Part Four
Sahit Berisha: I was a student at the Shkolla Normale. In the 1960s, in 1966, major changes were made in Yugoslavia. Ranković was removed, not because of the Albanians, but because Tito and the others, Kardelj and the rest, had problems with him. That is not so important, what matters is that he fell. There was pressure from outside that the constitution had to be changed, constitutional changes had to be made. In those changes there had to be advancements. From 1966, when Ranković fell, to 1968 are two years. Many dramatic events took place in other centers, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, because Macedonia and Bosnia are Tito’s creations. Tito created the Macedonian people, there had never been a Macedonian people, nor a Bosnian Muslim people. He created these federal units.
Because of all this, the entire system had to be changed. It could no longer be a centralist system, Yugoslav unitary rule, but there had to be a decentralization of the system, what was called self government and self management. Enver Hoxha wrote a fairly good book about Yugoslav self management. For the first time, after Ranković fell, Zëri i Kosovës published the photos of Shote and Azem Bejta. A rebirth, we can literally call it that, a rebirth for the Albanians of Kosovo. This was a major change. The political structures either did not dare, or did not know, but mostly they did not dare, or did not want to. In the other centers, that same night, the secretariats were blocked. The UDB headquarters were blocked and sealed at the doors and all the materials were taken.
Here in Kosovo that did not happen. The UDB people, we called them the Ranković-ists, were given the chance to destroy all the documentation they had. Some say three thousand, some say five thousand, it is not important how many. All the documentation was destroyed and we did not have anything left, two or three people were not punished as Ranković-ists. They were not punished. The one from Deçan was punished and the others were not. The year ‘68 comes. In ‘68 the demonstrations happened in Belgrade, demonstrations happened in Europe. Rock music also started to appear in the demonstrations, coming from the student movements in Europe. They were demanding changes in all of Europe. So the spirit of the movements came from the West, just as it had come at the end of the Middle Ages with the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment brought those great changes, if you know what the Enlightenment is?
Anita Susuri: Yes.
Sahit Berisha: So, here in Kosovo things now begin to circulate more freely, the situation begins to feel freer. Besides that, in ‘68 the amendments and the discussions about constitutional changes began. Debates that were held also in the newspaper, because now they spoke more freely in the press. And I too criticized, this photograph of mine that I published in Zëri is this one {shows a photograph}. The one I published, where I criticized the League of Communists. Now, if the League of Communists wants to be reborn it has to change completely in its internal content, they’d say openly that the Albanian question is not solved.
In the meantime the symposium, the manifestation of the 500th anniversary of Skanderbeg’s death, was held in Pristina. That was something unimaginable. The arrival of professors from Albania to see us. Those drivers and others gave us eagle symbols, with photographs of the League of Prizren, of Skanderbeg and so on. There we saw the flag, because we did not know what the flag looked like. But they did not give them to us publicly. They threw them into our hands, whoever was interested took them, and we went and spent the whole day standing at the doors. They did not let us go inside, but we walked around there, we just wanted to see them. To see what the people from Albania looked like.
In the meantime, that was when they also staged that play, they put on a play about Azem Bejta. Maybe you have heard it, that play is something very beautiful, very good. We saw that Shaban Haxhia had made the journey, he had gone, just like you have come to interview me, they had gone everywhere Azem Bejta had stayed and wrote a book about Azem Bejta. He wrote a book about Hasan Prishtina. So there was a kind of rebirth for us. People wrote more freely, criticized, demanded more. No one was afraid that they would be thrown into prison or something like that. So this was also for our school youth. A great change took place. Where I studied, the school was very advanced and the teachers were extraordinarily good.
Unfortunately no one recorded Beqir Kastrati on film. He was able to teach 13 subjects. At the Shkolla Normale so much work was done and the disciplinary measures were so strict that when we entered the classroom the homeroom teacher would walk around to check our hands on the desks, the handkerchief had to be put on the table, folded, and he would say, “Fasten the button,” and hit you lightly with the pointer. If your fingernails were not cut, he would tap your hands. That means discipline, cleanliness and work were required. All the laboratories functioned. Imagine, there was also the workshop they called punëtoria, the workshop for wood processing and metal processing. There was the photography club where we learned. I myself practiced how to work with photography, how to wash the film, how to do it, Bahri Bajrami organized those.
There was the library. I do not know that there was another library, apart from the city library, that was richer than that school library. But the reading room was always full of students reading. Of course illegal books also came and were distributed. There was the dormitory. There was the art club, the musicians’ club. You could not get a grade if you did not know how to play the mandolin. So there was a very strong atmosphere. Drama. For the first time in Kosovo that a play about Skanderbeg was staged, it was the Shkolla Normale students who staged it. The athletes of the Shkolla Normale, with Beqir Kastrati, held first place in Yugoslavia as handball players. So an extraordinary amount of work was done, very great work. But here we must also say, the Slavic influence was not strong, the peasant stratum dominated. The national influence dominated.
One of the teachers, Hazif Shala, was a teacher there, later when he went to prison, he was sentenced to 13 years together with Adem Demaçi. With Rexhep Hoxha you could not get even a Two without knowing orthography, he was strict, very strict. This group of teachers, Beqir Kastrati, then the mathematician Ruzhdi Kastrati, Dervish Kamberi and others, Pajazit Nushi and many other teachers. Mithat Sahiti taught us. Bajram Bajrami, the street thugs once stabbed him because he went out to defend the students. Nexhat Ibrahimi taught us pedagogy. We had the didactics school where we learned how to prepare a lesson in writing and how to conduct the lesson. After every lesson the class had to hold a discussion, the group, about how you had held that lesson. You could not enter class without preparation.
