Part One
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Mr. Shala, introduce yourself, and then please tell us something about your family, your earlier memories, family, rreth and the place you were born at.
Metë Shala: Metë Shala, from the village of Trstenik, I come from a family with a work tradition in the village, mainly in farming. I am the son of Tahir Shala, we were four brothers and two sisters. One of them lost his life tragically by unfortunately being killed by our relative, the son of our maternal aunt. I finished the elementary school in the village, my brothers did so as well, then my deceased brother who was ten years younger than I was in the third year of his studies at the Faculty of Law, the other brother, the youngest one was in middle school, but he dropped off when the misfortune happened, my older brother took him to Germany.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Tell us something more about your family, before going to the case of the feud.
Metë Shala: Yes the family, my family was engaged in farming, we tried to educate. My older brother had the biggest burden, he went to Germany in ‘69 and continues living there, since then he took care of our education, our mother and our father. Our father left us early, he passed away in ‘74, while my mother passed away in 2008. We are a family that suffered much, for example my father and my paternal uncle were in prison without any reason. Both of them were imprisoned in ‘57, one of them was in a pasterm dinner in the village of Loxha, while the other one was at home. But, two Roma went to the mountains of a Serb to steal woods and they told each other, “Rustem, leave! Tahir, leave!” in the names of my father and my paternal uncle, and the Serbian man remembered the names of Rrustem and Tahir, of my father and my paternal uncle, in fact they were totally someone else, two Roma, Isuf and Daut. He went home wounded and notified the police. Then the police came to my house and took my paternal uncle without any reason, then they took my father at the pasterm dinner in the village of Loxha, they took, imprisoned, and mistreated them without any reason, one of them stayed in prison for one year, while the other did so for one year and a half. But, looks like the back then police and the court found out that they were not guilty and they sent them to Rugova to cut and carve the logs. They found out.
But the Roma fell in the hand of a Serbian man, Jovan Petrićević Bogdan, they fell in the hand of a Serbian man who saved them and held them for three years with a salary, in order to save them and keep my father and my paternal uncle in prison. Even though the friends from the village of Loxha went as witnesses and said, “He was at our home for dinner,” they didn’t take their testimonies into consideration, and they held one of them for one year in prison and the other one for one year and a half. We were very young, my brother was very young, we were facing very difficult conditions, poverty. Back then in ‘56 I was three-four years old. Then there was a painful life, and the worst of it was that there were many conflicts and betrayals among us. Unfortunately, our people were doing as much harm as the enemy, unfortunately!
Erëmirë Krasniqi: How did you overcome these cases of imprisonments, who from the family helped you during the time when your father and your paternal uncle were in prison?
Metë Shala: I had two grandmothers, because my grandfather had had two wifes, my father and my paternal uncle had different mothers, both of them were hasret, and those two grandmothers, the two wives of our grandfather, our grandmothers worked, poor they, they worked in tobacco, in farming, they went to the city [to sell] eggs, chicken, to sell something to solve some problems. They went there often back then by foot, twelve kilometers from the village of Trstenik to Peja then to Trstenik again and they were engaged in [making] tobacco a little, we planted tobacco, we sold ground tobacco and so on. But we also had a watermill, my paternal uncle and my father used to grind [wheat] before. That mill, we had a person who worked there, our old brother tried to keep that mill, to grind, to live, to eat, work the fields and so on.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Did you live in a [family] community, or your family alone?
Metë Shala: No, we lived alone back then, but my father and my paternal uncle lived in a family community because my paternal uncle had no children, he didn’t have children. He was part of the third brigade of Albania in Sanxhak, he was in the third brigade and he had suffered so much from typhus that they kept his grave open for 29 days! Imagine, an open grave for 29 days! But an Italian doctor had felt his pulse and knew that he was alive and said, “Do not bury him.” Then he had remained disabled [sterile] since then from typhus and had no children. He had also broken up with his wife when he got back from prison. And we lived like that.
