My task was to stay in the courtyard of the Faculty of Philosophy, watch, and wait for Selatin to arrive with the carriage carrying the posters, the flag, and the slogans. There weren’t any posters back then, just slogans. At that meeting with Selatin Novosella, Selatin proposed that the demonstrations in Podujeva, Gjilan, and Ferizaj be held in the morning.
[…] When Selatini arrived, I told him, ‘Selatin, hurry up because I’m about to get blocked.’ I just knew, it started, among the students, a kind of panic began. When they saw the police, all of them, with helmets, a bit of panic set in.
Then, I didn’t wait for it to become five minutes to 4:00, but I began the demonstration twelve minutes to 4:00, seven minutes early. I started it. I grabbed the flag, it wasn’t my task to take the flag or lead. But when I saw that things were about to get blocked, I took the flag and led, and then the students and others followed behind me. When we reached the main road, I was the first to confront the police.
They were speaking Serbian, most of them were Serbian police. ‘Step back,’ I said, ‘No.’ That’s where I first clashed with the police. I hit one of them with the flagpole. Then three or four police officers came at me with batons, hitting my body, my head, everywhere. They knocked me out. Blood was coming from my mouth and nose, and I fell down there. The students dragged me, pulled me onto the sidewalk, and left me there. They continued towards the city.
Hasan Dërmaku was born in 1945 in Shipashnica, Municipality of Kamenica. He studied at the Faculty of Philosophy, Department of History. In 1974 and 1975, he was arrested for political reasons. In 1979, he was employed at Montazh Kosova as the head of water supply and sewage installation until 1990. During the ‘90s, he worked privately until his retirement.