Part Four
Aurela Kadriu: Which pastry shop did you go to?
Xhemajl Petrovci: There was a pastry shop, when you came from the memorial at the corner where the cinema was, now the street, the street that now is a two-way street, back then it was a one-way street and it wasn’t even open. Exactly on the street that you go to Kino Rinia on the right side, it had a few stairs down to get inside, a small shop. There was a shoe repairman, a tailor and that pastry shop.
In that pastry shop worked… My sister-in-law’s uncle owned that pastry shop, Gorani sister-in-law. Me and my friends went there, three or four of us, or five, and we always knew whose turn it was, and that say it was my turn, I asked them what they wanted and I ordered. And since I spoke Gorani, but it wasn’t the uncle, there was someone else, I didn’t know if he was an employee or what, and I ordered in Gorani, in their language.
He served us and asked, “Where are you from?” I say, “Glloboqica.” In Gorani, he says, “Which family in Glloboqica?” I said… Gorani’s last name for example Tahirovski, do you understand, he said, “I know all of them, why don’t I know you?” I said, “You don’t know me, what can we do…” At some point I said, “I’m kidding because I’m Albanian,” you know, I said, “I just speak Gorani.” He said, “Now you’re lying to me even more, because you spoke very confidently.” This and that, “I swear I’m Albanian.” This and that, and the old man hears and comes out, he says. “What is happening?” He said, “Nothing, this boy is saying, he first said he is Gorani, now he is saying he is an Albanian.” And he, he knows me and says, “A yes, Xhema is ours.” “I am also saying he is ours.” Meaning Gorani (laughs). He says, “No, no, Xhema is from Pristina, he is ours…” You know… These kind of jokes, they died laughing, the other because they saw what the purpose was.
Eh, throughout my life I used other’s language two-three times, when I was a soldier, I was a soldier for three months and I upgraded, I became Corporal. It used to be called razvodnik and I was very young. And another generation came, three months after I had gone, also a Roma among them. And I saw him, and I ask, “Where are you from?” But I asked him in Romani, this and that, after a while, we met and stuff. After a while, he probably talked to others and he said, “He is Roma.” And they told me, this and that, I said, “Okay, let them say that.”
One day I tell him, “You know what, I speak Romani but I’m not Roma, and I wouldn’t be embarrassed if I was.” He says, “But you speak the language better than I do.” Usually, like now that we think people in Albania speak Albanian better than us, but actually they use Greek, and Italian, and God knows. Their Albanian isn’t pure, nether is ours, do you understand? So I knew… The Roma thought that they used more words in Serbian, while here back then Roma also used Turkish, a word here and there, Serbian and also Albanian. That’s why he thought he is more original than me.
Another case, I was off from the Army. Now imagine, there aren’t even 85-6 from Krushevc, and you would waste your whole day to come to Pristina. Because from Krushevc, you had to go to a station where they had a train, you went there by bus, you had to wait for the train for two-three hours. From Stallaq to Kraleva, from Kraleva to Fushë Kosova, from there to Pristina, round and round. So, it took six-seven hours, sometimes even ten.
I went to that train station, little, a shoeshiner was there, Roma of course, I didn’t have anyone to… I took my ticket and I didn’t have anyone to talk to and I went to him, put my shoe there to be cleaned, we had boots back then. And I asked him in his language, “How’s it going, brother?” He said, “Good, good. Where are you from?” I said, “From Pristina.” He said, “You have it better there.” So, you, meaning Roma, he meant that Roma people there were better, in that context, he said, “Here…” He started telling me how they’re not nice to them, so yes also here, but there it was more drastic, they hated them a lot.
And we were talking like this and he was finished, I wanted to pay him, “God, no…” he said, “I’d eat my children’s flesh rather than take money from a soldier.” Do you understand? Now I felt bad because it seemed like I lied to him, but if I said, “I’m not Roma…” Do you understand? I felt bad so I left it like that (laughs).
Aurela Kadriu: Did they fire you from Ramiz Sadik in the ‘90’s?