In these circumstances, that Hoxha from Gjilan, they were also students but in the final stage of their studies, they were at our school. This ‘68 atmosphere that happened with the demonstrations and so on influenced the fact that we more than anyone needed the demonstrations to erupt. To present our demands more than the others, in Europe. We were the most tormented part who had to show someone that the Albanian question was not solved. Naturally, these scholars should tell the truth but they do not want to. They repeat things only superficially. At that time a consultation was held in Pristina where Fadil Hoxha held a speech as representative. Fadil Hoxha had merits there. He was not put in the Presidency of Yugoslavia by chance.
Together with the others they decided, he told them by order, to go and get the opinion in each of their municipalities through the Socialist Alliance, whether Kosovo should be a republic. I do not know if you understand me. That consultation was held in Gjakova as a conclusion and they decided, they said it had to be so. The UDB got involved and Qamil Luzha and Ali Boletini were forced to flee. They even told my sister when they met her in the street, they said, “Mejreme, we cannot go to prison anymore, we cannot endure it”, and they went to Albania. Hyrije Hana allowed them to marry there. In these circumstances, on 6 October demonstrations broke out in Prizren. At the Shkolla Normale of Prizren there was a big and small demonstration, then citizens also came out of curiosity, to feel the pulse, to see how the citizens would react.
On 8 October demonstrations broke out in Suhareka. Suhareka is a bit more rural, more connected with work and such things. But it had an effect. They did not have a flag, but they drew one and came out to demand a constitution. I, as a student, must tell the truth, did not know what the word “constitution” meant. Now I know, but at that time I did not. On 19 October demonstrations broke out in Peja. So the reaction was tested, to see how the authorities would react and how the people would embrace it. It was decided to organize a demonstration in Pristina. It is a fatal mistake to personalize the organization of the ‘68 demonstration and to turn it into a family story. It is a very big mistake to say, “We here did it”, or “We and so on”. In that case it loses its value. That demonstration went beyond Kosovo. Albania had a great influence on the outbreak of the demonstrations, because some speeches were held there.
But that is another topic. The decision was made, groups were formed to organize in Pristina, in Gjilan, in Ferizaj and in Podujeva. Not in Drenica. Under these conditions they quickly finished in Llapi, Podujeva, Gjilan and the others. Pristina was supposed to organize so that five minutes before four o’clock everything would start. Five minutes before 16:00 it was to erupt at the Faculty of Philosophy, the one that is there now. There the slogans were to be distributed and spread. I had the good fortune that I knew Osman Dumoshi much earlier and we were always together as close friends; I used to stay at Osman Dumoshi’s and he, at my place. We met almost every day. Through him and that Loxha, Afrim Loxha, we got the connection that Osman said, “You must work with these ones”.
I told Afrim Loxha, “Take a girl too, take Remzije Shala and some other members.” So I was informed that we had to organize. They gave me the task to be the coordinator for organizing the youth of the Shkolla Normale for the 1968 demonstrations. We held the meetings above Osman’s house. There was a shoemaker working there. We said to him, “Can you leave us the place for a while?” He went out. He knew what we were doing but did not say a word. And there we came to our agreements. The others, those who were linked to the students, had the task to prepare the slogans and also a song to sing. Unfortunately I did not keep that song, there was some kind of song. But there you are, I was careless and I did not keep it.
There I began the work. On 12 October, November, to organize and prepare. First of all, I had a friend from Llap there, he was a very good friend and he is still alive. I told him this and that, he was happy. He said, “Very good.” Then we took some others. There was Sylejman Kastrati, who was wounded in the demonstration, from Kishnarekë. We called him Sylejman Zhevina, because that was their nickname, but Kastrati is the surname. They lived in Pristina. There was Arif Demolli, the best student in the municipality of Pristina. He was in my class, I used to go to his rented room. He lived in difficult conditions. He would get bread from Hajkobilla and bring it here for four or five days, then on Saturday he would go back there to get bread again. Sometimes I took him to my family to eat and so on.
There was Ylber Hoti, he was chairman of the youth league. They used to say, “Now a villager has become chairman.” A kind of liveliness started. We did not hide at all. Some events happened at our school there. They brought the flag, I do not know who brought it. During the lesson, [inaudible, min. 18:4] was the history teacher. He took it and we said, “Professor, shall we put up the flag.” Before it was publicly allowed, we put up the flag. “Put it there”, he said, and we put it on the blackboard. And then it all blew up. He left, someone else came, then the UDB came, the principal came, “Who put it up?” No one would confess, they did not want to denounce anyone. After a while I said, “Can you all leave the room, and we will tell our homeroom teacher and you can decide with him.” The homeroom teacher said, “You did well, but I must give you a verbal warning and that is all, because they cannot stop us anymore.”
