Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...

Psychosocial Notebook, Volume 2, October 2001
ground, cigarettes, everything… everything ended up in the water
because it was raining… They gave a thorough thrashing to the boys in
front of everybody, and they scared me. [Rozafa]
When the Serbian police were in the streets, they used to stop people and
beat them up, and take their money… Laws didn’t work any more: they
decided the rules as they went along. [Shapi]
We all worked in the fields because there was a time when not just
schools were closed to us, but also factories and institutions. [Dritan]
We took classes in the Mosque… Hearing the Imam’s voice drove us
crazy when we were listening to the professor, because the mosque is not
the right place to listen and study…. [Ilir]
Phase three: when restrictions are enforced with a higher level of risk,
when deaths begin to occur and it becomes dangerous even to go outdoors
or attend a funeral:
We couldn’t go out because we feared they were shooting… We didn’t
have funerals. Instead we ran away to avoid getting killed ourselves. I
don’t know what happened to my mother. [Arta]
The Serbs were angry because of NATO, and were beating up or killing
whomever they found in the streets. Because of the fear, we didn’t go out,
not even in the street or in the backyard. [Rozafa]
When they killed someone at his house door, while he was going out…
He would remain there. [Gezim]
There was violence against girls, women, so they were afraid to go out,
because this could have happened to them too. [Rozafa]
Phase Four: entire families are forced to live underground, in basements,
where deaths continue to occur. One’s home starts to become unsafe.
At the beginning, we went in the basement. While we were there, a
20-year-old girl… with a wheelbarrow, I carried her because her legs
were destroyed by a shell. My colleague’s son, Iziroid, died because a
Serbian shell fell right in the corner of the basement where he was staying,
killing him. [Gezim]
We lived in a house with 35 people; I stayed in a room with 12 persons.
[Teuta]
I was afraid to stay in my house… we stayed there, all in three rooms…
for three weeks. [Rozafa]
175