Xhemajl Petrovci: No, they ruined Ramiz Sadiku, on purpose, on purpose so they started asking for loyalty from Serbia, so, to sign that I’m loyal who do I know and they formed a new enterprise. So… It was names Grading, so in Serbian. And we started talking, should we do it, what to do. We got up and went, Hajrullah Gorani was in the syndicate, and it was far from where we are, at Ramiz Sadiku, almost all the departments were there.
We want to talk to them, they didn’t know what to say, someone like this, someone like that. From there we went to the flower shop Rugova had, we were welcomed by Skender Blakaj, and he said, “Can I ask you what’s your income? Is it more than a bag of flour?” He said, “If it is more than that, sign it.” Do you understand, because they would provide up to a bag of flour, do you understand, so like that?
And I don’t know, that lasted, because even after that some of us were more set on not signing it and not leaving there, do you understand, and that was worked out without signing anything. That lasted for about five-six years, and I was lucky, because if I hadn’t worked those years, I wouldn’t get my retirement money. So we worked until, I worked until ‘93. In ‘93…
Aurela Kadriu: In Germany?
Xhemajl Petrovci: I asked for days off without payment, I said, “I’ll take my children and go to Germany.” And it was a problem. My daughter had separated from her husband, she had a kid and she was the reason, we gathered and left. It was hard getting from Romania to Hungary. That journey lasted for seven days. Let’s go to the other border, come here, let’s go there and we were left nowhere. But we were stuck on the road for seven days and when we came back, it was December, and there was a huge snow and we were stuck on the road. My youngest daughter was six, almost seven years old, my niece was a year and a month, two. We only had as much food as you get for a journey, but luckily it didn’t last long, they came and cleaned the road with trucks and stuff. Now people needed to go the bathroom and stuff, the snow was more than a meter tall, but that was done.
We came back, my daughter, niece, and my daughter’s uncle, so, my wife’s brother, they got off in Sofia, I said, “Try going back by plane.” Sofia – Prague, “We’ll go back…” I said, “At home, then we’ll see what you did so we’ll come too.” It was Friday when we come home, and I know how much people cried when we left, people, friends, family, neighbors came out to say goodbye. I felt like in the years ‘55-’56 when they used to migrate to Turkey.
And we came back after a week, and of course I wasn’t financially stable, the first time I left I had to borrow money, I also had to borrow money the second time. And after a week I was informed that they went from Sofia to Prague by plane… We went there next week, with Tourist Kosovo to Sofia, there we went to the airport. Of course we dressed up, you know, to look a little like tourists, not like people who flee (laughs), you know, to make an impression. And we went to Prague.
I had all my children in my passport, my wife had hers, my daughter who had a girl also had her passport, and her daughter’s. My wife went on, and I was left with the others, they took my passport and went to talk to someone, my passport was valid for 20 more days. But they didn’t take long and came back and said, “Okay, go on.” Even though I talked to a lawyer here, told him how things were, “Even if it is the last day you have the right to go, but coming back will be a problem.” Like this. We went, we settled there.
My wife had a brother there, we stayed at his apartment until we started those procedures, where I ask for asylum or how do I know, but luckily… not luck, but I was one of those people who don’t like being emigrants, also I didn’t have a work permit, so I worked illegally from time to time, but always scared. But, they helped us, so for every family member, they gave us the apartment, we were settled. But back then when I quit my job here, the value of my salary was five marks divided by two, now we took million but it was no longer money, from there we had to… I helped, my brother was here with his wife, my father, I had two sisters, like this.
When I worked there, I could help a little, because I knew that five marks was a lot of money here, let alone sending 50 marks, it was huge. So, everytime I talked to someone, I would contact with them very often, it was hard because we had to do it after midnight. The connections were weak, whoever I talked to, they heard that I wanted to come back, “Don’t you dare come back, it’s horrible here…” Like this. But I still came back after three years…
Aurela Kadriu: In ‘96?
Xhemajl Petrovci: ‘96. I left three daughters there, because they got married, two of them are still there, while my oldest daughter came back after the war. And when we came back, I used the money I saved to renovate the bathroom, change the washing machine, change the freezer, the fridge. It was time to change them, and soon I was left with nothing. I opened the store, but people forget you for three years, they went elsewhere. Now I had to get new clients and it was a crisis, horrible.
