Family violence still present in Kosovo

Sevdije Berisha of Peja on November 17th 2017 found her death after being hit with ax by her husband.

But Sevdije Berisha is not the only case of domestic violence, which has suffered fatality. There are five other dead victims as a result of domestic violence.

Based on Kosovo Police statistics from January to early December of last year, some 1196 cases have been recorded.

Kosovo Police spokesman Bucky Kelani said that in 2017, more cases of domestic violence have been recorded with the same period last year.

“There are more recorded cases of domestic violence compared to the same period, and if we refer to figures that we possess the cases recorded in the Kosovo Police, we can say that from January to early December of this year, some 1196 cases of domestic violence have been recorded, while from these cases are prosecuted in Prosecutor 1134 cases and a number of them are still under 85x1 investigation, he said.

Women's Group Network activist in Kosovo Adelina Berisha said violence in Kosovo families is very expressive, but that worrying sees the fact that statistics do not fully show reality.

“Statistics show that domestic violence is a lot of expression in Kosovo society and in the harshest form possible means that we've seen especially in the last two months as a result of domestic violence, so these statistics and the whole reality bothers us a lot more and more of us is the fact that statistics do not fully demonstrate reality in fact we believe that the number of victims and persons who experience domestic violence is even greater than the one that has been presented to the <x1 institutions, she said.

According to research by the Kosovo Women's Group's Network in 2015, 68 per cent of domestic violence victims are women, while 56 per cent of men have claimed to have experienced domestic violence. /rtk