We talked, ‘What do you think? Are you up for a demonstration tomorrow? Do you support us?’ Most of them supported us, but there were also those who did not know what a demonstration was. Because there were no demonstrations until then. Then I had to explain to a group of two or three what a demonstration was. ‘When protested for Vietnam.’ Back then there was the war in Vietnam. Same with the slogans and that’s how we went over it. ‘Now we know what a demonstration is.’ So around 6:00-6:30 at the corner of Hotel Ljubeten we met with the rest of our friends. Some of them came later, but most importantly, we, the friends of the organizing group of the demonstration in Ferizaj, met.

[…] The demonstration continued until 3:30 PM. The time… our goal was for the workers who leave the factories they worked at at 3:00 PM, to see what their children were demanding. We did not want to implicate the workers in the demonstration. Our goal was to save them because they were being fired from their jobs, and if one worker lost their job, it would be a problem for their family. So we talked all the time with my friends that there should be no workers at the demonstrations, but that the main ones carrying it should be the students of Ferizaj, of course also the pupils who were in Ferizaj.

So at 3:30 PM, up to five thousand demonstrators gathered in Ferizaj. They also reported this on the radio from Ferizaj, but they also asked me several times during the investigation, ‘How were you able to gather five thousand people in two days? When we have to spend three months propagandizing for one gathering and barely bring five thousand people to the gathering?’

They put handcuffs on me, they were some plastic handcuffs, not like the other ones, metal handcuffs. With Mirvete, they tied us all two by two. They put us in a van, there were inspectors with us. Maybe I forgot, Demë, Demë Muja and Jakup Llonqari were with us. I could’ve forgotten, I don’t know, maybe the other girls remember better. They took us to Mitrovica. On the way, because the van behind had an open space, there were benches around it. […] We looked at each other, but we didn’t have any opportunity, for example, to give any information to each other about what the investigation procedure was like so far. Except that once, you know, Hava gestured to me that they hit her on the hands and to ask if they also beat me with a baton, you know. Just to let them know how the investigation procedure went. But it was already known because they deliberately left the door open so that we could hear each other screaming. It was known how the whole situation went.

It was sometime around 10:00 when Ibrahim Kelmendi called me. He asked, ‘Did Kadri come back?’ I said, ‘No, he didn’t come back.’ Of course Kadri would come back that night because it was Sunday and he had to work on Monday. He didn’t come back. […] They didn’t have a phone at home, the Gërvalla brothers, so they would go out to call from a payphone at the time. On their way out it happened because they were ambushed. They waited. They just wanted these three to come together and to kill them. That was UDB’s task. […] And then, Ibrahim Kelmendi called again and Hasan Mala picked up the phone. He said, ‘I want to let you know,’ he said, ‘that there was an assassination in Germany. Kadri Zeka,’ he said, ‘Kadri is dead,’ I heard that because it was, the night was quiet. I heard that. It was  not known about the other two yet, because [it was thought that] Jusuf was wounded. […] When we got there Jusuf’s wife came out and said, ‘Come on young bride,’ I was recently married, not even two weeks. She said, ‘Come on bride, three dead.’ It was a bomb. Despite that the pain was great for Kadri, but at least if someone survived, it was very difficult. So that was it. And then, the people there, fellow Albanians all stood up because they were, how to put it, the heads, their leaders. It was a, a shock for everyone. Everyone came to me for condolences, for material help. They tried to return them to Kosovo, but there was no way, the embassy did not allow it. So, the burial took place after three weeks, so to say, in Germany, because they didn’t allow us to return them and so on.

The second imprisonment happened like this […] I think this was in ‘70. One of our friends from prison, Hyda Dobruna, got married. He was a member of our organization, [together] with his friends. He got married in Gjakova. He invited us friends to go to his wedding. And in the wedding it was proposed, actually here Meriman Braha, he is here, he works here. I know, he proposed from someone to go up, there were more than 200 wedding guests, and to ask for a moment of silence for Fazli Grajçevci and as a sign of respect for the prisoners who were in prison. They found it reasonable, they suggested me, so I got up. I greeted the wedding guests, I congratulated the wedding and I asked for a moment of silence for Fazli Grajçevci and as a sign of respect for our friends who were in prisons. That was done and the situation immediately got messy. That’s when they imprisoned me, they imprisoned me… I was sentenced to two years in prison. And then, what Meriman Braha said, there were investigations and everything, everything, I didn’t accept any names.

The demands were mainly political. ‘Self-determination!’ ‘Free the political prisoners, Adem Demaçi, Rexhep Mala!’ They mentioned all those prisoners by name. ‘Trepça works, Belgrade prospers!’ ‘Kosovo Republic!’ ‘Either through peace or war… Constitution, either through peace or war.’ […] Hydajet spoke, he spoke as a worker, with his hat on, he was wearing simple clothes, he was a worker and we didn’t know him at all. And that day, Teuta… the moment didn’t let you, that situation didn’t let you be passive. And I said, ‘Teuta you climb up, climb up as a woman. Why should only men climb up? Let the women climb up too’ (laughs). And, ‘No, you climb up Remzije’ I don’t know how it happened, ‘You climb up, you climb up,’ before even climbing, my brother wrote those demands {pretends she’s writing something} what to say, what to… on someone’s back, I think it was Teuta’s brother. And he gave me those [slogans] and I was wearing a skirt, it wasn’t exactly easy for me, and then Hydajet Hyseni asked me, ‘Do you recognize me?’ […] And I chanted them and the shouting was even louder because it’s a little different as a woman, and I climbed down and continued until the evening, it became very dark, it lasted until late. There they dispersed us with tear gas, there we scattered and didn’t see each other anymore. I lost my shoes and I saw a guy running through the street, I don’t remember what street that was. And he gave me one of his shoes and I was left with one shoe, the other one was lost, and that guy gave me a shoe and I kept it until, I had it until recently. I don’t know if someone threw it out recently, because I wanted to keep it as a memory (laughs). As a memory and for it to be at a museum, that shoe, to tell about where it happened, what they did, what we did at that time.