Now my daughters who were left there stayed to help a little, it was hard in the beginning but it started getting better. Then during the war, when the war started and people started feeling, I say, “I don’t plan on going anywhere.” This and that… they evicted us from our house. I stayed at the border for seven days, neither here nor there. We stayed in the neutral area for a night, it was, whoever was there remembers, horrible. It started raining at night, and we left our cars in the yard of the cement factory…
Aurela Kadriu: In Hani i Elezit?
Xhemajl Petrovci: In Hani i Elezit. And I tell my wife, “Let’s go back, at least we have a roof over our heads.” She said, “Nobody will pick on us here.” And we came back. I took my car, I went into the street, only two-three people had phones back then, because those 063 phones started then, and we talked to people. But always hiding the phones, because they were expensive but also if police saw you had one, they would take it away.
It was interesting, we were in a line of cars the first night, all the lights were down and I saw Hani i Elezit, there were three lanes all with cars, there weren’t even lanes, but that’s how close to one another we were. A car came down, on the left side where you go to Hani i Elezit, a car came down and turned on the lights and turned them off, and some people got out, you could see their silhouettes in the dark, something moving. And they came and got between the cars and stuff. We had a car on the side, there was a wounded man there, we thought he was a soldier who was wounded, and now he wants to go get healed, we gave them something, helped him.
When they banged on his window, “Daj pare!” [Give us your money!] It was so horrifying, on the other side, because there five-six of them, Ramiz Kelmendi, the writer, may he rest in peace, was behind us. They go to him too, they saw he had a nicer car, I had an old Jugo. Then I say they came like this, you just saw them as figures because you couldn’t see their faces or anything, dark. My wife was like this {shows with his hands}, the children were in the backseat, my son and daughter were in the backseat and my wife, when they came, my hair vuhh {onomatopoetic} went up. My wife wants to get her hair up, I say, “Don’t move!” “No, but what happened?” “Don’t move because…” (laughs) Do you understand? It was horrible. And thank God we got off easy. They just took their money, got them out of the car to search, like this.
Aurela Kadriu: So during the war you came back didn’t go to Macedonia…
Xhemajl Petrovci: No, we didn’t go to Macedonia. On the seventh day, we were in the first or second row to get on the other side, there came an order, “Go back!” From the Serbian police and we went back. I was so happy, my wife told me, “Don’t get too happy, because God knows what…” “Whatever happens, happens…” I said, “We are going home.” And we were around three-four families from our neighborhood, we went back together, one of them was my wife’s sister’s husband, he lived in the skyscrapers in Ulpiana.
First thing, I stopped at the skyscrapers and told him, “Look at your apartment, did they break it or not?” He said, “No, I’m not going, let’s go to your house.” I went there alone, nobody had touched it, and I told him, “Go!” He said, “Better if I stay down…” And we came here. All the people from the neighborhood gathered, I mean those that we came back, three-four cars. We gathered and I said, “However it is, it is best if all of us go to our houses. If someone attacks us, they get into your place at least, we can run away. I hear the sounds and I run and hide, or if it happens to me, you run away, it’s worse if they find us all together.” And they got up and went to their houses. We turned on our boilers, or what do I know, because it had been a week since we washed, or ate, or… horrible.
In the meantime, one day… it was interesting, one night, it wasn’t in the daytime, it’s interesting how you can hear, if someone walks around 200 meters from here in the neighborhood you can hear it, from Leci’s houses and onwards, before even getting to that corner I heard it. And I got up, the cat had jumped, it was night, there was a pear tree at the door, the cat jumped there, and it seemed to me as if a person jumped the wall and bap {onomatope} got on the ground. I got up slowly, my wife was still asleep, it was night, very late probably, I don’t know what time.
