truck was stuck between tents… a baker had bought 700 kilos of flour. You know, just so it wouldn’t go bad.
Korab Krasniqi: How long did you stay there for?
Beqir Maliqi: We stayed in Kukës for a month, then we went to Milot. At the bridge of Milot, there was a meadow, there were around 70-80 tents. I was the leader of Sector C, there was A, B, C. but after almost three weeks, the agreement was achieved, there were still empty tents, waiting, but it stopped. They didn’t build tents because there was the news that the agreement was achieved, to tell you the truth, the conditions were better there. Each had, the family separated, we were all married, we took five or six smaller tents. They gave us food, better food, we cooked and so on. But life was a little better there, near the river, the conditions were better but in tents.
Korab Krasniqi: How did you experience the news that NATO came to Kosova and it being liberated…
Beqir Maliqi: Well, to tell you the truth, we were sad we weren’t there. So, we didn’t experience it in Kosova but out of it. We tried to leave immediately, but they didn’t let us. It was on the 12th or 13th when we found out. We left on June 24th, 23-24, we came here. We stayed the night in Kukës. Then from Kukës, I think on June 25th, we got to… the house here.
Korab Krasniqi: How did you find the house?
Beqir Maliqi: To tell you the truth, they didn’t down the houses in Dobërlluk, they didn’t. We had some uncles there who took care of them, we also had cows and they took care of them, we found one of my uncles staying there and taking care of the house and… But what did we come back to, the whole yard was covered in grass, even though it was layered with sand. The grass had grown up to our knees. Misery, misery! A whole other world…
Korab Krasniqi: You left your father… your father?
Beqir Maliqi: While coming back from Albania, we stopped at the graveyard in Nadakovc. In those grave we found the sticks “R. Maliqi” and “Sh. Maxhuni”, Shefqet Maxhuni, a 20-year-old man who was killed, near my father, 50 meters away {opens his hands}. And we came, we wanted to rebury him to be honest. We asked people… there were 36 new graves near my father’s grave, so people who were killed during the war, from different villages. But also the imams, “This was his luck, there no reason…” In God’s land, in that sense, and so on. We didn’t rebury him.
As people were coming to express their condolences, a person we didn’t know came and introduced himself. He was Shefqet Maxhuni’s father, the man from Novosella. He said, “This and this and this, I opened,” he said, “The grave where it said Shefqet Maxhuni but there was an old man there.” They changed their graves, he said, “I heard it’s your father.” Their graves were next to each other, they mixed up the sticks. And we decided, “Since this happened…” The next day early in the morning, because it was summer, June, we reburied our father. We opened a grave in Dobërlluk, we took…
Korab Krasniqi: Did you recognize him?
Beqir Maliqi: Yes, it was interesting because the graces were damp, the water, it was cold, maybe… with the clothes he was wearing, he had a jacket {pretends to wear something}, we took him. So, we reburied him after two months and brought in Dobërlluk, we took him and put him {explain with his hands} in the truck, brought him there and reburied him in Dobërlluk near our mothers, because my mother had died in ‘93.
Anita Susuri: So, the old man was right…
Beqir Maliqi: He was right, so my father was buried where that man’s name was written, they mixed it up. If it weren’t for him, we would have thought that’s where our father was. But when we found out the grave was opened and there was an old man there, we went there and it was our father. And we reburied him in the graveyard near my mother.
[The interview cuts here]
Anita Susuri: You said your brothers were here, they were in prison in Mitrovica…
Beqir Maliqi: Yes.
Anita Susuri: Then they were freed after the war, did you all get together after?
Beqir Maliqi: No, when we went to Kukës, so we stayed for almost a month, three weeks, after three weeks, groups of people from the prison of Smrekonica started coming by buses. When the first bus came, some acquaintances came and told us that the two brothers who sayed in Kosova were imprisoned. Then after the third day, my brothers came with the last groups. Then when we got together, we went to Milot and then we stayed there for three weeks and after the agreement we all came back to Kosova.
Anita Susuri: You told us how you found your house, you started to get settled at home. Then work, did you go back to Trepça? What was it like?
Beqir Maliqi: No, when we came here, the house wasn’t demolished, it wasn’t burnt, we settled there. We buried our father and we started… because the struggle was to work, but we started working immediately, with the activity with the wood processing that we had. That summer we worked like that. Time after time, I communicated with my colleagues and with the Stari Trg syndicate, but to tell you the truth, right after the war, they didn’t allow us to come here, even though we tried to come to Trepça.
But we started working here sometime around December 22nd of ‘99. December 22nd, we came and went into the mine with the mayor of Mitrovica, Demi Sutra, they called him a crisis person. He was the interim mayor of Mitrovica, he only served for about two weeks. But he opened the road to come here, and we came in here {points left} in the mine’s restaurant. And he held a meeting with a huge number of workers. Actually, he said, “I opened the window for you to come in, you have to open the door.” And I think we went in the mine that day, we went in with civilian clothes just to see the situation up to the eleventh level and we went out.
