The evidence about the four murdered boys, which the state did not document

Sheremet Sejdiu spends every day of his life grieving the loss of his four sons during the last war. In the 27 years since the Serbs committed the crime, the 83-year-old's testimony, nor that of his surviving family members, has been taken by the institutions. His confession exposes Kosovo's delay in documenting war crimes.

In his room in Qirez, Sheremet Sejdiu has been living for 27 years with the unhealed pain of the loss of his four sons, killed by Serbian forces in their yard. On that day, February 28, 1998, Likoshani and Qirez became the scene of the first major massacre of Albanian civilians in Kosovo.
Sheremet tells the story of each visitor. And he expects this story to be documented by the state.
Sitting in the room, he always thinks back to that day. There are four photographs on the wall. Four young faces who never got to age. Next to them, another photograph, more serious than all of them, taken in this very room: Sheremet sitting in the middle, and on both sides of him the bodies of the four murdered boys: On one side the twins Nazmiu and Bedriu who were 24 years old, and on the other side Beqiri, 36 years old, and Bekimi, 23 years old. It was the last time he had them all together.

When his sons were killed, Sheremet was not at home.

"That day I was at my brother's house, and I came from there. I stayed in the mountains that night, all night. I didn't come back until the next day at 3 o'clock when the Serbian forces were gone. When I was coming, I saw people in front of me, there were I don't know how many people," says Sheremet. "The two boys had bullets in their backs, and the two didn't. How many people are there, how much pain."

During February 27-28, 1998, 24 Albanians, including women and elderly people, were killed in Likoshan and Qirez. Serbian forces retaliated against the civilians, following a confrontation with KLA units, in which several Serbian policemen were killed.

Night among the bodies of boys

The father of four sons who were killed tells what happened in his yard and house.

"There were two helicopters in our neighborhood, over 100 people came and went in. The woman and the young man are there. The young man is still alive. The young man says many times that in the middle of the room, the command of three uniforms came here. They came, they went inside. The little boy Bekimi remembered that no one dared to go inside. Besnik (his nephew) slept alone with him, on our lap. He had taken a bag and said: 'Mom, don't worry, no one is coming or going'. They threw them all out. Beqiri knew Serbian and told them to lie down on the ground. Beqiri with his mother, with the young man... Bekimi also came out. They were in the basement, the two twins, with some other people from the village. When Bekimi came out of there, they had him behind them, they had made the doors and windows barricaded. Now, they went outside. When Bekimi came out with his nephew They beat Besnik, who was trying to fight them, and his wife called out to them: 'May God kill you, are you beating the child?'" Sheremeti recounts.

He also shows the most dramatic moment.

"They took them. They had a tank in the yard, and they wanted to put mice and rats in the tank. In the basement, they have the twins, Sefer's son, Ilir. Brahim's Beqa was killed here. There are four of them. One of the twins said: 'Don't go and say goodbye to your mother while I'm alive, I won't let her go.' He went into the yard, Nazmia, thinking that her mother would come, and they waited for her and killed Nazmia. Bedri with a whip in the basket. Bekimi and Beqiri are downstairs, the helicopter killed them there," Sheremeti recounts about the murder of his sons.

After the Serbs left, the bodies of the four boys were placed in the room.

Sheremet also tells about the last night he spent with them.

"I'm sleepy. I came here and I got drunk for the fourth time, and I went and fell asleep there. I didn't get sleepy. I came and I got drunk four times. Four times, in all these years, I've been drunk and I've gotten drunk. Only with God, I'm alone," he said.

Since then, Sheremet Sejdiu has lived with his wife and the family left behind by his eldest son Beqiri, his wife, grandson and granddaughter. Almost three decades after the crime, the testimony of the 83-year-old and his family members who witnessed the crime has still not been received by the institutions. 

"No, really, just journalists, because no one else has come," he says.

Delay in documentation

Kosovo has an Institute for War Crimes (IKKL), established by law in 2023. One of these existed before, but has since been defunct. The mission of this institute is to document and research crimes committed during the war from a historical, military, economic, legal, ecological, cultural, psychological, forensic and sociological perspective.

The Director of the IKKL, Atdhe Hetemi, says that so far materials and testimonies have been collected from around 300 families regarding the massacre in Likoshan and Qirez, out of the planned 650, while he says that

Sheremet's testimony was not taken.