I got up and went out not seeing anything, knows the path by heart and by feeling around, and I went to the door, I put two bricks and stepped on them to see what’s happening in the neighborhood. I stepped on them and saw nothing, I was going back very slowly, and my wife had also come out slowly, very quietly, and we bumped into each other, and both of us (laughs) horrible. I said, “Why did you get up?” I said, “You scared me.” (laughs), she said, “You scared me, too!” Because you didn’t see anything, we were both walking by heard. This was one of these.
The second one, it was morning, around 10:30, we ate, drank tea, and I hear them talking in the neighborhood. As I said, it’s weird how we could hear everything very far… we don’t notice the noise, but when there is no noise, you can hear much more and much further. I heard some people coming and I went out in the neighborhood, believe they had 30-40 more meters to get here, two tired people, all yellow, exhausted. “How are you? Where are you coming from?” I said. “From Koliq.” I saw that they were tired, “Come on inside, drink something?” “Okay.”
They came inside, I asked them where they are from, this and that, they were from Podujeva, Blakqori, but not like my wife, further away. Do you this person and that person, we were talking, my wife was asking about her mother, about one of her nephews, how do I know, and he says, “You don’t know, Koliqi now has more people than Pristina used to have.” That’s how many there were. So he didn’t know who was still there, who wasn’t.
So the line was so long, so a part of them gets to Pristina until they get up to go their way and I had… My daughter was around eleven, I said to my wife, “I’ll go and get in front of them I might meet your mother…” Do you understand? “Or Muhamet with his children.” He had four young daughters. She said, “No, I’ll come too.” “No, you stay home because our daughter would be left home alone.” The guests were still there, me and my wife got up. I told my daughter, “Give them something to eat… Do you understand, we had bread and everything. And me and wife left and walked, and walked…
There’s a village near Makovc, there were barracks, there were parked police. And I was scared to go with a car, so I wanted to park there. One of the policemen had taken off his hat, I didn’t realise he was police, he said, “Where are you going?” I said, “Oh, my wife’s mother had one of legs amputated, they’re probably coming this way.” “Ok, then why don’t you take your car?” I left the car and wanted to walk, you know. Then I went back, took the car and continued.
When I came to the front of the line, exactly how they told me, whether they still left, or not. The husband of my wife’s sister from Podujeva, he was the principal of a school, he was on a tractor, and around that tractor, so on top of that tractor, where it has a seat, but around it, four or five people, he was there. I say, “Can you stop?” My mother-in-law was there, with another twelve women there. She was a little older. I say, “Can you stop so I can get her off?” He didn’t stop, he didn’t even know from the confusion. “Do you not hear the shootings?” You really could hear the shootings.
And I got her down while the tractor was moving. And I kid with her, “Do you have deviza?” “What are those?” I said, “Money, do you have it?” She said, “Yes, I do.” “Where?” “In my socks.” “how much do you have?” “300.” I was kidding, I had… “Well, since you have money, I’ll take you.” I took her and got into the car. While we were going back, I saw an old woman with another woman a 15-16-year-old boy, I got them into the car, too. And we came here.
We communicated by phone, but phones here didn’t work. One guy at the skyscrapers had a phone that worked, I would talk to people in Tetova, and my daughters in Germany, and my wife’s brother in Germany. They were telling me, “Leave everything and come. Come here and don’t wait.” At some point, my wife’s brother said, “Well get my wife and the kids from there and you… you whatever you want.” Do you understand? From, from… and his mother.
And so it happens… Here in the neighborhood we saw each other every day. One of the neighbors says to me, “They’re thinking of fleeing.” I was trying to encourage them all the time, “It’s going to get better, this and that…” Like this. People were scared. He says, “They want to flee.” He said, “I would not want to leave you, Uncle Xhema, but my wife in insisting.” I said, “Get your kids and leave.” He had two kids, and I said, “Tell them and I’ll take two or three rounds there…” The buses would pick them up at Rilindja to Macedonia.
I sent two or three rounds there, and I came back home. I took my wife and we went to talk on the phone, to see if they left. When I go, they were still waiting, the bus had gone, but they agreed to come back and take them, they would pay them again. And when I talked to him, my brother-in-law, “At least get the kids out of there, do whatever you want…” I told them, “I’ll just finished this call and I’ll come back and bring my wife, kids and mother-in-law.” Kids… only my daughter was left.