I even remember how once we struggled a lot to plant tobacco, we folded it, we were eating bread with pelim. The police came together with some guy from the village who knew us and took the tobacco, they took the tobacco from the place we had hidden it in order to be able to sell some kilogram of tobacco in order to survive, to manage somehow. There was no electricity back then, there were only kerosene lamps, with some wicks, it was a life… we experienced the middle ages, exactly like the middle ages. The tax was very high, the state charged us a very high tax. The harvest was very weak, there was no cattle in order to have manuring which would create better goods and a better family budget. Back then they asked each other, “Did you clean [pay] the porez?” “Yes.” They said, “Lucky you.” “Did you make food for your people?” “Yes,” “Do you have food for your cows?” “Then you are the richest.” Imagine, the crisis of poverty was that great, the burden of the state tax was that hard. I know that we lacked many things, we lacked many things, it was a difficult life.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Until what age did you live in the village of Trstenik?
Metë Shala: Yes, I have lived in Trstenik until ‘99, we lived there until ‘99. I went to Pristina in ‘68 for the middle school, then I finished the middle school in ‘72. Then I continued my studies in Pristina.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: What did you study?
Metë Shala: I also studied music.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Could you tell us about your student life?
Metë Shala: Yes, student life is the best, the best life is the one where one is only worried about studies. My older brother helped me very much, he sent me money from Germany, I lived in the student dorms together with some very good friends back then, we were very close friends, we supported each-other, we were very, very serious in those times, we knew the problems of the nation, every student knew them, they knew the problem of the nation, that the fatherland was under occupation, without its hands and its legs, split in five pieces. That’s how the enemy tailored a tight shirt and carved out our body [accordingly] with an axe.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Were you involved in any illegal political organization at that time?
Metë Shala: See in… I was not part of any illegal political organization, in ‘68 I was in the first year of the Middle School of Music and in ‘68 I understood what the enemy meant, because I saw the students in the organizations that took place in ‘68. I was a first year student, 15 years old, I didn’t know what demonstrations were. And I saw, I saw Serbian women throwing concrete vases from their balconies over the heads of students, I saw the Albanian woman student with the flag in her hand when the concrete vase fell on their head, they also poured hot water, I know that I saw the pan with hot cabbage with my own eyes, they were used to burn the students and destroy them, and I saw them when they demanded the Republic, the Constitution, the Republic, the Constitution.
I know that the [military] forces came few days later with tanks from Serbia, with helmets, to demonstrate, to demonstrate the Yugoslav military and wild strength against the students. They imprisoned, many were imprisoned, and I know that the firefigthers came, they came to Tre Sheshirat [Three Hats], I remember [the hotel] Božuri, they came there as well. Back then there were cobblestones, not asphalt, cobblestones, there were cubes and they came and threw water on students, I know that they cut their water hoses with knives and the water kept pouring in front of the Božuri Hotel, in front of was called Teatri Krahinor [The Province Theater] back then. The demands were, they were for the Republic and the Constitution.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Did you go out in those protests?
Metë Shala: I only… look, I was very young. I didn’t even know that demonstrations were about to take place, neither did I know what demonstrations were back then. I only know that I saw others who participated in demonstrations, the students, their demands, their maturity, then only what I got from older students who explained me those things, and it is then that I found out what demonstrations and the enemy were, I found out what the national issue was, and about the injustice that was done towards our nation and so on, then gradually during education…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Could we go to the case? Could we slowly build the case of the murder, since we have already talked about the family, somehow [explain] the dynamics between two families?
Metë Shala: Yes, we had a very hard misfortune, in ‘87 they went to the hills of Montenegro, to the village of Gradina, around two hours from Rozaje, a very high altitude. We aimed for the children to spend three summer months in the hills to feed them with clean air, water, the health of the children, clean air improves the blood cells and we wanted to go there, and the sons of our maternal aunt from the village of Kërshevc made us that offer and we went blind and went with them. Even though we knew how they were, but we went there, because of our mother’s insistence, our mother loved her sister so much, she loved her sons so much, but they were not to be loved. But we went blind and went there.
