Atifete Jahjaga drinks a coffee with Ismail Kadare, relates what they talked about.

Former President Atifete Jahjaga is very active recently.

She recently met also renowned Albanian writer Ismail Kadare.

Next to the photos posted on Facebook, Jahjaga writes:

With writer Ismail Kadare in Tirana, we talked about the need for cultural recovery in Albanian spaces to regenerate and strengthen democratic values.

Otherwise, recently Jahjaga was also in a story of the renowned French warehouse, Ele Magazine.

She reported on Facebook:

Elle Magazine France was in Kosovo and wrote a letter to survivors of sexual violence during the war in Kosovo, the challenges they face, their demands and expectations. I am glad that international media continue to address this issue, because the whole world must know what terrible crime Milosevic's regime committed against thousands of women and men in Kosovo. I will continue to raise my voice in support of these victims until the establishment of justice!

Consider the following:

Kosovo, survivors of sexual violence during war emerge from silence

Thousands of Kosovo victims of Serbs can seek reparations thanks to Atifete Jahjaga, their former president of the Republic. End of a 20-year-old taboo.

Twenty - two women embrace in a small hall. They're one. The same pain makes them together. Their faces are marked before time. Their fingers that are caught and broken are treacherous to the suffering that is being proclaimed. And so it is since the war that destroyed their bodies twenty years ago. But a little glow flares up in their eyes when the visitor takes his word. «You're very strong, you're survivors, keep asking for your rights, » encourages Atifete Jahjaga with a warm voice, «I will continue to support your fight. » On this spring day, when snow still shines on the top of Kosovo's mountains, the former president of the Republic of Kosovo has come to the Women's Promovation Centre in the town of Drenas to assess the government's first effects on verification and compensation of sex violence victims during the war.

This Balkan state has celebrated its ten years of existence in February. Still, it is built on the remains of the conflict, which, in 1998 and 1999, resisted Yugoslavia's army with the Kosovo Liberation Forces. During this period between 10,000 and 20,000 women were raped by Serbian police, soldiers and paramilitaries. Drowned by the international community managing the country and then silently buried by the patriarchal order, these abuses remained unpunished. Only four sentences were handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Atifete Jahjaga, who was president of the Republic of Kosovo from 2011 to 2016, is struggling to remove the taboo that has imprisoned the victims for two decades. A total political and personal commitment. The commission was established two months ago. «Fear of being stigmatized still prevents women from taking a step. Only 200 files have been submitted, » says 43-year-old who has known how to impose on a world of men. The 230-euro monthly pension meant to compensate the victims, however, constitutes a significant amount in Kosovo -- 90% of the women's average salary. But «The culture of impunity has locked them in fear. » Atifete Jahjaga is angry with Serbian forces who have committed rape as with its conservative society, which «refuses to admit that these crimes have occurred». Since then, their memories have lost their country like a ghost. It passes to the abandoned factory of an industrial area, on the edge of roads where deported women to Macedonia and Albania were kidnapped by their tormentors, in barns and homes ...

In 2011, in a land paralyzed by recurring crises, at that time deputy director of the Kosovo Police, Atifete Jahjaga was elected President by MPs. She was 35 years old then and had no political experience. Trained by the FBI in the United States, the young woman has also done excellent studies in England and Germany. From this journey abroad, she kept a principle from which she expects Kosovo to benefit, that of «wemen emposerment», emancipation of women. Determined to end sexist discrimination, wearing perfectly in a coral suit, the style of Hillary Clinton, whose picture has placed her in her office, she considers her countrymen violated as «survivors»: «Terme «victim» shuts down and blocks reconstruction,» she explains. When she took office, the new chief of State was angry when she discovered the machim that underscored the law in favor of war veterans and families of murdered soldiers. To them, honor the nation, retirement, free access to medical care...«Raped women were simply forgotten. That's why I decided to be the voice they never had. » State ignorance adds to stigmatization, fear of leaving the family of parents, violence caused by the husband's family...

