The Gjonbalaj’s Matriarch
The first action was taken in the Gjonbalaj family. The Gjonbalaj family and a family from Shkodra were in enmity, I seem to have forgotten the last name, but they were from Shkodra and were in blood. The Gjonbalaj family lived in New York, while the other family had moved six hours from New York and they never came to New York because there was no besa [word of honor] from the Gjonbalaj. At the time, the campaign began with the Gjonbalaj family, even though it was a very difficult case, and it took us more than six hours. There, we succeeded because the brother, Adriatik Gjonbalaj, Adriatik Gjonbalaj was really the son of the victim, forgave the blood of his father, and he immediately opened the radio station that we had at the time, Zëri i Kosovës [The Voice of Kosovo] in New York. Later [this forgiveness] was communicated also in church, in the mosque and everywhere else and thus we continued with the reconciliation campaign.
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With the Gjonbalaj family it was very difficult, especially in the beginning. As I said earlier, it happened after six hours, because the entire delegation of 16 people and plus people from the community, that was then over 50 people, could not succeed in persuading the Gjonbalaj family to extend the hand of reconciliation.
At the end, Anton Çetta asked to meet with the mother of the victim, I mean, the victim was Dinqa Feta, according to the last name Din Gjonbalai. Anton Çetta met with his mother, she was very ill, she was on her deathbed, and talked to her for 30 minutes, and in the end he asks her to extend the hand of reconciliation for her son, that she would not leave confusion in the family, that she would not continue with this kind of tradition.
And his mother really, even though 92 years old, forgave the blood of her son and asked her grandchildren, the sons of her sons, and the other son who was there, the brother of the victim, that they too did as she did, because she could not get up from her bed and give her hand to the other, because she was in a very bad condition and was very old. And thus, we succeeded in reconciling the first blood feud. After this, we had other cases that were very problematic killings.
The audio interview section of Besim Malota telling the story that you just read can be found here.