My now deceased brother was in the mountain house, he slept together with the brother of the murderer. One night, while sleeping with the brother of the murderer, he thought that my brother was asleep and slowly went outside the mountain house. My brother followed him and said, “Where are you going?” He said, “Go back to the house, because I felt like there was something.” He went back, and he [the murderer] went and returned late. The next morning, there was a bull missing in the stable where our cattle was, one of our bulls was missing and my brother notified the police about the case. He walked for two hours by foot to the police [station] in Rozaje and notified them that our bull was missing. The police did their job. And we went to the hills in ‘88, the owner of the mountain told us, “I don’t want them on the mountain. I don’t want to accept them on the mountain.” And we thought they would not go, they went exactly to that mountain.
They didn’t ask us, neither did they ask the owner [the brother of the murderer]. Maybe the owner only pretended and took money from us as well as from them, and they went to the mountain. The relations were very cold on the mountain, they started not allowing our mother to take water from the same spring, the communal spring. I went to the mountain in ‘88, on Eid day, together with my third maternal aunt, not with their mother [the killer’s mother]. She was on the mountain called Kulla, in Zhleb. I went there with my maternal aunt and we stayed there for two days, on the third day we wanted to return, to go to the plain, we went to Rozaje in order to go from Rozaje to the village in Peja. In the morning my aunt was at their place [her other sister’s family] and when she came back, she came back crying She came with me and a friend of mine, more precisely this friend was my deceased brother’s brother-in-law.
My maternal aunt says to me, “Go back to the mountains.” I said, “Why, how can I leave you? We are going together to the village, to the plains, to Peja.” “No!” She said, “You go back because he told me,” the killer [her sister’s son], that, “the sun will not rise before I kill one of them or both.” I was surprised and I said, “Aunt, why haven’t you told me while at the mountains?” And I took off. I left my maternal aunt in Rozaje and returned to the hill with my deceased brother’s friend. When I went to the mountains, when I arrived up there, I found him [my brother] dead, he killed him in the presence of my mother. And his brother’s son [the killer’s nephew] had bruised his neck as he held him from behind, and my mother tried to stop the killer’s nephew. He had tied his hands and taken out the gun and shot him with a bullet in the heart. He had fallen on top of my mother and mother pulled herself from under him with difficulty. When I arrived, I found my mother standing by his head. And the police came and would not let me take the corpse.
He was killed on July, ‘88, at around 11AM, Tuesday. The corpse remained there for the whole day. The police came at night, the corpse remained there during the whole night, and on Wednesday, July 27 until 2PM, the police came at around 2PM. I mean, the corpse just started decomposing. We left on July 27 together with the corpse, only me and my mother, my mother, the brother of my brother’s wife and I came to Rozaje. They stopped us, the police knew us, we took some dangerous roads, it is strange, it still feels strange, how could my car go through the roads where it is hard even for a donkey to go, a mini-van. We came to Rozaje, the police kept us until they prepared the [legal] procedures of our travel, then their [Montenegrin] police led us, they brought us, they led us. We arrived to Peja on July 27 at 7PM with the police car. I had an order from the police to send the corpse to the hospital, to the kapella, when we sent the corpse to the hospital with the friend, my friend and I sent it inside and left it on a concrete stall with our own hands, there were no good conditions, the temperature was very high, the next day they came for the autopsy.
It was already 11AM, on [July] 28, before noon until they were done with the autopsy. We left at 11:30PM, I sent the corpse to the village, it stinked, all the women went out of the house when I sent the corpse inside according to our customs, because of the scent that it had, because it was decomposed. I took it with my own hands together with some cousins, put it in the van and sent it to bury. Shortly before burying it, my brother arrived from Germany, poor he, he came by cab and the corpse was over the grave stone when he went out of the car, he had forgotten his coat and the cab driver returned to give his coat. He had forgotten his coat where he had his money and everything else because of surprise and terror. He returned, he entered the line to pray for the dead and finish the funeral. And from then to this day my family hasn’t experience good days. My poor mother suffered.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: How old was your brother?
