The man who betrayed his illusions on Kosovo

His dream of a free Kosovo from Serbia, of course, was not associated with any dream of European democracy, but in 1991, when he received the “award. Sakharov”, he tried to modify his dream. Not only Kosovo, but Ballakan he began to dream of as a federation of friendly peoples, right on the brink of the Balkans' bloodiest wars.

As we were beginning to develop the first complaints of those who had served more years in prisons in 1991, Adem Demach suddenly appeared at the top of the list with Peter Arbnor. Both were estimated about 28 years in prison, with three sentences at different times. And their portraits we started shaping equally in our heads, like our <x0 freedom fighter”. But their illusion of freedom was different. In Kosovo freedom dreamed of Enver Hoxha's state in Albania dreaming of its collapse.

Adem Demach entered Albania from Qafe Thana in the spring of 1991, and those few reporters who were expecting him there from Tirana's official media were a little confused when he praised Enver Hoxha. He praised Enver Hoxha as a man who had pursued a strong national strategy and developed Albania.

He had then continued on the tiring road on the turns of Librazhd and Elbasan. He was sitting somewhere in the Qafe they said, where the poor Elbasan of 1991 looked. Take some time with you. A year earlier, a few months before he left prison, he had said an interview for “Vecernji list”, in which he stressed that “I respect him as the biggest son of the Albanian people and as a genius leader who, of course, has had his own mistakes, but no strategic error. ”

He had justified cleansing as a struggle for a better quality of bureaucraticity. But he seemed to be wavering.

A few days later, after his stay in Albania, it must have been very difficult for him to change his thinking. His life in the prisons of the former Yugoslavia was inspired by the ideal for Kosovo's freedom and by the hope that the Albanian state is strong.

His patriotism was equal to nationalism, which was actually the true identity of the nationalist movement in Kosovo. Those who had suffered in Albanian prisons from communism had been convicted mainly as opponents of Enver Hoxha, while those suffering in Kosovo were braved for Kosovo's freedom mainly because of their love for Enver Hoxha. This was the biggest misunderstanding you couldn't explain so easily in 1991 in Tirana, when the wounds of communism still flowed, while Kosovo's freedom had in its identity been inspired by the softness of our communication.

Ademi Demac must have been divided with many pains from clarifying this historic misunderstanding, but his sacrifices for Kosovo's freedom were not affected at all. He was originally imprisoned as a nationalist who opposed sending Kosovo Albanians to Turkey, then as nationalist against the Yugoslav regime twice again.

His dream of a free Kosovo from Serbia, of course, was not associated with any dream of European democracy, but in 1991, when he received the “award. Sakharov”, he tried to modify his dream. Not only Kosovo, but Ballakan he began to dream of as a federation of friendly peoples, just on the eve of the Balkans' bloodiest wars.
He was convinced that the Balkans did not succeed in partitioning and that Kosovo would have no independence, unless the Balkans were federalised, a dream that will still take a long time to start believing. But he believed in it in 1991.

The year 1991 was when Demaci confronted his past with the bitter reality in Albania and Kosovo and tried to sit on the ground on foot.

He had already founded the Human Rights Council and was becoming the recorder of the collapse of human and national freedoms in Kosovo.

We waited for it in the revision of “Renaissance” in Tirana in 1994, after ending the 11-day strike against the closure of Albanian newspapers in Pristina. The newspaper “Renaissance” had begun publishing in Tirana, and it arrived in its editing, at that time still in the ATSH building, convinced that the strike had succeeded. “Renaissance” was reprinted in Kosovo by the name “Buyku” and was the only daily Kosovo newspaper currently published in Switzerland and Tirana.

Demach was the hero of that strike that could not stop everything, but gave hope to the private recording of new Albanian newspapers.

I had to see him again in 1996 while I was working at the U.S. Voice”. Demac was invited to Tirana by Sali Berisha to give a hand in the cold war Berisha had launched against Ibrahim Rugova, who refused to accept the crisis that had started in Albania, Berisha moved it towards Kosovo.

Adem Demach seemed eager to accept the invitation for his own reasons, but he was unsure of what he was doing. The interview with him was a real horse to meet. The people around me changed my location three times and I only finally realized, that while I was standing in the lobby of the Hotel “Vuisrecox1> in Tirana, Ademi was just one floor above me. The frustrations of the persecution of illegal life and Albania's uncertain climate had made it their own. The interview was short enough for everyone. He spoke of the need for radicalisation of resistance in Kosovo, as he thought, but not why it interested Berisha. Berisha commended and hosted him to the presidency in the evening with honours for what was of interest to him, while in Kosovo the LDK's arm began to iron out.
Echo of that stance was long embedded in Berisha's political history, his reports with Rugova, even though Demac had done it on his own. He had just arrived at the stage that he wanted war in Kosovo. They had already left him, all the myths of federalism, coexistence with Serbs, Enverism and other illusions that had filled his vision as a romantic dreamer of an Albanian that did not exist.

Then came 1999. On one of the days of the Rambouillet Conference, while we were in the small French town, and the delegation, as well as the partitioned Kosovo, with the LDK and KLA, was being punished under American pressure, Ademi Demaci on TV screens showed up with a long-haired boy named Albin Kurti and appearing as political spokespersons of the KLA, calling not to sign the agreement. Madeleine Albright, who rushed to call him in Ljubljana, not to destroy everything the other day, was left exhausted from the conversation. Exquisite by everything, but especially from the distance he had with the developments of the day and his long-term approach to Kosovo. It's probably the worst meeting of his history, having met the savior of his dreams on the worst day and disappointed him and himself.

The man who had set up the cult of Albanianism in Kosovo for all those who did not know him from afar continued to disappoint those who belonged to him.

And shortly after that when the bombings began, he stayed in Pristina differently. CNN featured the incredible scene of how he fought with Serbian soldiers in front of a Pristina store, and then his confession, when he was taken to the police station. He was so calm and afraid of what happened that it seemed like those people who were looking forward to the storm coming out clean and perhaps drowning in it. A “dialation” that did not know what to do anymore just dream of killing Serbs.

I recently met him in Saranda a few years ago about 2010. The mayor told me that she was registered as her resident and had taken a home somewhere on the road to Butrint. He was walking toward his house, and my request to get in the car disturbed him. He didn't recognize me and I was happy. I accompanied him in a distance, fearing that he had gone astray, but his neighbor, where he lived, told me that he was safe there and felt good that he did not know people.

- Do you know him?

- I know, I know. Brad Demach.

I didn't correct it. At least his last name was right. He was obsessed with many people as someone who fought for Kosovo. And now I can go easy. As someone who betrayed his illusions dozens of times about how Kosovo would become free, but never betrayed Kosovo for its illusions. /Tema