The next day, we came with groups and our experts, and we turned on it, we turned on the water pumping system. Because here we found a condition where a large amount of water, over one million cubic meters of accumulated water, so, we inherited the condition. From there, on the lower level, on the eleventh level, there is a water door that was closed almost until {raises his hand} from the tenth level and the water had entered, where it was estimated over one million cubic meters of water. We turned on the pumping system and the pumps started working immediately. From that day on, to tell you the truth, we have done some surveillance of the mine, although we suspected that they might have left any explosives, bombs, anything, but there was no such thing.
We noticed that the mine was ruthlessly exploited for ten years, disrespecting the rules and laws of mining. But they knew that they had to leave the mine so they just stole. They exploited it, but without respecting the rules of mining and without respecting the exploitation system in our mine. So, from that day on, we started pumping water, but it was a large amount of water, and even the pipes were closed with lime, the large amount of water couldn’t be lowered. So, we followed the level of water every day. The situation soon came that water came out on the eighth horizon. If the water had come out on the tenth horizon and went through the well, it would sink the eleventh horizon and the mine would be closed.
To tell you the truth, at that time, we informed the institutions, but there were no institutions, it was the interim government. We went to inform some people about the situation, mainly the director then Burhan [Kavaja]. But they weren’t aware, there was no opportunity, there was no organization, we tried with our body and soul to save the mine, because we knew the importance of this mine. The situation came, to tell you the truth, if we hadn’t put a barricade on the tenth level {explains with his hands} with concrete and physically closed the level and not let the water go through the wells with the sink pumps, the mine would have sunk.
But fortunately we put a concrete barricade there and water came out on the tenth horizon, it was accumulating on the seventh horizon and, in some form, the mine was saved. Later, we took steps to clean the pipes with hydrochloric acid, we had reached some point to, to, to lower the level. But several years have passed. Mostly at the level in 2005, we couldn’t open the door of the water I was talking about, which was the accumulated water behind the door. In 2005, we opened it, in 2005, now the trial production has started, initial as they say. Actually, on August 20, 2005, we started the production and, since then, we have increased production, so in some way, from year to year.
Especially, to tell you the truth, when I was the director from 2008-2014, it was the biggest post-war production in that time. We were a team of colleagues here, engineers who also do this craft and we are dedicated to mining, we were familiar with it even before the war, especially after the war, we wanted at all costs to start production. But they didn’t allow us, I remember there was a superior at that time, at the Kosovo level, we would say, “Are we starting production?” He said, “Why do you need” he said, “production? It will only be a political problem with production.” We thought at the beginning that we started, immediately to start with production, with production, because like that the capital facilities were in order except for the amount of water that was accumulated there.
It wasn’t demolished compared to what period we went during the war, the main well, the compressor station, the fan weren’t broken, weren’t damaged. The mine was mainly damaged by the method of exploitation and the theft of ore that was done by the Serbs without respecting the rules. So the great damage of the mine was done in that way. However, no one was interested, we started production in 2000. Actually, when we wrote the reports, we didn’t dare to say that we are producing, but in the phase of the mine, preparations we have also produced some ore, allegedly while doing preparation. Actually, we extract the ore, the treatment was in that way only in the preparation phase and not in the production phase. Somewhere in 2005, we got a license for research, it said, not for production but for research. At the research access firm, we extracted as much ore as we could to survive.
Anita Susuri: Why didn’t you come back until December, I think there were problems with the creation of the board of directors or something? From liberation until…
Beqir Maliqi: To tell you the truth, we talked then, we talked about the boards, we weren’t, it was said that a board was appointed by the interim government where we didn’t participate, but, in a way,we had structures, when we were fired and so we started. So, we started with Burhan Kavaja, with Aziz Abrashi, with other colleagues, Mensur Fejza and these other colleagues. Me, Xhafer Peci, Qazim Jashari, Muhamed Abazi, some colleagues, Zejnullah Azemi, so we started. We knew the mine, to be honest, every place, every… of the mine, we started working in that direction.
Anita Susuri: Now you’re the vice director?
Beqir Maliqi: Yes, currently, I was the director from 2008 to 2014, then in 2014, it changed. Currently, Xhafer Peci is the director of the mine.
Anita Susuri: How are things today?
Beqir Maliqi: Well, to be honest, I experienced all the stages of Trepça. I thought, after the war, we would know the importance of Trepça and the wealth that God has brought us here, I thought that everyone in Kosova will rise and will try to recover it. That didn’t happen, we are dissatisfied in this sense, I personally also am, because there was no commitment to Trepça. Us here as supervisory staff of Trepça, we didn’t know the politics that were happening, what the political issue of Trepça is. We said that technically there was an opportunity and we know what wealth is here in the mine, but no, there was no engagement by the government, in a way, the government changed just so Trepca could survive.
They gave a little each time, an infusion therapy, some subventions in the beginning of the year. Since 2005, they have donated for the preparation of the mine, but so far over one hundred million have entered Trepça, so, subventions for the preparation of Trepça. But, often we could not cover it with the production we produce, so we received both personal income and government subsidies. But there was no interest, to tell you the truth, we were always scared about what would happen to Trepça, we were against the privatization of Trepça, what do I know… Since 2000 and somewhat, 2015 yes, there was a law approved for Trepça, where the government has 80 percent of the actions in Trepça, 20 percent the workers. But even after this, there’s no interest, no interest at all. We’re working and producing.