There were also some other events that happened. Some small incidents, you know, but just enough to heat up the situation. Maybe someone did them on purpose, I do not know, but they happened. In the meantime I went to Ferizaj. I wanted it to be as big as possible. I talked with them, with some of my cousins from Ferizaj. “No, the UDB is following us,” they said. “Look, we will hold the demonstration, and then tomorrow we will escape and go to Berisha,” I said (laughs). We agreed that all those from Ferizaj would come to Pristina. Then I went to see Sadik Patashiku, he was from Ferizaj. I had known Sadik for a long time through my father and others. “What is happening, Berisha?” he asked, he had heard. He said, “So you have come”. I said, “I have come to ask for help, to tell us what is happening, because we do not know how to do demonstrations.” “You know, you know. The way you have started”, he said, “keep pushing”, he said, “I am old, I cannot go out, but I have friends and comrades and people who like me and I will tell them”.
I told my uncle. My uncle said, “Sahit, do you understand?” “Yes.” “The UDB found out before you.” I would say, “Uncle, maybe they know, maybe they do not. We are going out for a demonstration.” I spoke like this with strong conviction. In the meantime I also had close ties with those earlier veterans. With Hamez Shala, he was from Peja. He had been in prison several times, but his family was very good, he was a very good patriot. Calm, a good educator. With Ali Boletini, with Hyrije Hana. And when I told them… “How, Sahit?” Ali Boletini, when he would accompany me out, would say, “Look, be careful, do it, but make sure it succeeds, not that the organization fails before you even go out.” In that sense he said to be careful. “Do not make it too big, say that nothing is happening, because this is not a football match.”
I took information about illegal organizations and other things from them, from them. Hamez and Halil came regularly. We have this flat thanks to them. Halil and Hamez gave it to us. They worked in the municipality and said, “You need it.” After the 1960s, after Ranković fell, it was allowed that those who had been in the anti fascist war could have their war service recognized. My father got a pension as a fighter, my uncle as a fighter, my grandmother got a pension as a fighter, my mother got a pension. They saw their war status and they got it. So we rose quite high economically, you know, as fighters. And we had the right, because everyone told us, “Apply for a flat.” We all applied for a flat, they sent the commission, through Hamez and Halil. The one who was an informant from Mramor was told, “You must not go there and you have to sign the minutes that they meet the conditions.”
Only then, my father did not know anything about the flat. He did not want to take it. “No.” “Why?” “How can I take the flat before my elder brother?” “Your elder brother will get one too, but go, because we cannot study without a flat.” Until my uncle shouted at him, “Get up, go and sign.” We have this flat as a result, thanks to Halil Alidema and Hamez. Of course he had merits, because he was a fighter of ‘43. When my father signed as an activist, his war service was recognized, together with Hanife, the daughter of Tahir. My father and Hanife, whoever they signed for, had their war status recognized so that they could get a pension.
To not break the thread, the preparations were almost endless. Information kept coming that everything was ready. At the Shkolla Normale they worked in two shifts. In the first shift, when the leaflets arrived, we took them, “Go, take them and distribute them.”
The Shkolla Normale in Llap had the first four grades there, and in the fifth year they came to Pristina, because there was no fifth year there. Now the localists would not let you enter the classroom. “Go now, throw these to the students from Llap.” By my honor, while Bajram Bajrami was teaching us, I entered and spread the leaflets in the classrooms, just lowering my head as if I saw nothing. When the bell rang, everyone came downstairs. The task of the first shift was to come into town earlier. At the Ivo Lola gymnasium a handball match had to be held, the Shkolla Normale against the Ivo Lola gymnasium.
I was in that group. We played. I knew them because my cousin was in class with some boys from Gjakova and I knew them. When the match finished, I said to them, “Do you know that today we are going out in a demonstration?” “No way.” They had no connection. “Yes, we are going out in a demonstration.” “What are you talking about?” I left and walked away. The other group, where the vocational school was, there, a short play had to be staged. That is, the students of that school and the students of the Shkolla Normale together.
I came, I ate lunch at home at 1 o’clock. There I said goodbye to my uncle. “Have those from Ferizaj come?” “No, they have not come yet.” “Where is father?” “Father,” he said, “went and said, ‘I am going ahead to see how the situation is.’”
I ate a little and said, “I am going, because we have agreed to go to the Shkolla Normale to see whether it is moving or if the group is backing out.” I went with Gani Krasniqi and with Haki Berisha. Those two were from Llap. We went to the Shkolla Normale, we went to the dormitories there, and then we came back. There was, how to say, an educator, we told him, “Do not stop them, do not lock the doors for the students, because this afternoon they are going out. Let the dormitory students also come to the demonstration.” He said, “What demonstration?” “It is done, this is decided, come quickly because they are waiting for us there.”
We came down here. We approached and when it was five minutes to four, in front of the faculty there was a group, not very large. They quickly distributed the slogans, those who had written them had prepared them and handed them out. “Take a slogan.” The shouting began, “Block the road.” To go down to the street where now those cafés are, the cafés that they have put there. They have ruined the appearance of that part. To go out and walk. There were more citizens on both sides of the street than we who were in the middle. I was in the third row. I did not even look at what was written on the banners, because I had no time. Why should I look at them? Thinking that everything was in order.
We went as far as where [inaudible] was, there at the crossroads, up to there. There two policemen tried to stop us. The crowd pushed them. Those behind did not know and they pushed us, and we broke through them, because they were only two policemen. We came up to the theater. At the theater, Osman Dumoshi and Isa Kastrati read the demands. They climbed onto the theater steps, on those side parts, and there they read them. In the meantime some citizens passed by. The bus coming from Magure, the chairman of the Pristina committee mentioned that bus too. They also stopped the bus. We, in the demonstration, when the bus came, stood in front and climbed on top. I was among those who climbed on top of the bus, and many others, we climbed onto that bus.
