There were these tokens, they called them iron tokens, to go get food. With one token, you could get one plate of food. Because of the conditions and the situation in our family, with one token both my sister and I would eat one plate. We waited in line for hours. The line… because there were over 30,000 students at the University of Prishtina.
[…] When we got close to getting the food, I overheard some male voices behind me, among them were Bajram Kosumi, Kadri Kryeziu, Jonuz Jonuzi from Drenas, and Ramadan Dobra, who was called that at the time, but now it’s Gashi, he was the chairman. They were saying, ‘Today we have to start the protest.’ I overheard what they were saying, and I was surprised they said that. The second I got close to taking the plate of food, I threw it, there was a Serbian woman and an Albanian woman serving the food. I don’t know, I just left the line, and that group of theirs, Bajram Kosumi, Jonuz, and Kadri, they had already been waiting. We started to flip over all the tables in the cafeteria.
I remember Kadri, and I remember Bajram telling me, ‘Run, go to the dorm.’ All the girls were scared and ran, running out the door and down, because we were eating on the second floor. I was the only one left flipping the last table that was there. Even the men and the women were surprised at how I had the courage, why I did it. In some way, it’s really strange that I didn’t feel any fear. Literature had a big influence on me acting that way, as did, of course, the advice of my parents and Xheva’s [Krasniqi Lladrovci] father.
Bahrie Kastrati Besimi was born in 1960 in the village of Turjakë, Municipality of Malisheva. Mrs. Kastrati Besimi graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Prishtina. In 1986, she was employed as a clerk at the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund in Prizren, where she worked until 1999. After the war, she was appointed head of the pension administration within the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare in Prishtina, handling pensions for the foreign world. In 2006, she opened a law practice, where she still works as a lawyer today. She lives with her family in Prizren.