And I took them there, they got on the bus, my wife said, “How did I now make you some bread, so you would have it for longer.” “I’ll make it myself, don’t worry.” And they went to Tetovo. Then for a month, almost two, I was alone here. This cousin of mine {shows with his hands} had three people with rent in his house, they had closed the door. And when they found out I was here, they said, they brought me a small pot, no, a bowl, “If there is any danger throw it, we have the rope, we’ll go into the ceiling and close the hole. We’ll pull the rope and close it.” And that’s how we would communicate.
Then they didn’t have food. I had flour, the other one had… And I told them, “Take flour freely.” You know, I offered them whatever I had. Like this, until the war was over, we were dealing with these kind of issues. Of course, I felt more comfortable alone. After a while, this guy’s {shows with his fingers downwards} son came, he came with his mother, his stepmother, and four children. It was very problematic for people who came into houses, they would ask for your ID, if that wasn’t your address, it would be a problem. That’s it.
Aurela Kadriu: Did they come in your house, or not?
Xhemajl Petrovci: Yes, yes. They stayed here.
Aurela Kadriu: I mean did the police ever come?
Xhemajl Petrovci: They did.
Aurela Kadriu: And?
Xhemajl Petrovci: I wasn’t here. One of the two women, one was Serbian, but spoke Albanian. She had the biggest problem with the police, “How did you marry an Albanian?” These kind of things. They didn’t say anything to anyone else. A family was here in my sister’s house, close to here, from Matiqan, they got in and mistreated them quite a lot, they didn’t even stay there for a night. A murder had happened there, and they left from there, came here. And then that day that happened, and it didn’t happen often.
At the time, it was from 10:30, to 2:00 you could go out into the city. Back then, Žito Promet had the bakeries. Some private bakeries were working, people who never worked in bakeries, they weren’t good at it, other people would work, make some break, like this. But we didn’t care much, compared to that bread, it happened that within those seven days… My wife’s sister and some women went to Elezan and cooked, they baked the bread. And I said to her, “How did you now…” Because we didn’t have salt, nor baking soda, or… How do I know, it was like wood, you couldn’t eat it when it was cold. And I told her, “How did you not get…” They had pickles, and make the bread with juice of pickles, “Kuku, how did I not think of that?” I said, “I thought of it…” You know, at least the pickle juice has salt.
And it’s interesting, because at that time I had some issues with my stomach, and stuff, it went away. For those seven days I’m not sure if I ate 150-200 grams of that bread. Because we were five-six people now, my wife’s brother and two sons, and others. I had my daughter, a relative… And it was time to go on the other side, while we were on the border, because I’m jumping from here to there…
Aurela Kadriu: What…
Xhemajl Petrovci: But I remember now. He was only with his wife, he didn’t have kids. And he says, “Xhema, how many of you are?” I said, “We are one hundred.” And I said, “Let me look…” Ha said, “No who…” Because he had a lada, and he had mattresses there, flour, and some cookies, he prepared to go into the woods. And he says, says, I say, “Let me ask..” I asked my son, “Do you want to go with them?” He said, “Yes, I’ll just get my backpack.” When I see, his backpack full of books, heavy, do you understand, I didn’t know what he took with him. He got into the car.
The husband of my wife’s sister had a son, a year older. And it was problematic for young people, and my son wasn’t still a child, but he wasn’t grown up either, 17-18 years old. And I told him, I said, “Will you let your son go, since my friend is going, he can get on the other side…” And then he took the two boys. I had my sisters in Tetovo, also a sister of theirs was there, I told them, “You go straight there, ask for…” I gave them the address, “They’ll take you in.” Even though there was no problem, people in Tetova took people in.
a.
