NARROW ESCAPES: One night the troops raided the house next door. They broke down the door and screamed, “Get out or we’ll kill you.” It was totally useless to try to escape, but they never entered our house. We knew we had to move again. At 3 a.m. we went out. There was an enormous silence. The neighborhood was completely empty. We walked past piles of IDs and passports, paramilitaries driving home with looted goods, Gypsies with stuff from looted shops. We got to a crossroads, and suddenly a jeep filled with blue-uniformed policemen stopped, and the men walked hurriedly toward me. I thought, it’s all over. A big orange utility truck came by, filled with people and looted goods, and the police turned their attention to them. I slipped into the next street and kept on walking. I passed through a crowd of lost people, lost in our city, not knowing where to go.
FOLLOWING THE NEWS: We stayed inside a house in the center of Pristina for a month with four families. We had satellite TV and radio, so we could follow the news. The food was monotonous–bread, cheese–but once there was salad, and it was a happy day. Bread queues became an important source of information–who’s in town, who isn’t in town, where the next Serb raid would take place.
THE BOMBING ENDS: Three days before NATO came in, the Serbs began burning houses across Pristina. One night the whole town was illuminated–three big buildings in the center went up in flames. On the day the troops arrived, a British diplomat came to meet me. The British were worried about my security. They wanted to put me on a helicopter to Skopje. I thought, “Damn it, no. I’ve been here so long, I’m staying.”
SERB CIVILIANS: There’s a collective responsibility among the Serbs. You can’t have a fascist regime without popular support. But we have to make a distinction between collective responsibility and collective punishment. We have to build bridges to the Serb community.
KOSOVO’S FUTURE: For the first time we will have democratic institutions. It’s a historic moment, and we must build the building right.