Metë Shala: My brother was 25 years old, the murderer was 35. He [brother] was in the third year of his studies at the Faculty of Law, a model student, a very good student, he loved life, he was very loving and friendly. He didn’t believe that it would happen, not from that, from that dog. He [ the murderer] went there in order to create a motive to kill him, he had forced the son of his brother who was in the first year of gymnasium in Peja to go to the mountain and beat the son of my brother who was five years old, the son of my older brother who lives in Germany, he was five or six years, something like that. And he saw the 16-17 years old boy beating the six years old boy, he said, “Don’t! Don’t!” He yelled at him, he yelled at him and then he went and took the stick from him, he hit him with the stick three-four times, he took the stick with which he had attacked the five-six years old boy and hit him three-four times with it, he hit their son.
He went [home] crying. And the [murderer] came to argue and said, “Come out!” And shot him with a shotgun in front of my mother’s eyes, in front of my mother’s eyes, I cannot even imagine it. But, out of fear that we would take revenge, because [even before] he had beaten the family friend, he had even beaten the family friend after the theft [of the cattle] and now he was afraid that because we were together with the friend we will kill them or take revenge. There was no way we would take revenge or kill that shithead. For example, the friend, we always insisted that our friend be patient with him for our sake because they were our kin, they were the sons of our maternal aunt. And they acted this way, they killed out of fear.
[The video-interview was cut upon request of the family.]
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Did you send them to prison, did you sue them, was the case denounced?
Metë Shala: No, we didn’t sue them. We went as witnesses to tell how it happened, they… he got it easier, he got it easier, he got it easier, he was set free, he was set free 16 months later.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: How do you explain this?
Metë Shala: Yes, I explain it that then in Montenegro, Bjelopolje, how come one he is set free for murder, for example you murder someone, you murder someone and you are released 16 months later, this is inexplicable. But, they were very disappointed at us, very mad at us for having forgiven the blood here. And they had sent it as a testimony there in order to create easy circumstances for themselves, “They have forgiven the blood to us, there is no need for you to sentence him,” and so he went out, he went out of prison.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: After how much time did you forgive the blood, or did you do it right away?
Metë Shala: No, the blood was forgiven on March 17, 2000, or ‘90, the blood was forgiven on March 17, ‘90, I am sorry because I confused it, he was murdered in ‘88 and the blood was forgiven on March 17, ‘90. And then he was released from prison.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Could you tell us how the reconciliation was done, did you reconcile or did you only forgive it [the blood] to them, was there mediation?
Metë Shala: Yes, see, see, this is… this blood was forgiven to Kosovo, it was not forgiven to them, I have no right to forgive the blood of anyone. But when the plak Anton Çetta came together with Mark Krasniqi, Azem Shkreli, the youth of Kosovo, Hava Shala, Et’hem Çeku, Adem Grabovci, I remember many of them, the deceased Bajram Kelmendi, and I remember many many of them who came, the youth Riza Krasniqi, Sali Cacaj and many others who told us that it was the historic moment when the bloods and misunderstandings should be forgiven to Kosovo, but not to the murderers, not to the murderer.
To steal you, to beat the friend of your house and murder you, this is something, something very hard. But, at that time I was… for example the youngster of Kosovo Fatmir Uka was murdered in the village of Nabërgjan as well as Gani Daci. Qamil Morina was murdered in the village of Loxha, the youth of Kosovo were killed in the demonstrations all around, they were still being killed. I envied being dead as Fatmir Uka, they did such a glorious funeral, there were thousands of people, it was a glorious funeral and it was a blood given for Kosovo, demanding democracy with two fingers up in ‘90, ‘91.
