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They were just children, but it didn't stop their killers from taking away their lives. Ever since May 2019, an exhibition has been opened in the premises of the library in the Documentation Centre in Pristina, Kosovo, in memory of the 1133 children killed and disappeared during the Kosovo war from 1998 to 2000.
Mr. Bekim Blakaj, executive director at Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo, takes us through this exhibition and talks about the way it was founded.
‘’We decided to do something that would remind us of the memories of the victims, especially the underage victims. The exhibition in the memory of the children killed during the Kosovo war has taken place in the Documentation Centre’’, Mr. Blakaj explains.
On the entrance of the premises, people pass through a dark room, where they can hear the voice of a man who was an eight-year-old child during the war. He recounts his memories of the day he lost his family members.
‘’His close family members were killed and he was an eyewitness. The curator decided the room should look like that. He survived it in fear, with his eyes closed. By listening to his story, visitors can see how he felt’’, Blakaj says.
The next thing that we can see is the wall with the victims' names. The names are written in such a way that last names are written first and first names come after that, because they wanted to put the members of the same family next to each other. There is the inscription ‘’Once upon a time and never again’’ on the other side of the wall.
‘’Once upon a time’’ is a common beginning of every fairy tale. In this case, this is the beginning of the story of the war. From an innocent child's perception, the world that should not belong to the reality is opened to us. That world looks like a fairy tale." It was written in front of the entrance to the glass room.
Nikola's vest
During our visit to the museum, Bekim Blakaj told us the story of Nikola's vest, which is a part of the exhibition.
‘’It's Nikola's vest, the boy who died with his sister and grandmother on May 1, 1999, on the bridge in Lluzhan/Luzane. This was when the Nis-express bus was struck by a NATO missile. A lot of children were killed on that day. Nikola was in that bus with his sister and grandmother. His parents didn't have the vest when we visited them in Gracanica. A child in Belgrade had it. Nikola was a member of a cultural artistic society. He loved dancing and often went to folkloric festivals held in different places. His parents gave his vest to another family whose son was also a folklore member. When we explained what we wanted to do with it, they told us: ‘Come next week and we'll give you the vest.’ They just recognized its importance. ‘It is important that people see this vest so that they can find out about our son's fate’, they told us.’’
A glass room is the part where personal belongings of the children killed during the war are exposed. Blouse, skirt, clickers, vest, report card, notebook and cradle are some of the personal belongings that remind us of the existence of children who were killed.
‘’It happens very often that families do not have any item to remind them of the children. We managed to make this collection from the families who had some personal belongings of their children’’, Blakaj explains.
‘’Some of these items were the last things that some families had and yet those families decided to give them to us so that we could expose them here’’, Blakaj adds, pointing out to the fact that it was important for those families that the items became parts of the exhibition.
Every item has its own narrative that tells the story of a child who was killed or who disappeared during the war. Blakaj explains that the idea of the narratives themselves was to represent the youngest victims of the war in a dignified way.
‘’Of course, we cannot escape the story that the child was killed on a certain day, in a certain place. We wanted people to remember the children in a dignified way and not to incite the negative emotions’’, he adds.
A cradle used by the Berisha sisters
Five sisters from Hoca e Vogel/Mala Hoca, Adelina, Njomza, Shkurte, Lesia and Elham were forced to head to Albania. On their way, they were stopped in the village of Nagavc/Nagavce and they were forced to enter the schoolyard. When the night came, those five sisters, along with their family, went to a basement of a nearby abandoned house. On the 2nd of April, 1999, the village of Nagavc/Nagavce was bombed. The explosion destroyed a part of the house and killed the sisters. Fourteen people lost their lives in that place, and twelve of them were children.
The exhibition was opened on May 13th, but due to fragile situation in Kosovo, people who work at the Humanitarian Law Center were a little bit skeptical about reaction of the public. They expected questions on victims’ nationality, such as whether the victims were Serbs or Albanians.
‘’When someone comes here, that one doesn't ask about victims’ nationality, or why something was exposed... They have the utmost respect for the victims. We are glad that we managed to put the children in the first place and not their nationality”, Blakaj says. That was the reason that the wall contains photos of the victims and not their names. There are about 350 photos of children on this wall, but some families didn't have any photos of their children.
‘’The exhibition designer made the photos transparent so that they look like they shine, so that people are under the impression that there are even more victims. Whenever I come here, I feel lost, because the photos of the kids are so unbelievably striking’’, Blakaj says.
Marija's skirt
Marija lived with her brother Nikola, her parents and her grandmother. In mid-April 1999, Marija went to Prokuplje with her grandmother and her brother to visit her relatives. On May 1, they were on their way home when the bus was struck by a missile and they were instantly killed. 34 more people were killed when that happened, and there were 6 children among them. When she was a little girl, her grandmother bought her this skirt. Although Marija grew older and the skirt got too small for her, her mother kept it as a memory.
Blakaj says that the families of the victims killed during the war came to the opening of the exhibition and explains that they often come back with members of their close or extended families or friends:
‘’It gives us the signal that they may be finding some peace here. The Petrovic family came for the first time to Pristina after 20 years and they live in Gracanica. Two or three weeks after the opening of the exhibition, we brought them here again – they’ve been here, went downtown... It is very difficult to understand - people live nearby, they lost two children and haven't been to Pristina for 20 years. That’s incredible! We are glad that they came to see the exhibition for the first time.’’
As a researcher, he has worked in direct contact with victims for a long time. According to his experience, victims' family members find it important that the whole society recognizes their pain.
Altin’s school bag
Together with his mother, his two sisters, his little brother and other relatives, Altin took refuge in the Calabria pizzeria on March 26, 1999. He was severely wounded there, just next to his mother who told him: ‘’Son, pretend you are dead’’. He did that and didn't move. While transferring the bodies, they noticed that Altin was still alive and they immediately killed him. His body has not been found yet. Altin's sisters and his younger brother were killed in the same place. He was a fourth-grade student and he had books and notebooks in his school bag, scheduled for his last school day.
The search for truth and justice is still ongoing and many cases of killed or missing children haven't been resolved. Whenever we see their personal belongings, we read their stories through them, we wonder if it is possible that there are those who'd do those terrible things to children and if they have a guilty conscience.
When we asked if it has ever happened that perpetrators or participants in the crime referred to the Fund in order to tell their side of the story, Blakaj said they haven’t had such a case.
‘’Avoiding responsibility is still stronger than a guilty conscience. Obviously, the involvement of some other people does not motivate people to tell the truth and talk about their crimes. It would be good if we had such cases. Even if someone who has a guilty conscience comes up with a situation to tell about it, he or she is afraid of other people's reactions, and then he must also talk about the crimes of his comrades or friends.’’
According to Blakaj, the exhibition ‘’Once upon a time and never again ‘’ will be held in May 2020 in Belgrade.