But, especially lately, the pandemic has hit us, that prices have fallen a lot. Some big production is not possible because there is no equipment, the equipment is old. The workforce is aging, to tell you the truth, when I was director, the first generation was taken, the first generation of new workers was taken. At that time, Ferat Shala was the general director of Trepça, who was engaged around Trepça and also cooperated with other colleagues with us in the Stari Trg mine and also in the Artana mine. So, a generation was hired then for the first time after the war, 150 workers were hired. If that generation of workers wasn’t hired and trained, educated in the spirit of the mine and in the professions of the mine, the mine would have been closed {pretends to lock something}.
But, fortunately, they were hired and we trained workers for the first time in the history of the Stari Trg mine. To hold theoretical and practical lessons there in the mine and train them on mine conditions. There is also an agreement with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the replacement of old workers with their children. So, whoever wanted to retire early, there was the opportunity that somewhere around 56 people, I think, have changed, and over 200 new workers were reached. So, at the moment they are keeping the production in Trepça. There are still a number of old people, but, to be honest, unfortunately, it wasn’t done for the older generation. We started the work, I said it was the agreement “One for all, all for one” after the war they didn’t have the opportunity…
When we expected it would be good, even though we risked our health… when we expected everything would be good and we could go back to work, we didn’t all have the opportunity to go back to work. Initially 200 workers came back, that’s how much UNMIK allowed. Then gradually the number grew. In the 80s, this mine had… the mine with flotation, of course, because flotation was in the frame of the mine, around 3,200 workers. Initially 200 came back to work, there were maximum 500-600 workers. But, now there are some new generations and there are around 770 workers, the mine with flotation.
Anita Susuri: I wanted to ask you something, you mentioned the pandemic, I’m interested to know how Trepça worked during the quarantine.
Beqir Maliqi: To tell you the truth, we didn’t have any obstacles moving, each of us got a document, some kind of permit that we work in Trepça, stamped and everything. In the beginning, when it was spreading, we organized and reduced the number, just… there are some equipment here which have to work nonstop, pumps, fans, the well. So we made a register, from all of them we needed around 52 people for four shifts for that essential work. For each moment, if they would stop, but we didn’t need to stop the work at all. I think four or five workers were infected in total, who isolated. But in general those who had someone in the family infected didn’t work.
But there wasn’t a wide spread, some of the workers were even abroad because they visited their families. So, they came back and stayed in quarantine for two weeks, but we didn’t stop. But there was some kind of a panic in that sense. But unfortunately the prices have decreased on the stock exchanges, because the metal prices are set on the London Stock Exchange, and the prices have decreased, they have hit us so hard that we’re not able to survive, we’re not able to keep… to tell you the truth we have encountered a crisis.
The government of Albin Kurti then gave us a donation, a donation of three and a half million, I think. So we could overcome things up to this point, we are currently in a very difficult situation, these months I don’t know how we can get out of the situation. If it weren’t for that donation of three and a half million, we would have been left without salaries even earlier, if there was no intervention. There are demands of the syndicate and our government, to tell you the truth, they are not dealing with problems. The prime minister was just elected, he should have come to see the mine, because the wealth is here. When Kosova, Trepça could finance Serbia, not to say Yugoslavia, it can do the same for Kosova. But actually no one cares what is happening, they have their own problems, the mine is not on their list at all.
Because this, we thought that after war it will be the main economic pillar of Kosova. Here there are resources of… the mine with around 10-30 million tons of ore, there is lead, zinc, silver, gold. If it were developed, with other units, processing, with finalization of this ore, but we have stagnated for 20 years, almost with minimal production. From a maximum of one hundred in 2013, 140 thousand tons were produced, in contrast to the ‘80s, 700 thousand tons were produced, it was 20 percent of the maximum production then. But no, to be honest there is no interest. I don’t know why, I don’t know why we’re stuck in this direction. God has brought us this wealth to take, to use, to develop, to raise Kosova, but such a thing is not happening.
Anita Susuri: Mister Maliqi, thank you for the interview! If you have something to add, if not…
Beqir Maliqi: No, but to tell you the truth, the pensions… the miners gave their contribution, but even those who left couldn’t come back, but even us that are retiring, there’s a law that says we had to give contributions 15 years before ‘90. Most of these workers now don’t have those 15 years. So, most of the workers are retiring, after all this suffering, with the contribution before and after war, they’re retiring with a 90-euro pension. This is the condition now. So, this is the worker’s biggest panic, saying, “90 euros aren’t enough even for medicine.” We asked from the syndicate to do something in this sense, there are promises but there’s nothing changed. Let’s see, we’re hoping something will happen with Trepça, because it’s been so long… the government, since it belongs to the government, the government has to, to invest in Trepça, to increase it, to find a solution. That’s it.
Anita Susuri: Good. Thank you once again!
Beqir Maliqi: Thank you. Success!