My father was standing over there, on the side, with Shaban Zeqa, with a friend of his, watching. He had heard some Serbs saying, “Ništa nije,” “This is nothing.” It seemed that way to them. My father told them, “It will not pass as nothing.” We went down with all the Provincial Council. We went straight to the Provincial Council. There, where today the Assembly doors are, the entrance, above on this side. In front there used to be posters of films and above on this side was Afërdita, a café, a tea house called Afërdita. That Austrian building that was built there. There was a narrow passage there. Right there, where today the police stand in the booth, there used to be an iron ring and there was where the flags were to be stuck in. We put the flag there.
We went straight to the Assembly. The police, all armed, had blocked everything with automatic weapons, but even if you put your finger in their eye they did not move. We approached close and said to them, “Look, today we put it here, tomorrow we will put it up there.” Up there to formalize it. We set off. They said, “We are going upwards.” Someone spread a lie, saying that Serbs had entered the Shkolla Normale dormitory. We, as if we were wiped out, furious, said, “So they have entered the dormitory, let us go back.” We started to go. In the meantime, Ruzhdi Kastrati and Jahir Hoxha tried to stop us, they could not. Then Fehmi Pushkolli and Ismail Krasniqi came and said, “No, we are all here, the Shkolla Normale is in Pristina.”
Then we calmed down. Someone lied, saying, “I am going to get the television.” That building did not have a television but a radio. Those were institutions, you could not interfere. “Turn back,” we turned back. On the street where the government building is, there was a narrow passage on the left where the open-air cinema was. Someone was telling us, “Come,” this way and that way, trying to put us inside that open-air cinema hall. It was open. To get us inside the enclosure and that would be the end. Someone shouted, “Hey, turn back, do not go there,” and we turned back. When we came here, because I skipped a bit earlier, at the Provincial Council in that narrow passage there was the tanker truck and the police had gone in with clubs. They beat and the first to be beaten were the Shkolla Normale students. They had quite tightly surrounded my friend, Gani Krasniqi. Also Halim Qosja.
We knocked down the toilet walls of that café with bricks. We took those bricks and the road was paved with cobblestones, not asphalt. We took out those cobblestones and we threw the stones. We slipped down on the other side, we surrounded the police, we seized the tanker truck and we continued. We rolled the tanker truck. In fact Prishtina fell into our hands. In that euphoria of ours, we tore down everything, all the slogans, and all the signs that were in Serbian. We threw them away. Someone said, “Let us go in front of the faculty.” We went in front of the faculty and then the crowd became larger, as workers came, many citizens. It became seven, eight thousand, ten thousand people. They came from Ferizaj, from Gjilan, they came from Llap. Many. They started to make speeches. Some Gjon Duzi from Presheva, a real firebrand, made speeches there, “Our land,” and some speeches like that. It started to get dark.
Adem Rukiqi from Drenica shouted, “Drenica is with you, we are here.” Then these local shout outs started that are not very tasteful, but they were allowed. We started shouting, “Rifat Berisha” and such. “Adem Demaçi.” Meanwhile the false word spread that they had arrested [inaudible] and Mitat Saraipi. We from the Shkolla Normale were on fire. Of course we would go to get them out of prison. We started downwards. There I met my cousins. Alush was young, he said, “I am coming too.” We left him at home, we said, “You stay at home with mother. Who knows what may happen to us, someone has to stay.” We set off down to go to the prison. We took the flag.
Before going out on the street, one person, one figure, now in my sober judgment I know he was an Albanian UDB man, but who did not really wish us evil. He came out in front, grabbed Mejreme by the lapels and said, “Where are you going?” The others did not let him stand at all, they pushed him away. We set off downwards. As we walked, we were afraid. Only the march could be heard around 4 o’clock. In the first row I was there, in the middle was Mejreme, there was Skender, Skender Mustafa from Ferizaj, and this boy from the technical school, this 16 year old who was killed, Muhamet Mehmeti. He was the one who was killed first, who fell as a martyr there. We set off. We turned now downward. On the left side there was the army cinema, the swimming pool was there and so on. On the right side there were flats and there was a veterinarian’s shop with masks and things. That building with some columns that are gone now, because they have been occupied and filled with shops.
Straight ahead there was Kosova Film, a two story building. It was the 27th of November. It got very dark, we could not see. One thing we knew was the shout “Freedom, freedom.” And that boy from the Technical School broke out of the row and went ahead, waving his hand, “Forward, forward!” From that building they started throwing roof tiles down on us and also shooting with weapons. They have never wanted to reveal exactly how he was killed and how the others were wounded. Meanwhile, now, I will explain it a bit more in detail, at that point, when the shots were fired, this Mehmeti Murati fell. He went down and I do not know, I did not have time nor did I think to check if he was alive or not, I must tell the truth. I was worried about my sister, what was happening to her. She fell second and stayed lying there.
