Surviving Inhuman Crimes

This book is dedicated to our Albanian women, girls, and men who were raped during the last war in Kosovo, in the years 1998-1999. The book contains interviews and recounts the horrors experienced during the war. In this book, eight true interviews are included, with the victims still suffering from all that they endured.

The first account begins with a 16-year-old minor who recounts the incident through tears; it was March 1999 when NATO began bombing Serbian forces. We rejoiced greatly because, in the end, NATO would save us from the Serbian oppressors. But our joy was short-lived. They entered our home—there was me, my father, my two older brothers, and my mother. They came in like snakes and began searching the house. They stole money and gold jewelry, and they took my father and two brothers with them.

But before they left, one of them, his face smeared with paint, grabbed me by the arm. He spoke in Serbian—a language I didn’t understand. I started crying—I was only 16 years old. He seized me forcefully and dragged me into my parents’ bedroom.

What happened next was something neither I nor my family ever wanted—I was raped.

After they left, I was lying on the floor, bleeding. My mother came in, crying loudly as she rushed to me. My father and two brothers had been taken hostage. I was nearly out of my mind, completely drained of strength.

My mother carried me to the bathroom. She washed me, trying to cleanse the heavy stench of the rapist that had taken over my body—but she could never cleanse my soul.

Now, nothing has meaning to me anymore. My father and two brothers were killed, and I live only with my mother. I grew into a woman, finished university, but I can no longer bear to even look at a man, let alone live with one.

If it weren’t for my mother, I would have ended my life. I’ve lived for her—because we’ve already lost so much.

Now I teach—I’ve become a professor. I teach children about respect, about how to treat others with dignity, regardless of race, gender, or nationality.