The demonstration on April 1, [1981] was very massive, as is known from history, from the photographs you have seen. They first chased us with tear gas to disperse us along the road above the assembly, behind the theater. Then we gathered again and went out behind where Skanderbeg Square is now, and we stayed for hours. Chanting. Eventually, they again threw tear gas at us. They dispersed us. On April 2, it continued above the Student Canteen. Singing, chanting, and the road was under construction. The large sewage pipes, the male students… the police were below at the Student Canteen, and we were rolling the pipes down.
[…] On April 11, we then went to visit my father [in prison] in Mitrovica. Because at that time, he was in Mitrovica. On May 1, they came to arrest me, in ‘81. I didn’t want to at first, since I wasn’t at home, I got the news about the house search and stayed at my uncle’s. Then I went into hiding until August 4, [1981]. I tried, with a few, to leave abroad. The goal was to get a fake passport, but I couldn’t secure one. On August 3, I decided, I said, I’m going to prison, let them sentence me and I’ll serve the sentence because I can’t live underground.
Hidajete Osmani Bytyqi was born in 1957 in Makresh, Artana Municipality. In 1975-1976, she studied at the University of Pristina, Faculty of Albanian Language and Literature. She was imprisoned in 1981 due to her political activism and was sentenced to two years in prison. In 1995, she was employed as a teacher at the “Fadil Hisari” school in Prizren. After the war, she worked at the “Hysen Rexhepi” primary school, from where she retired. Ms. Osmani Bytyqi lives with her family in Prizren.