I crawled over to her but kept low to the ground because you could hear stones falling, so that they would not hit me. A stone hit me in the thigh that hurt more than a bullet would have. Then I crawled over and grabbed Mejreme. She was lying there, not moving at all. When I put my hand on her head like this, it was soaked with blood. I thought… I grabbed her and lifted her up. Meanwhile other policemen had come in there and were grabbing whoever they found alive to take them to prison. They saw me and wanted to take me. The demonstrators rushed to free me because they did not know about these others. They pulled me away.
I said, “No, I am not coming, we still have others there.” We came closer and took my sister. At that moment she came to herself. We took the flag, they took Murat to bring him to the hospital. They took him to the hospital, but he did not survive, he died. Sylejman Kastrati was badly wounded. Sylejman Pireva tells how, “We put Murat in a cart and took him as a group”, since he was our schoolmate, of our generation. He says, “We took him and we met a carriage with a family. We told them, ‘Get out of the cart’ and we put this boy in, to take him to the hospital” (cries). He says, “I left him there and got out, he had no life left.”
Later, much later, it became clear from what Sylejman Kastrati said, “They had left us in the corridors.” The doctor Beqir Rimanista said, “He was the one who took us in and treated us.” To this day no one knows the exact number of the wounded. This is our low awareness, that no one even went later to those wounded to at least take a statement from each. Sylejman Kastrati says, “Sahit, your sister helped us during the wounding.” She was a medical nurse, had studied medicine, she knew how to give first aid and she helped the doctor. He said, “She was the one who gave us first aid.”
Meanwhile, about what happened to us. We marched, they wanted to take my sister to the hospital, I did not allow it. I said, “No.” They were coming, hugging us, “Congratulations for the flag.” We marched as far as the mosque in the old bazaar. Then some of them wanted to take us to the Shkolla Normale. Others said, “No, go back to the faculty.” We went back to the faculty, it got cold. She began to feel the pain then, because the bullet had hit her in the head…
Anita Susuri: It just passed close by?
Sahit Berisha: It went through her hair, but did not stay in the brain, it just grazed along here. Then we all met there, all the boys. Thirteen of us from our family were there. We told our brother Sami to come here, “Go to Qazim Latifi and if the police stop you, do not stop, run.” Ramadani and Qazim left and went down toward the railroad and went home and spread false news, as they had heard, you know, that Mejreme and Sahit had been killed. We had nothing to do, we came back to the faculty again. Professor Mark Krasniqi turned off the lights because he was endangered when speaking from the second floor. They tried to get us inside and told us, “Come inside, a hundred of you, write down your demands, what you want.” “You have seen the demands, we are demonstrators.” We were very upset.
But the information was very worrying. Police forces from Skopje and Niš had arrived. Pristina was surrounded, even with tanks. What to do? Mark said, “Break up into groups of ten and go into houses.” Someone there said, “Tomorrow let us come out again in demonstrations.” We decided to come out at 10:00. We were a bit late. I told our people, the 13 of us, “Leave me and Mejreme,” this building of the Radio was being built then. “Leave us there behind it until morning and you go from house to house.” “How can we leave you wounded, are you in your right mind?” At the crossroads where the Grand Hotel is, there were lots of police forces. Over by the cross there were lots of them, where could we go?
Someone broke out downwards and broke through a shack and we came out below where the buildings are. There were about a hundred of us there. Some demonstrators told us, “Please, please, take the flag down.” But how could we take it down? That cousin of ours, Skender, said, “Fold it, Mejreme, put it in your chest.” We folded it. We came out by the Grand Hotel, went through the center. No one bothered us. When we reached the Bozhur Hotel, there was Fehmi Pushkolli and there was also Islam Krasniqi. I had nothing against Fehmi, but he asked, “What happened, Sahit?” “We are fine, fine, professor.” “Sahit, go home, they will be at your place soon.” I could not say to the professor, “Have they released you from prison?” I could not tell him those words. They surrounded him because they did not know who he was and then I told them, “He is my professor.” We greeted each other and left.
One of our cousins did not come home to our place, he went somewhere else to another house. We entered the house. Uncle Muharrem was drinking, father of course was upset. He was in pain. My uncle said, “Nothing happened. We have been like this for 13 years, two people getting killed is nothing.” In that small house we all stayed together. There was one bed, we laid Mejreme there. She has probably told you. We laid her down and stayed until morning, but her condition got worse. Who to call? Sim Dobreci and Sokol, the eye doctor. At 2 in the morning, my father and Skender from Ferizaj, Mustafa’s son, went to that man to see if Ahmet was there. They found Ahmet, told him to stay there, and came back home. The next day we took Mejreme to the hospital.
The agreement was to go out again in demonstrations. As soon as we gathered, you know, when there were seven or eight of us, the police would come and disperse us. Then a certain Fehmi Gashi, also from the Shkolla Normale, came and said, “Sahit, the situation is bad. In the hospital there are some of ours.” “I know,” I said, “there is Sylejman Kastrati.” “No,” he said, “there are many. Come to give blood.” We went. When we reached the hospital, it was surrounded, the police were throwing stones. We were in an open field, we did not care very much. We threw stones at them, they at us. We could not get in, and we went back. They did not let us go out in demonstrations at all. We wandered around the hospital there. On the third floor was Mejreme. She spoke to me from the window, she told me, “Sahit, do not say that you were there. You came to get me when you heard that I was wounded,” she said, “this is how I gave my statement, this is what you should say too, so at least you can save yourself.”