So the plak Anton Çetta and the Kosovo youth, especially Hava Shala, Nurije Zeka, let me not forget them, I apologize if I forget someone, when they said, “Kush s’ma falë gjakun kësaj stine, Kosovës ia ka dhanë një thikë pas shpine” [The one who does not forgive the blood this season, has stabbed Kosovo with a knife on the back]. That was a call, a kushtrim not to have murders between brothers, in order for us not to become soldiers of Milošević, but people of Kosovo. United, not to be afraid from each-other in case of an eventual war but to be together and stand the war together, without misunderstandings, without murders, to be strong without feuds. For example, sisters would forgive the blood of their only brother in May at Verrat e Llukës where almost half million of people participated, if I am not mistaken.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Were you there?
Metë Shala: I was there and I cried all day long seeing the number of bloods that were forgiven that day.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Could you tell us in details about the day when people came to reconcile you? Who came, how was the case presented?
Metë Shala: Yes, the ones whom I mentioned above came, as well as many others whom I don’t remember. They came and told the boys, “You owe it to Kosovo,” they told me, my older brother and my younger brother. I insisted as well to forgive the blood to Kosovo, that’s what plaku Anton Çetta said. He took very convincing examples, he said, “Ramë Binaku,” or Ali Binaku, I am not sure, “From the village of Dashinovc in Malësia, they have killed two of his sons, he prayed for the corpses between both his sons and called the murderer and said, “Take them, put them into the graves with your own hands. And if you killed them without any reasons, may they be your burden in this world and the other world.” And he said, “If they have done you harm,” he said, “May that be their burden. If you have killed them without any reason, may they be your burden in this and the other world.” And he forgave the bloods of two of his sons. I mean, very touching and convincing examples were taken.
The main thing was that Kosovo needed that reconciliation, because we could smell the war, we knew that when they [Serbs] were able to fight the Croats and Bosnians with whom they are only divided by the religion, because they’re brothers. And each time they scratched or kissed each-other, we know that bad things would happen to us, the war would happen to us, and it would find us unprepared the way it actually did.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Did they send the word, the reconcilers, did they send the word to the sons of your maternal aunt that you had forgiven the blood?
Metë Shala: They went there, and they asked one of us to go there as well, we authorized the brother of my older brother’s wife. We authorized him to go there, we didn’t go there. This is not… we will never forgive it to them because it was unnecessary, it was incomprehensible. There was no reason bre, we were surprised, how come they killed? To steal from you, to beat your friend, to beat your little son. And he reacted by hitting their old son who was in the gymnasium with his own stick, and they murdered him, nobody expected it. They are not humans, they only have the appearance of the human because they are animals on the inside, wild animals.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: You personally told me about how you found the reconcilers at your house, could you tell us a little about that atmosphere?
Metë Shala: One week before, one week before forgiving the blood, it was Saturday, I came from the city and found the wise and smart plak Anton Çetta together with Riza Krasniqi, Hava [Shala] and Nurije Zeka. Yes, it is a coincidence that it was exactly the day when I bought Anton Çetta’s book which was out of print, Tregime dhe Përrallëza nga Drenica [Stories and Tales from Drenica]. I found the plak Anton Çetta when I entered the oda, I left the covered book aside and greeted them. During the conversation, while talking to the wise plak Anton Çetta, Riza unfolded the book from the cover it had, he unfolded it and saw that it was Anton Çetta’s, then he gave it to him and said, “See professor,” he said, “This is what an intellectual from the city comes with,” without them knowing and without me knowing that they would come to me, that was a coincidence. And this is the back then book {shows it in the camera} which has survived, my library with over three thousand various books and newspapers was burned during the war. And he left a note…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Can you read it?
Metë Shala: Yes, it says, “To Metë Shala with the best honor and wishing success in work, wholeheartedly, Anton Çetta.” With two T-s, Çetta, I mean, March 10, 1990, Trstenik. And the blood was forgiven seven days after this. I mean, the blood was forgiven on March 17, 1990.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: So, first they proposed, then they came to take the word one week later?