But his wife started complaining, “God knows where they will send us, where my son is…” And in the beginning we communicated with people in Tetovo, we called the people they were heading to, they hadn’t gone yet. My friend who took them had thought, “Let’s not go at night, let’s sleep in the car, and I’ll take them in the morning.” And until then she was telling me, “What did you do to me…” This, and that… At some point I say… And then her husband staring doing the same thing, I say, “Oh, come on, you have two sons, at least you have one. I have only one, and I sent him away.” Do you understand? “I hope God protects them…” So like this, war problems.
We found out the next day, I said, “Are you at ease now?” He said, “No, because God knows where they will send us now.” I said, “Well, I can’t ensure that you all go to Hotel Bristol in Skopje.” How things happened, he went to America with his family, he is there even today. My wife had come back from Tetovo. And it was interesting, I contained my emotions all the time, so well, two or three times the police came here and went through stuff, I didn’t feel it. So, I wasn’t scared, or horrified, or…
Eh, I failed the test when they started, when the first neighbor came, after the signing of the Kumanova Agreement. The neighbor in front came, with five-six children, grandchildren, his son, his wife, they came with a van. Then I started crying, from happiness, from… I don’t know how. And there was a neighbor here, he was mentally ill, he stayed here all the time, but he was very skillful, we took his medicine and… So he behaved normally. And it was also interesting when a Serbian woman in front, she was with her husband, one of her boys was a soldier, not paramilitary, the other one was a businessman, his mother said, “Give me a bottle of oil, I’ll give you a box of cigarettes.” Do you understand? (laughs) Her son worked with cigarettes.
And now when the agreement was signed, they had to leave, the woman comes out with the soldier, he was nice even though he looked tough, he was nice before the war, and during the war. And she closed the door and gave me the key. I said, “You know that in this neighborhood three-four houses got closed, I would go close them, even though I didn’t have keys, I’ll guard yours as much as I can also, without a key, I don’t…” Do you understand? So they went. Eh things went south then.
Another thing that wasn’t good is that there were more thieves doing harm, rather than Serbs. Because Serbs didn’t go out at night, I was freer to go out at night than them. They were more scared. There is a beautiful house here, it belongs to Gëzim Puka, but it is, it had a strong door, the garage doors were also strong they couldn’t break them… the police tried to break them during the day, and left it. Then I heard them at night going through the roof, and I went to the other yard and I threw a rock in the roof tiles. They heard the noise and ran (laughs). So that was also, in that way you also protected some stuff. Like this.
Aurela Kadriu: How were things after the war?
Xhemajl Petrovci: After the war, like the whole world, all people from Kosovo pretended to be KLA. People started coming, “You are protecting Serbian houses.” And I was saying, “No they’re Albanian, they haven’t come back yet.” Like this, there were a lot of people who were ready to steal, to… like this.
Aurela Kadriu: Did you continue to work after the war?
Xhemajl Petrovci: Yes, I started working, I had that shop, the service, but not a state-run job. After the war, I worked only in the private sector. These connections that we had with Goranis, we were friends. “Korzo” in Pristina, do you know? There was that pastry shop, “Korzo”, I don’t know if you remember it…
Aurela Kadriu: I don’t remember but I know…
Xhemajl Petrovci: Eh, like that. There was a border, to Llapi, Drenica, to operate, to take what’s not yours… And we were friends, and when you went to buy eggs so bread, we used that pastry shop’s name… I took bread for the whole neighborhood, eggs and bread, oil and things like this. Because we stayed like that for almost three months. They asked, “Who are you taking these for?” And I would pretend to take them for “Korzo”, so… And often so they don’t ask a lot, I used to say, “Give me a receipt so I can tell them how much this cost.” I didn’t really need it.
Even marks, for example, I forgot how much it was but they used to take it half value, but it was important to be supplied. And this Žito Promet had everything. The market at Ulpiana had some things here and there. But at 2, 2:30 there was no one in the city, it would close again.
Aurela Kadriu: After the war??
Xhemajl Petrovci: No, no, I’m talking about during the war. Because after the war, they came to “Korzo”, there’s Serbian music here, I don’t know what, just to find a reason to…
Aurela Kadriu: Close it.
