The escape was in 1949, it happened in 1949, and right after the escape of Sali Shatri in Albania, repressive measures began against families whose sons or brothers left to Albania. That happened to us too. They immediately came, they surrounded the house, searched it and at the time they arrested Ahmet Shatri, that is Sali Shatri’s father, Isa Shatri, Sali Shatri’s brother and my father who was sick.
[…] Banat was an unknown place for them. As they said, now I am speaking in the words of my father and uncle, when they went there they left them in a barn for animals. They were arranged with three other families. So, the Braha family, the Morina family from Peja and the other Peja family, Trasha, I think that was their last name. They were arranged in one space of 25 to 30 square meters, all there.
There were no children in our family. So those families who had children suffered more because of the difficult conditions, in conditions which were meant for animals. For example, Meriman Braha’s family had many children, it was a big family. There they were organized and started working on the agricultural cooperative.
Sami Shatri was born in 1964 in Tomoc, the Municipality of Istog. In 1990, he graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pristina. Immediately after graduation, he worked as a teacher at the Gjin Gazulli Electrotechnical High School in Pristina. From 1999 to 2002, he worked at the Energy Corporation of Kosovo as an external associate. He now works as an energy auditor. He lives with his family in Pristina.