Metë Shala: They proposed and then they worked a lot with my brothers, with my family, for nights in a row. Then, in those years I was the director of the school of the village of Trstenik, Hava and Nurije constantly came to me at school, they came to prepare us. They gave an extraordinary contribution, Hava Shala with Nurije and many many others…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: What did they say, what did reconcilers do, what arguments were given for you to forgive? Why was it difficult for you, can you tell us little about this part?
Metë Shala: They made the argument that the Kosovo youth took this initiative in order for us to be united with each-other, not to be divided and not to let the enemy find us divided and not to allow an inner war to happen. The enemy, if the murders, revenges and misunderstandings that happened continued, if the reconciliations of the ‘90s weren’t done, in the ‘90’s, ‘91, ‘89, if the reconciliations didn’t happen, then an inner war would happen and the enemy would find us weak, then we wouldn’t be able to fight the enemy. And like this, with those [arguments], they convinced us that Kosovo needed forgiving, reconciliation, Kosovo needed the Blood Feuds Reconciliation.
They were mad because of the fact that Serbia kept killing our young boys holding two fingers up in demonstrations, demanding freedom, equality, democracy, I mean, you could see that they felt the pain, our pain. They [murderers] were not worth being killed and going to prison. One brother was buried, another one going to prison, the family was large and they needed to be educated, there were many girls at home, and it would be a mess, a new mess. We saw, for example, the son and the daughter of the deceased brother, they needed to grow up, education, interest, support. We knew that if we killed them, if we took revenge, if we killed some of them, then new misfortunes would happen, the family would remain in bad conditions, the education and so on. So we had to think and make a sacrifice both for the nation and the family in order to get some honor out of my brother’s blood.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: You never thought about taking revenge, right?
Metë Shala: To be honest, that left its marks on me, I’ve been thinking about taking revenge for a full one year and a half. And it has left its marks on me, because it is an opposite world, when you have art, music, when you love for example the children at school, when you love your subject, singing, art, music, when you love… know what piano, violin, musical instruments, orchestra, symphony, sonet, concert, ouverture are… when you think about listening to serious music, to folk music, when you think about art, and then return 180 degrees in the opposite direction, that leaves its marks on you, and takes you to a totally different place. It is a life full of sadness, full of anxiety, sorrow and harm, you see the orphans at home and you are not able to take your own child in your lap.
You see, for example my brother comes from Germany and the girl says, “Uncle Shaban, why didn’t you take my father from Germany, why didn’t you hide him from the police behind your seat?” Those are moments that left their marks, those are difficult moments, that is a difficult, a sad situation, it is very sad having your brother killed by your maternal aunt’s son, whose mother is your mother’s sister. And without reason, without any reason, I could never imagine killing them, my brother didn’t expect it, neither did we, otherwise I wouldn’t leave my brother there, I wouldn’t go to the mountains at all, I would sell that damn cattle, just as we sold them then, just like we could manage to live without them after that, but we were blind and…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: So, forgiving [the blood] to Kosovo was a relief for you personally as well as for your family?
Metë Shala: It is a kind of relief, because you no longer think about… you have given the besa to the fatherland, to Kosovo youth, you have forgiven it to Kosovo and you have set yourself free of the burden of taking revenge, it is a relief.
But somehow, to be honest, in a way we are, every family who contributed to Blood Feuds Reconciliations in Kosovo, who forgave bloods, misunderstandings, we are disappointed. This is why, because they go to the heroes graves with all the respect and nobody goes to my brother’s grave but me and the close family. Nobody knows, nobody counts that contribution. In a way, it is a kind of contribution and that blood wasn’t emphasized [honored].
Rreth (circle) is the social circle, it includes not only the family but also the people with whom an individual is incontact. The opinion of the rreth is crucial in defining one’s reputation.