"We have also been to Qirez. Unfortunately, we did not manage to interview Uncle Sheremet, but we visited the memorial in front of his house with the whole team. When we went, we only went for a visit and the interviewing process has some preliminary preparation procedures that need to be done. I think these visits should be intensified even more. Unfortunately, we have not managed to reach all the family members, either through visits or by collecting evidence, but the reason is not a lack of readiness, but the reason is: it is simply impossible, even technically, for a short period of time to cover everyone", said Hetemi. "The institute has a limited number of officials and is in the process of consolidation, and now as we speak, although we have managed to make all departments functional during this 2-year period, there is still work to be done, but of course, as I said, covering all these cases remains one of our priorities". 

Following KOHË's interview with the director of the Institute for War Crimes in Kosovo, Atdhe Hetemi, the Institute announced that on January 6 it will visit the family of Sheremet Sejdiu to document their war stories.

Hetemi said that the institute he heads faces many challenges. The biggest challenge, he said, is the fact that the documentation is being done more than 25 years after the war.

"This also presents a challenge, the fact that a number of survivors or those who possessed materials of this nature may have passed away, but in such cases we take care to be in contact with their families, who have inherited that material. Unfortunately, there have been cases where witnesses may have died and we have not succeeded, as a society, as a country, not only as an Institute, because the institute was created late," says Hetemi.

Before the IKKL, another mechanism operated. In 2011, through a decision, the Thaçi Government established the Institute for the Collection of Facts on War Crimes. The Institute was active until 2018 and has finalized several publications, including on missing persons and reports on the destruction of Albanian material property.

The institute was closed during the Haradinaj government.

From 2000 to 2008, war crimes in Kosovo were investigated by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), and then for ten years by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX). In 2018, EULEX completed the process of handing over files to local prosecutors and courts, from which time the prosecution and adjudication of war crimes cases has been carried out by Kosovo institutions.

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC Kosovo) has developed several projects to document war crimes and monitors judicial proceedings related to the consequences of the recent war. 
Director Bekim Blakaj says that Kosovo has been late in documenting crimes.

"It has already been 26 years since the end of the war and during this period of time, of course, a lot of evidence has been lost, has disappeared, and documentation can now focus on statements from witnesses, survivors, that is, on interviewing them, and there is less material evidence. Maybe we can't even talk about material evidence anymore, but let's say, in written documents there is still time to collect them," said Blakaj.

He says that Kosovo institutions should be more proactive in collecting documentation and potential evidence wherever they are. According to him, it is also very important to analyze and systematize them. 

"This is the only way to try to have those accurate narratives on every event that happened during the war. So, on every crime that happened during the war," said Blakaj. "Of equal importance is the analysis of these documents, because it is not enough to collect them and archive them somewhere without analyzing them, without entering them into a software, because then they can turn into documentation that is not usable."

He also spoke about how the testimonies and material evidence collected can be used.

"Documentation can and should be used for memorialization, for the creation of accurate narratives, it can be used in the education of young people. In fact, it is crucial in education on dealing with the past. Documentation can greatly help the prosecutor, and in bringing justice to the victims, but in general for future generations, documentation will serve to describe the history of our country, that is, the accurate history", said Blakaj. "In Kosovo, the victims of war crimes have been documented, the massive violations that occurred during the war, that is, the violations of human rights. However, this has been done more by civil society and the media, various cases have been documented and I would say less by state institutions".

"I am blessed..."

In the population census by the Statistics Agency, published in December last year, which for the first time published data on war damages, it is stated that during the period 1998-99, 11.417 people were killed and 6682 were injured. While 193.765 experienced violence, torture and psychological consequences. 

Nearly 1.600 people are considered forcibly disappeared, while Kosovo institutions have continuously accused Serbia of a lack of cooperation in clarifying their fate. 
Damages to households alone are estimated at over 5 billion euros.

There are no legal proceedings for such damages, while there are no convicts for many massacres. Not even the murderers of Sheremet Sejdiu's four sons have been convicted.

Even after 27 years, the pain of losing his four sons has not left Sheremet, but he says there is a sense of relief. 

"I tried to stay because it's not easy, but today I'm staying easier because today we have our own state," said the 83-year-old. "God doesn't test the island, but now they have gone to me and others for this freedom. I'm lucky that I saw it. I'm lucky that I'm going to my commune, and when I'm going I'm seeing my brothers and sisters."