They first entered the Academy of Arts and Science, and people were expelled from it. They took away the library, they took the books… Everyone knew it was only a matter of time. I remember that every afternoon we would stay at the Institute, turn off the lights, and wait for them to come…It didn’t last long. In the evening, someone from the bakery Qerimi would bring us a meal with some bread. At night we stayed in shifts guarding the institute…We had spread out on different floors to guard the building. When suddenly… We were on the third floor. Anton Çetta was there, and I happened to be there too, as well as Qosja. There were others, like Adem Zejnullahu. When he came up from the lower floor, because there was a switchboard operator, he said, ‘They’ve come. The police are outside.’ He addressed the director: ‘Sadri, it’s your responsibility, you’re the director. Go downstairs and speak with them.’ Sadri went down to the entrance on the ground floor, where the police were. He said to them, ‘I am the director. Please, what is that you want?’ Suddenly one of them struck him with a punch and knocked out all his teeth. When Sadri came back upstairs, the police stormed in.
Ukë Xhemaj was born in Podgur, Dukagjin. An ethnologist and longtime researcher at the Institute of Albanology, he was involved in the 1990s blood feud reconciliation campaign, the parallel education system, and the founding of the Peasant Party of Kosovo. He helped establish the Department of Ethnology at the University of Prishtina and authored several works on Albanian culture.