In one village, for example, eight women accused of dishonoring their community had been thrown into a bunker, one after another. Establishing a National Council for Survivors of Sexual Violence in 2014, Atifete Jahjaga manages to unite all political representatives of the international community and civil society over the issue of their recognition. The arguments were violent. Speaking of rapes, the followers of instability, is putting shame on the whole community. The argument of a member of parliament, a doctor, sums up the degree of resistance: «What do you say they were really raped? »

Igballe Rugova leads the Kosovo Women's Network, a pioneer organisation in the engagement of these socially expelled women. «Before coming to Atifete Jahjaga's presidency, NGOs had no institutional support», she says. «Without her determination, the law providing compensation would never have seen the light of day. » Although February 2018 had to be expected for the government commission to start operating, today the rape taboo no longer exists at the state level. In Pristina, Kosovo's capital, on the third floor of a modern building, Minire Begaj, head of this commission, does not hide its satisfaction. Eighteen files will be examined this afternoon. «Compensation proves that the state takes into account the suffering experienced, » explains it. People who had never spoken started the procedure, they realized that there was finally consideration for them. »

This is the case of Cadire and Dia. Six months ago, the two sisters found strength to postpone the door of the Medica Gjakova Association. The center is two hours away by bus from their village. There is, however, a similar structure very close to their home, but they were afraid that they would meet an acquaintance. One beside the other, a pillow on his knees, they speak in a row. When stress becomes too intense for one, the other takes off. Then vice versa. The words kept for twenty years are like a stream. During the war, they were 10 and 11. «Serbian soldiers took us to a school, with our mother and our other two sisters, » begins its latest. «They were so big. They locked us in a classroom. » Four days in a row they were raped, «in all possible ways», continues the sister.

The youngest mechanically passes her finger on an impression on her green eyes. Its first attacker had scratched “the crossroad of Christians” on her face (Serbs are Orthodox, Kosovars Muslims). «Even today, our greatest fear is if our cousins do not tell us what condition we were found, in blood, unable to walk. Until our last breath, we will live with this fear. Our father doesn't know. He says that if there were times in his family, he would kill them. »

In villages, shame continues. To come to see Atifete Jahjaga, 43-year-old Feride * has told the man's family that she was going to the dentist. Her brother, in faith, comes to pick him up by car. This mother of two has filled the file to get a compensation. Hidden from her four brother-in-laws. When this topic is discussed on television, they are indignant: «But how can they dare ask for money? » Of course, Dia could never tell them her misfortune. To justify winning 230 euros a month, it has planned all: «I'll say this is the result of selling my sewing job to the association. » «You have managed to take the first step», congratulate Atifete Jahjaga. «One day, you will have the strength to tell your children what happened to you. »

Speaking so as not to transmit past trauma to future generations is essential. In this Eastern European region, wounded by a series of civil wars at the end of the 20th century, peace remains fragile. The reconciliation goes through reparation. «Compensation constitutes the first stage, the second will be seeking justice before the» tributaries, the former president hopes. * The names of women have been changed.

Box:

The Supreme Meaning

There were also men who were raped during the war. This subject is even more taboo than for women. The patriarchal order is imposed on everyone, regardless of gender. Of the two hundred cases addressed on the compensation commission, a handful involves men. Petriti, 25, has been trained to help the latter complete their app. Only one dared come and talk to him. «His guilt was great. He said he should be able to defend himself. He cried without stopping when he spoke. » One day, during the war, this modern-day father was walking into the mountains with four other villagers when Serb soldiers surrounded them. Their hell had lasted five hours. Then, without a word, each one had fled in a different direction with his terrible secret. They never met again.

«I'm the only person he's discovered to him what had happened to me, » explains Petriti. «He had warned me that after telling me, he could not see me again because of shame. The opposite has happened. We don't talk about this anymore, but we're getting close. »