If she told you, this is not for bragging, but in the afternoon quite a few villagers and family came, relatives. There were about 20 of them who went to the hospital to see her. We did not find her there. She has told you, the UDB had taken her and told my father, “She has escaped to Albania.” These kinds of scenarios the UDB used. But they had taken her and brought her to prison.
Anita Susuri: And did you think that was true? That she had gone to Albania?
Sahit Berisha: No. We knew it was a lie. That day Xhevdet Hamza had gone to get a passport because he did not have one. That very day Xhevdet Hamza was there and he knew about the demonstration. She had prepared for the demonstration. Meanwhile, some women and mothers went to the hospital. Those inside, like the prisoners, said, “We are on hunger strike, we are not going in to tell you anything.” The situation was tense. We went now as a family, all together. Qamil Luzha and others came with us to go and pay condolences for Murat Mehmeti, who had been killed. There was a big crowd there. We expressed our condolences and so on.
They released Mejreme later from prison. We did not go back to our classes at the Shkolla Normale until Monday. In a way, unconsciously and without any special organization, we had boycotted classes. When we went on Monday there were few students. My friend was Arif Demolli, he was a member of the leadership and I was not. I was never a member of the leadership. They were scolding them. Mostly as a joke, because I knew they were very good boys.vDrita Dobroshi came to school, she had heard that classes were being held. I said, “We must not go into classes.” She said, “Classes must be held.” I said, “No classes, you have imprisoned our students. Either we are all in prison or all in freedom, there is no class.” Ylber kicked my foot and said, “Do not talk like that.” I said, “Ylber, I am leaving, you can do what you want.”
We decided to go out again the next day, which was Tuesday. We calculated our own conditions. Tuesday was market day. The traders, those from the bazaar, came to Pristina and they would also help us, and also the Technical School and the Gymnasium would come out and a big demonstration would happen. In reality, we did not hold any classes. At 8 in the morning in front of the Technical School, we met with Gani Krasniqi and with Haki Berisha and went to the Shkolla Normale. There, quickly, we made a plan. Ibrahim Gashi had arrived. For all these developments, I consulted with Ibrahim. He was in the youth group where Adem Demaçi and Mejreme were. I had a lot of respect for Ibrahim. Also for Shemsi Hoxha.
Now Ibrahim says, “What do we do?” “Honestly, I do not know. We have said no, no.” “Look,” he said, “organize it so that they do not enter classes.” He did not dare to expose himself too much, you know. I called Gani and told him, “Gani, I will stay here by the pavilions,” there were the pavilions, the laboratories and other buildings. We told Gani, “You go from the top floor downward and see if there are students.” There were no students on the third floor, none on the second, on the first there was one classroom with students. He went in to talk to them, to tell them, “Do not go into classes, because Bedri Jusufi is in prison, Sadik Osmani is in prison. They have imprisoned our students. We as students of the Shkolla were all in the demonstrations, why should they be the ones to go to prison?”
Anyway, some agreed, some did not in that class. Students were not organized, not all. Some said, “Who guarantees, who will answer for this?” He said, “Fine then, stay, but you will regret it that you are not together with us,” and went out. When he left, a debate started in the classroom and one of them cursed Yugoslavia. At that moment, the principal of the school, Masar Nagavci, entered. He heard it and grabbed that student, together with two security men, and put him into a car. This happened and became a good trigger, so that the students got angry and all came out. We had already gone to the top of Taukbahçe, where the bend is. The jeep, no, not a jeep but a Fiat, stopped there, the principal with that student. He stopped to shout at us, “Go back.” When we saw that student pale and turned, there was no one who could stop us, patriots of the demonstration. We went up.
Back at the school, the UDB and politicians and activists filled the place. They grabbed the principal and some teachers and told them, “Go quickly to the students, do not let them go out, because the order is not to let them out into the city, they will get killed.” Of course the teachers felt sorry for us. I had contacts especially with Ali Hoxha, they were very connected with this. Ali later said, “It is a great success for you even if you do not go out, but to legitimize your demands that you made in the demonstrations also here in the school.” In a way, a continuation of the demands. Then came Nexhat and Mitat Sahiti, he cried in front of us and said, “Please, turn back” (cries).
We said, “No, we will not turn back,” and walked until almost Fadil Hoxha’s house. There, Bahri Bajrami and Nexhat Ibrahimi said, “Call whoever you want, call someone and he will come, just go back to the Shkolla Normale, because we do not oppose your demands, but we feel sorry for you.” I looked at the situation and had to make the decision, but I did not have the courage either way. I was stuck. At that moment, Ibrahim Gashi nodded to me with his head, meaning “turn back.” I called Avdi Pireva and said, “Avdi, they say we should turn back. They will send political figures, whoever we want, to come to us.” We told Nexhat Ibrahimi, “We want Fadil Hoxha and Xhavit Nimani, otherwise we will not come. Let them kill us.” Big words we used.
We started up, turning back slowly. In a way, ashamed that the demonstration had failed. In Prishtina the news had spread that the Shkolla Normale students wanted to go out again. There was a big student movement ready and the citizens too, waiting for us, but nowhere we were seen. We went back there. The Serbs were clapping on the other side, at the students, and we were ashamed, but Ibrahim kept saying, “Walk on your path. It is better for you.” We stopped. We did not agree to go to the classrooms, we stopped outside. Professor Fehmi Pushkolli came out and said, “I guarantee that nothing will happen to you.” We said, “We will not go to the classrooms. We will go into the hall, into the cultural hall. To present our demands and to have the officials come and talk to us.”
