Arberi

Witness: When they were shot by the Serbs, their screams went up to heaven

86-year-old Daut Elshani testified in the court process against the accused of war crimes, Ekrem Bajrović. He said he saw Bajrovic in the backyard of the house in Saradran, where Serbian forces killed his three sons, brother and three other family members. The witness Elshani told how he managed to see the torture that the victims were subjected to for 40 minutes, before they were executed

The witness Daut Elshani said on Thursday in front of the jury that he saw the accused for war crimes, Ekrem Bajrović, in the courtyard of Demë Zeqir, where nine of his family members were killed, on the day of the Saradran Massacre.

The indictment makes Bajrović also responsible for this massacre. Based on it, on May 8, 1999, he and other members of the Serbian police committed war crimes, when after looting the displaced people in Saradran village of Istog, they took the Albanian civilian men out of the convoy and ill-treated them in the house of Demë Zeqiri. shot at 16 people, killing 15 of them.

In that courtyard, the three sons of the witness were killed: Muhajdini, Shemsedini and Nexhmedini, his brother Avdyli, as well as other family members, Hasan, Nimani and Muharrem. 

The witness Elshani, now 86 years old, said that the accused Bajrović was armed.

"That day, yes, I saw it when I came out that my sons were taken from me. They have a lot of trouble, Mr. Judge," he said before the jury. "Look at the door. You saw this husband (accused Bajrović vj) armed to the teeth. I even have them without beating them. They bring these paramilitaries. This one goes sometimes to them, sometimes to them (others vj). I saw him on that board, through the board door. I have 40 minutes there, Mr. Judge".

During the testimony at the Basic Court in Prishtina, Elshani said that the accused Bajrović, in addition to the time of mistreatment of civilians, was also present when his family members were killed.

"There are the sounds of weapons: ta-ta-ta. We also became victims. I said it that day and I'm still saying it today: from the earth to the sky, theirs is theirs. Where is this (the accused coming from)? Let's say it's not like that. This is how they are," said the witness Elshani.

He said that during the murders, Serbian policemen from the village of Gurrakoc, as well as paramilitaries, were present. 
Ismet Kikaj and Bajram Dautaj also testified in the court hearing held on Thursday. Both said that Gurrakoc police officers, by order of their commander, Milosh Stojkovic, took them out of their homes under the threat of killing them or their family members, and forced them to rebury the corpses in Saradran village. were located in a mass grave. 

The accused Ekrem Bajrović is a citizen of Kosovo and Montenegro and has Bosnian nationality. He is accused of participating in the arrest, kidnapping and mistreatment of 84 Albanian civilians, as well as involvement in the murder, mistreatment, torture and looting of displaced persons in Saradran, where over 150 Albanian civilians were killed.