[Radio] Television of Prishtina gave us the news that the miners have entered the mine pit. Me and a lot of other physicians, with doctor Adem, with a lot of general physicians. Trepça had its own in-house physicians. I remember the first day when I went there, we took the elevator down Trepça’s levels. It’s not a good feeling to go into the elevator, and go down 700-800-900 meters in the mine pit. But, I was always thinking of going to help the miners down there. I was their in-house physician in the ‘80s, so all the miners knew me. They were really happy to see me. I took a bag of medicine, [as] I told you, at the time the medicine and the check ups were free of charge. We stocked enough medicine, antibiotics against fever, against coughing, against throwing up, against poisoning. And I went to check on them with my bag full of medicine. But there weren’t any health issues the first few days. […] It’s worth mentioning, it’s very interesting, many miners whose health worsened didn’t want to leave the mine after we told them they must leave it, they didn’t want to. They said, ‘Only dead. Four people can carry my body and separate me from my striker friends.’

When the news came, they said, ‘The miners are locking themselves in.’ We were close because the technical service building is close to the mine entrance. We were young and we felt that something was ending, some uncertainty because State Security was around, we knew their faces. They would always follow our every move. And we told a colleague, we discussed it more and more, the miners’ situation, the political issues. And then we told a colleague, ‘Can we go there and join them?’ He said, ‘Do you want to join?’

When we went there with our colleague and he said, there were duty shifts, they started to appoint the duty shifts. We had the red ribbons {touches her arm}, they put the red ribbons on their hands and they were responsible for how things run, who came in, who left. […] And then we went in, we visited them, the situation, it seemed like a whole different world somehow, like we were isolated, no news, no nothing, I mean no good news. The delegations would come one after the other, with Kolgeci and Stipe Šuvar, Morina, and all of them in order, […] the ones outside would say, ‘You’re going to stay there with them,’ the ones in the mine would say, ‘Don’t let them come down because they’re pressuring us.’

[…] We continued to support them, when the workers came out [of the mine] we helped them, we helped them with cleaning, medication, stuff like that. Because there they were… and we had the Ambulance in Stantërg and the physicians from there came, the medical workers of the ambulance and they joined us in the mine. We had a team formed. The number of people leaving increased, people left the mine tired, overwhelmed, and the technical service where we were became a medical station, there were two stations.

In the judges panel was Ismet Emra, he was the presiding judge. A member of the panel was Jusuf Mejzini, a senior judge. Shaban Binaku, a former miner and a wonderful man, who at the time was very ill, and we would meet often with Uncle Shaban and beg of him, now he is deceased, beg of him, ‘Please remain in good health until the trial is over.’ There was another judge from Montenegro, Milutin Zubov, and he had a balanced attitude. 

So we really hoped and believed that the final verdict will be balanced and that they [miners] will be free of all charges. […] There have been big protests in Croatia in support of the miners. […] There were lawyers from Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia that were part of the trial. They were the lawyers that together with us defended the miners. They were Doctor Miha, no, Doctor Peter Ceferin, he was Miha Kozić with whom they met in Vienna. 

[…] Also, I do not believe that there was any suggestion made by the government to release these men, but surely there was no suggestion that these men should be punished. Fortunately, in the end, the miners were released, after 14 months of detention.

If I am not mistaken, it was March 13, ‘89. After work, I went to my apartment. In the late hours of the night, the former head of the District Court Kapllan Baruti had sent his chauffeur to drive me with his car. I asked the chauffeur, I said, ‘What’s up?’ He said, ‘The Head of the Court wants to see you.’

Kapllan was an extraordinary man, extraordinarily good. He invited me to his office. He said, ‘I am asking you to take on Vllasi’s case…’ he told me this and that and how he is being brought in from Bijeljina, and that they want to start investigative procedures. The prosecutor had already filed the request to start the investigations. Counterrevolution, counterrevolution back then was the highest sentence, 20 years for counterrevolution or death sentence. I know that we discussed it with Kapllan, he said to me, ‘Please take over the investigation.’ I said, ‘Kapllan, I don’t want this case to cost me my job. I will not take over. Until now I never investigated political cases, I don’t want to do it now.’

As the conversation progressed, he said, ‘If you don’t take it over, we have to give it to someone else and lose access to the case.’ I know I said to him, ‘Give it to whomever you like, do whatever you like. Not me.’ […] One request after the other to take on the case, I agreed to do the investigation. […] I started the investigation, I took Azem Vllasi, Aziz Abrashi, and Burhan Kavaja into questioning. Then we broadened our scope of investigation. Fifteen of them were accused.”

The director Aziz Abrashi called on the phone that day before the meeting. He said, ‘Don’t you dare resign because the miners are coming. They decided to come.’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I will not resign, but if they dismiss me, I can’t guarantee they will not fire me. I don’t know what turn the discussion will take, but I will not resign.’

They didn’t care, they headed to Pristina before the meeting of the Committee began. As I was holding the meeting, opening the discussion, some Albanians defended us, some Serbians accused us, the Committee members there. And we were divided along ethnic lines, Albanians on one side, Serbians on one side. All Serbs agreed with Milośević’s politics. And when the miners got here the way they did, I don’t think they came all the way from Mitrovica on foot, maybe by bus also. When they came here, they went to the Youth Palace. 

[…] They came in, they came in, they talked, they were organized. Who should hold a speech, all that was said by them in the sense was to defend the nation. I didn’t feel they’d come to my defense, but I felt defended by the  nation, defended by Kosovo, which made me feel good. But if I joined them, who would I be against? I can’t be on the side with those that expressed dissatisfaction in nationalist rallies. So, it was a difficult situation that, even if I went there, what would I say.