Some families of martyrs oppose the decision to redepend on new memorial complexes

Kosovo's government is performing the recent burial of slain KLA fighters in a new memorial complex, but while many families have welcomed this, the process has been accompanied by disagreement over the site of the remains of some.

Over the past two decades, Sadik Kachkin's remains have been buried three times and his name actually appears in three tombs in three different locations.

Kachini died on 5 March 1998, at the age of 44, when Serbian forces surrounded the family of Kosovo Liberation Army Commander Adem Jashari in Prekaz and killed him and more than 50 of his relatives, including women and children.

The first five years, his body was in Prekaz. Then his family decided to take the bones and bury them in his village of Squireright.

After 14 years, Kachkin's remains have now been reassembled back into a new martyr complex that has been built in the village of Marine, about ten kilometers from Skyeraj, as the government decided that KLA fighters killed during the war should be buried in a series of collective memorial sites.

Every rehumation looked like another death. It's very heavy,” told his widow Zelfije on a sunny day July after returning from Germany and went to visit and clean his grave.

On the day Kachin was redependent on the Marine complex, his widow could not attend because the family was not informed. After a week, she found it difficult to find her husband's grave because of the lack of names on stone and alphabetical order of the cemetery.

Her husband's tomb holds 30, written with a pen, and the gravestone is muddy.

After cleaning the tablet, Zelfia puts a series of plastic flowers on it.

It is better that the martyrs are buried in the same place, but should have their names in the listed graves [to show] who is there”, she says.

600 Planned Reexhumations

The Memorial complex in Maria, Skenderaj

In addition to Sadik Kachini, the remains of 130 other KLA fighters from Drenica, the region in which the armed resistance of Kosovo Albanians was most pronounced, have been exhumed at the Marine complex so far.

Adnan Elshani, a member of the government council tasked with redepending of the dead guerrillas, says that about 600 of the more than 2,500 KLA fighters who died during the war would be re-crown to collective graves.

But the government's idea to re-cew dead KLA fighters into a single complex has been rejected by many of their family members, who do not want their loved ones to be re-resurrected. The government council is currently thinking of re-crowning in their respective municipalities.

The process has also been delayed by yet another demand of households for relatives to re-riser together.

Luljeta Shala from Drenas was killed in a match with Serbian forces along with her fiancé, Hysen Buyup, near the border with Albania while transporting weapons and ammunition to Kosovo.

As a family, we asked the municipality that Luljet and Hyseni be buried next to each other because they fought and died together. The municipality respected our request,” said Shala's father, Jahiri.

These insistences led the council to break the alphabetical order that it foretold for the tombs.

Adnan Elshani, who represents the government's Institute Management Agency, says dead fighters have so far been exhumed in three of the seven KLA operational areas.

“We are planning to re-depend on more than 600 martyrs. Two hundred and fifty-seven in Marina [in the Drenica area], 168 near Podujevo [in the Lapi area] and 114 in Kostunica [near the Albanian border]. We expect the redependence of 64 other bones in the Istog municipality “, Elshani told BIRN.

He added that the whole process is expected to be completed during August.

The Memorial complexes will store places for those on the martyr lists, but still missing,” he added.

Old Memories Unspoiled

The Memorial complex in Maria, Skenderaj

For most of the exhumations, contracted companies leave their graves in the country and have taken only the bones. As a result, some dead warriors have three different graves.

“Plates or monuments erected earlier, in their native countries or in places where they were killed, will not be affected”, Elshani explained.

KLA associations have not yet agreed to redependent on some of those killed. They have requested at least five memorial sites in Kosovo.

“is not yet clear what will happen to the new memorial complexes. I think the idea of redependence should have been better planned and should have taken the approval of families”, Xhavit Jashari, head of the Association of Family Witnesses of the KLA, told BIRN Jaitsar.

According to Jashar, the idea of redepending the dead in their municipalities is very complex.

“is not a good idea if the name of a martyr remains in two or three memorials,” he added.

Lists of dead fighters and war veterans have been one of the most controversial issues in Kosovo in recent years, coupled with claims that the lists have been illegally swollen either for political purposes or because of false efforts to seek veterans' benefits.

At the new memorial complex in the village of Marine, Zelfije Kachini says that one thing is more important than any dispute to remember those who died fighting for KLA.

“They have fallen for the good of their country and this should be respected”, she said.