We sent a classmate who said, “Go to the pavilions”, those were the places where the morning shift students had classes and the educators made them study, not wander the streets, but study in the classroom. “Go tell them to come, they are calling you for a meeting in the school.” So that they would come out and we would be many. We entered inside. Haki said, “I am not going in.” “Fine, do not go in.” We entered the hall. This way of demonstrating, no one had thought of it, we did not know what we would do now. It was something new, a new way of presenting demands which we had never discussed before and did not know how to behave, what to do.
We waited. Meanwhile the teachers started arriving. There was Islam Krasniqi, Fehmi Pushkolli. Then all the others, Nexhat Ibrahimi, Jahir Hoxha and the others came. They sat on the chairs. Now, who would speak. No one dared, no one knew what to say. It was something new, a new way of demonstrating or presenting demands that we had not prepared for and that had never occurred to us to discuss in this way. Then Ramiz Heta, he was the head of the Drenica League, took the floor. “Look, students, here inside you cannot say just anything you want for yourself. Whoever wants to speak, must speak in the name of the Shkolla Normale.”
A student, Hafir Bujupi, stood up and said, “You know what the demands are, whatever is said here must be said in the name of the Shkolla Normale. Not in the name of this region or that one, but in the name of the students of the Shkolla Normale.” I stood up and went up to where the chairs were. Xhavit Nimani and the politicians had not yet arrived. They had stopped outside talking to the principal to get a sense of the situation. I went to professor Jahir Hoxha and asked, “Professor, what should I do?” He said, “Take the floor, do not hesitate. You speak first and state the demands, you know what they are. Do not be afraid. This is greater than the demonstrations, to present the demands directly to the political leadership.”
I stood up in front of the students. I told them, “Look, students of the Shkolla Normale, we came out as students of the Shkolla Normale in demonstrations because our students have been imprisoned.” I mentioned them by name. “For the others we do not know where they are, not all of them are here. It is possible that they are also in prison. But we know about these. All of us from the Shkolla Normale were in the demonstrations. We know what the demands are from the demonstrations. We stand for those demands and nothing else. Whoever knows how to speak, let him speak in the name of the students of the Shkolla Normale.” Meanwhile, Xhavit Nimani arrived, as did Pajazit Nushi, Xhemajl Deva and Ilia Vakiç. Later Pushkolli said, “Also Nikolla Ljubičić was there.” I did not really believe that, we were just students of the Shkolla Normale. He wanted to make it seem even bigger, you know.
Dali Emërllahu had said, “The police were in all the classrooms upstairs, on the higher floors.” They sat inside. When they sat down, the task had been given to me by professor Jahir. I trusted him and loved him very much. I asked for permission and introduced myself. I began to speak briefly. Short demands. “Comrade Xhavit Nimani, we came here because all of us students of the Shkolla Normale were in the demonstrations, not just those two. Either all of us will be in prison or all of us will be in freedom. These are our only demands. We do not intend to withdraw from these demands. You can keep us here in prison, we will turn the Shkolla Normale into a prison. Otherwise, we do not intend to withdraw,” and I sat down.
Then Remzije Shala took the floor and in her own way spoke about the violence the police had used. She asked Xhavit, “Why did police forces from Niš and Skopje have to come to beat us?” She got no answer, he just kept taking notes. Then Hafir Bujupi took the floor again to speak about culture, because he still dealt with art and so on. Now it was someone else’s turn. Xhavit took the floor and spoke for 20 to 30 minutes, for a long time, about brotherhood and unity and how enemies were trying to destroy brotherhood and unity, that the situation was very tense.
“For you we will build a cable car here and we will bring the electricity line up to the Shkolla Normale from the street. Kosovo has advanced. We must not allow them to destroy brotherhood and unity. Nationalist forces of all colors are alive.” He spoke in general. I did not really understand it then. But now, from this point of view, I understand that his aim was to delay us as much as possible, to cool us down there in the hall and for us to get demoralized and go back home, to prolong the discussion as much as possible. When Xhavit finished, Kemajl Deva took the floor with some proverbs. He repeated the same words as Xhavit. “The municipal committee has condemned the demonstrations, they are hostile, they destroy brotherhood and unity.” That was the line of discussion. They were party officials.
In my book I have also written the comments they wrote, the report that the Chairman of the Municipal Committee wrote. I had taken it from newspapers, from files. I researched many files about the 1968 demonstrations. I wrote it. It has not been published. The book is fully ready for publication, but I left it there. Meanwhile, Ilia Vakiç also took the floor. But throughout the time they spoke, one thing must be said, they were constantly interrupted by the slogan, “Freedom, freedom for the prisoners!” This was shouted throughout the speeches of these political figures, of Xhavit, of Kemajl Deva, of Pajazit Nushi and of Ilia Vakiç and so on.
When Xhavit took the floor for the second time… it was already very late, almost 8 in the evening. He again repeated the same things, “We must do this, we must do that.” He gave us a promise, “I will release those two boys. Brotherhood and unity has advanced.” I got angry and spoke arrogantly, I said, “Enough, do not tire us.” Now I understand what I did, because as a young man then that phrase seemed very good to me. Now I understand that I should not have spoken in such an arrogant way to a political figure. Fehmi Pushkolli stepped in, came close to his ear and whispered something to him. Then I said, “Professor, there is no need for you to speak, I will speak myself.”
