At that plateau, Osman [Dumoshi] started but couldn’t continue, so Skender Kastrati took over. Then the police began attacking us, along with firefighters, using batons. They hit one of our friends so badly that he was disoriented, wandering back and forth because they had struck his head. Then they took him somewhere, as he no longer knew where he was. At that point, the demonstration began to escalate, becoming more intense. Shop windows started getting smashed. They even took the firefighters’ water hose because they were trying to disperse us with water. They managed to take that away from them, and we continued up to the Faculty of Philosophy.
Mark Krasniqi and a few others came out, trying to calm the situation. There were demands, we had demands, ‘Come on, let’s talk.’ […] At that time, one of the figures was the chairman of the Prishtina Committee, Rrahmon Bakalli. It seems he said, ‘Let’s call those students, let’s talk to them, see what they want, where they’re headed.’ We didn’t want to negotiate. We knew that was just a ploy to calm things down.
We went back, and the friends were cheering, saying that some had been arrested. […] Later, it ended, and the arrests started. By morning, they had arrested Osman Dumoshi. Then the others followed. I was the last one to be arrested, nearly a month after the demonstrations, on December 25th.
Ilaz Pireva was born in 1945 in Lower Lupç, Municipality of Podujeva. He studied Albanology at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Prishtina. In 1975, he was imprisoned due to his political activities. He was also held in isolation in 1981 and 1989. After the founding of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Ilaz Pireva was elected chairman of the Podujeva branch for two terms. In the parliamentary elections for the Assembly of Kosovo, he was elected twice, serving the 2001-2007 terms. In 2007, he was elected mayor of Podujeva. He was part of the cabinet of the President of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdiu, serving as a political advisor for local governance. He is now retired and lives in Lower Lupç.