Xhemajl Petrovci: Yes. They started eating, drinking, commander whoever signed this, do you understand? At some point, “You have to leave the shop, give me the keys.” Like this. And a lot of mistreatment. And you couldn’t fight with them at the time. Because whatever happened, even though the initiator of that was killed, he was killed at last over a stand. A Commander Murrizi killed him, a person who worked for, he was the one who signed when I took things, Leli from Bregu i Diellit, he was from Matiqan, a drug addict. Well, that drug addict killed him, actually a Commander Murrizi. Because they were fighting over a stand, at, further than Tre Sheshirat, he killed him. So they always get what’s coming to them, but sometimes it takes too long.
I had children living in Germany, I mean two of my daughters. I was financially stable, I worked, I had the service again. So after they took “Korzo” away from me. Because I owned “Korzo” with another neighbor here, whose son was one of the commanders, I don’t know if he didn’t want to do anything, or he couldn’t, how do I know, and I gave up. I went back to the shop, my job.
Aurela Kadriu: Did you sell Krozo, or did they take it away from you?
Xhemajl Petrovci: No, no, they took it from me. They used it for about ten years. And unfortunately, they were big commanders. And they weren’t even ashamed, Sylejman Selimi had something to do with is. Sylejman Selimi, Sabit Geci’s father-in-law. He then, from Sabit gave money to Sylejman Selimi. One of the activists here in the neighborhood, so I went and told him, “This is what’s going on.” And I told him, “You are involved here too.” And to prove it to me, he took to a, to a police that was formed back then, and says, “Uncle Xhema is Adem Demaçi’s associate, they’re doing this and this, he is blaming me…” He says, “Take Uncle Xhema, and go to Sebit Geci.”
When I go to Sabit Geci, he was in his underwear. Two of his bodyguards, one of them was putting his socks on him. And a girl, like Bleona Qereti, or whatever, like that… so some kind of harem there. And he says, “Uncle… Fadil said we should come to you, Uncle Xhema is this and that, Uncle Xhema during the war supplied all those,” he says,” he has problems, this and that…” The illiteracy here… And he says, without even asking him, “Look Sylejman Selimi is my son-in-law, but that would not matter, I would kill him,” he said, “But he is a good man.” What does this mean? So Sabit Geci, it’s Sabit Geci’s order, he sent Commander Murrizi.
And later it was clear, because they traded, he gave it to Sabit. Sabit then was asking for this much money from Gorani, no I can’t give it you, no I did this here, I…. What are you doing in a place that doesn’t belong to you? And at last it cost one hundred thousand marks to give to them, as if he has invested in that shop. And now lately, I don’t know what is happening to “Korzo”, they went to Sarajevo…
Aurela Kadriu: Where was it?
Xhemajl Petrovci: Huh?
Aurela Kadriu: Where was the shop?
Xhemajl Petrovci: The shop, “Z mobile” or what is that in the center…
Aurela Kadriu: Ah, yes, yes, yes…
Xhemajl Petrovci: Eh, it was next to it.
Aurela Kadriu: Yes, yes.
Xhemajl Petrovci: Back then it was the most frequented shop in Pristina, before and after the war. These are some of the unsaid things.
Aurela Kadriu: How is your life now?
Xhemajl Petrovci: Now as I said, I have grandchildren, my wife has died, a year and a half ago. I was in Germany now, I came back on the 22nd. Go to Turkey, I go to Durrës more often. I don’t have much free time (laugh) the hours in a day aren’t enough, the wood, the garden, like this, my sister is also near here. I deal with flowers during the summer, but even during the winter, to put them away, clean them, fix them, that’s what I deal with. This is how time goes by, when you work… And I walk quite a lot, at least once a day for an hour and a half, two, I split it in half.
I go from here to Bregu i Diellit walking very often, I take my nephew, because I prefer coming back by bus. And once, he says, “Can we go there by walking?” I said, “Yes but maybe we will get tired?” He said, “No, but you might get exhausted.” (laughs). That little thief.
Aurela Kadriu: Kili?
Xhemajl Petrovci: Yes. Like this.
Aurela Kadriu: Thank you very much, Uncle Xhema!
Xhemajl Petrovci: No problem!