Here let me make a digression. For this day, for this speech, I had prepared myself. I had memorized some things by heart. Ali Boletini taught them to me, as did Hamëz Shala and Halil Alidema. They made me repeat the words. “Ask for the flag. Because the partisans fought in the anti fascist war with this flag, ask for it. Ask for the development of the country. Ask why Trepça is being exploited.” That is, on the economic level. Why should the city not be developed? Why should we not have our own laws, our own constitution? and so on. I had memorized all this to say in the speech, not that it came naturally. Now as a teacher I know how to line things up, but then I had to learn from them. And Ali never spoke loudly, he said, “Do not be like Halil who bangs on the table, you do not bang on the table. If you are there, you must present the demands.”
He thought that I would go on the stage here in the square to speak. “Speak so that those words remain as a foundation, as official demands and someone tomorrow may praise you for knowing how to speak.” So I had prepared in advance for this. Not that we knew beforehand. They did not know either that we would go into the hall. They thought we would speak from the stage to the demonstrators in the square. What happened there? In my speech, they say I spoke for 40 minutes. I do not believe it was 40 minutes, not even ten, but it seemed like 40 minutes to them. But point by point, like reciting a poem, I mentioned all of those things. Starting from the flag, saying, “The partisan ranks used the red and black double headed eagle flag in the war, they led the war with it, you have forbidden it. You have forbidden the Albanian language, you have forbidden communication, economic development.” I listed all this for Xhavit.
After I finished with my final sentence, I said, “Comrade Xhavit, it is useless to keep us. Until those in prison are released we have no intention to end the strike, this boycott of lessons.” Fehmi Pushkolli then took the floor. He said, “I trust comrade Xhavit. He will release the prisoners. It is good to end this meeting.” Now I was no longer in a position of power or knowledge to say yes or no, or to take the floor and interrupt my own professor there. A few seconds later, his class, where there were students like Sylejman Kastrati and Ylber, they stood up and respected the request of their homeroom teacher. They stood up and began to leave. No one was left to say anything, they left and if we had stayed it would have created a division and that would have harmed us.
We went out with that pledge and with the hope that Xhavit Nimani would keep his word. And the next day, on the 4th of November, no, on the 4th of December, because the demonstrations were on the 28th of November. On the 4th of December, Sadik Osmani and the other one, Isuf, were released. This was a victory for us. The odyssey of that spirit, that feeling that had entered us, that we could achieve something, and here we measure now our patriotic drive and the striking power that the enemy had. We fought and we won, even though it was a kind of state of siege. There were arrests and so on. But the possibility to speak, to say things, to demand, was greater. That those two prisoners were released gave us great strength. An inspiration that it was indeed possible to make even political figures like Xhavit Nimani back down.
In the last meeting they held after about a month in the Ivo Lola [Ribar Gymnasium], which the professors told me about since I was not there, with the political structures, among them also Xhavit Nimani. That meeting with the teachers of the Shkolla Normale is said to have lasted eight hours. Everyone there spoke according to their position. Of course they condemned the demonstrations as hostile and so on. A request was made that the students of the Shkolla Normale should not suffer consequences. They told me, I do not know if it is true or not, that the Secretariat had asked that I be arrested too: “Why did you insult Xhavit Nimani?” Xhavit stopped that. He said, “No, that boy must not be imprisoned.” That was the reason I was not imprisoned later because of that event.
We continued our activities. I had the impression that after that the teachers respected me a lot. They would say, “Sahit, what you said, no one else has said.” For me it did not feel like that, or I did not want to brag. I did not tell them that I had memorized these things like a poem. The following year we took an initiative, not me, the initiative came from the center, from the movement there. They told me, “Sahit, you must collect money to buy a wreath and take it to the grave of Muhamet Murati.” We started. Even the principal said, “What are you doing?” We would say, “We are collecting money to buy a football to play.” Maybe he knew too. “Should I also give a contribution?” “Yes, professor.”
We collected money, but we could not take the wreath. Not a single school managed to send it. Only the religious school, the one of the hoxhas, sent it. After that, this odyssey of the demonstrations ended. The amendments started. A harsh struggle took place here in Kosovo. The head of the commission for the constitutional amendments did not agree to change anything, because Fadil Hoxha had given the order, “There will be no republic.” He did not accept that. He went to the council here with Ramadani and many others. They forced most of them to withdraw what they had said. Only Halil Halili from Drenica and Sali Bajra from Kaçanik did not withdraw their words. He was the mayor. His students, when they came out of school, had wages in the form of scholarships. That is, as soon as they finished, they went straight to work. They received the best and biggest bursaries compared to everyone else.
In these circumstances, they set a trap for Halili Halilaj. He had beaten a Serb at the train station with a stick. How could the mayor use a stick and a strap? They told him, “Either we send you to prison or you resign.” He tried to resist, but in the end resigned. Sali Bajra did not agree to resign. He wrote a book about Fadil. He has his own book, I do not need to say much about him. In any case, he did not back down. They went and held a meeting there. The meeting lasted a whole day. The next day they had to vote. Only four people supported Sali, the others did not.
