Haradinaj's story: In the war I was left with 50 soldiers, over 2000 left while I was asleep

Haradinaj: Before I start talking about it, let me first tell you that the most important thing for us was to keep the corridor open with Albania so that we could be supplied with technical equipment. Military team maintenance for more than 100 horses and 1,200 people at the same time. Movements were made under great confidence. We knew that many young people who were involved in organising the army were badly damaged by the Serb ambush. All the technonic teams that had Shala, Llapi and Drenica, not only until September, but until November 1998, came to Kosovo through Dukagjin. The points passing the military teams were Smolica, Glodjani, Jabllanica, and several others.

Seeing such a situation, it was more than necessary to create a free zone where Serb forces could not carry out activities and could not penetrate. The removal of the population from border villages like Poberg, Vokshi, etc., was designed to create a buffer zone and secure our supply routes. We managed to manage the village of Voksh until the Yunik fell. This village, it's not like we needed a station, a porn, to keep our line open. There was an open position in Voksh and another near Koranica in Smolica, and this was part of us free, despite the stops Serbia had built near the border, but for us it was enough and they were not strong enough to act on it, for young boys could easily see by carrying technical equipment. I have to mention here that we've encountered several ambushes that were carried out by paramilitaries in collaboration with the people sold in our country, but those ambushes aren't that bad.

How did Glogn fall for the first time?

HaradinajIn this regard, we must not blame Smolica. Smolica had faced an offensive from the first few days until the fall day. Each day, thousands of grants had taken place on Smolica. There were fighting in Voksh, in Carrabreg, in Prelep, Rastavica, in Babacac, Dujaka, Gramachel, Sahfere, Keeskovc, Bocsic, and other places, so there were fighting every day. So, in a word, it was permanent, everyday, which meant that we had to fight every day and we caused a huge damage to the enemy and we thought that Serbs would then be removed.

The spring offensive you're mentioning was well prepared and found us separated. The Orenziva started on 13 and Serbia had thought to surround us in our positions on the way to Irzniq and Babacoq and drag us into a three-mile radius. But they were surprised after they met at our first position in Krushec, near Croy de Grovilla, in a place called the Vranoc Hill where we had created our front line. In these games, everyone participated in creating front lines around Krushec, Pashqani, in part in Isniz, Upper Luqe, Carabreg and thus... During this time, Adem Ukhaj was killed in direct combat with Serb forces.

The purpose of the offensive was to destroy us to be surrounded and destroyed by our stubborn army and, as discussed in police circles, to leave for Albania. That was the script.

A large number of people and a large army were engaged in this offensive; two brigades were directly involved in combat, meaning there were 2000 to 3,000; 2 battalions with motor vehicles of more than 1,000 combat vehicles; throughout Dukagjin, I can say there were about 20,000 Serb troops taking part in the war. Serbian forces tried to come through Carranbreg, through Beleg, Rastovica, Babacoqi and Gramcelli. The most powerful attack by Serbian forces came from the shika Bitesh in the direction of Schapiten. During these fightings that lasted for 5 days, Serbian forces did not score any victories, nor did it come into play. So we had under control almost all of our front lines, only one that had fallen was it in the Gramexel. From this time on, we were forced to act differently and at the same time take care of our weapons, and especially anti-tank ammunition. It was an extremely powerful struggle, despite the fact that the battle we lost, at this time Glodjan came down, but it was the first time that a war strategy compiled by us was being applied. During the Serbian forces' entry on the side of Bitesh and the hill of Grammachel, we hid in ditches during the night, so that we could allow Serb forces to enter the village and then shoot them and then replace the Zezay (battalon, v.j) eagle led by quite a few o'clock) would operate. On the third day of fighting we had managed to damage quite a lot, almost entirely the convoy of Serb forces and forced them to withdraw. This was where my brother Enver was severely injured until he was attacked by Serb forces' positions. Serbian forces could only partially take over the territory as we were forced to leave at the last moments because of the ammunition. We have never withdrawn from positions due to the power of our enemy's attacks but were forced to withdraw when we were left without ammunition. During this time, we spent 500 hand grenades, about 100 mortars, and 12 boxes of 12.7 Ssh while we had weapons. In managing the use of these weapons boxes, the famous Arben Lami, who was trained by the Aye Potters, was excellent. On the first day of this battle, Glogdjan had been taken. We pulled back and took all the documentation, the wounded people, and created a new front line near Lake Radonick, Low Ratish, the upper one, Pozhar, Luka, so that we could protect all the people who had completely moved across the other side of the Bistrica River.

I never believed that the removal of an entire organized army could happen

Haradinaj: This happened a little later. We returned to our positions and took care of activities wherever possible. Serbia launched another offensive September 1998 and was more powerful but we were more divided. After the first fall of Glodjan, I'd like to talk at this point about my emotions a little bit; people began to see me a little insecure. So it was extremely difficult to keep their morals up. There was also a particular war in which it was propaganda that Serbia was invincible. I listened to people say they couldn't win the war with an automatic and stuff like that. So our values were marking a decline. During the second attack, we were shot from the sides of Jabllanica and Carrabreg. So our great resistance was easily damaged this time. My idea was that we could step by step resist in order to create a free zone for the population and here we could be invincible. I thought this area could be created in some mountainous terrain among Ratish villages, Dashinoc, Maznik, Jablanice, Bardhan, Gergoc, etc. We created a new front line, a line of defense at Radonic Lake and along the way to Izniq at this time, so that if we came to the worst, we could move the population to the villages we thought we could stay in. Let me explain to you that our goal was never to mix the population with war, so our plan was to evacuate the population first. There were several options and you think I'm talking about a pretty high-end situation here so that we could evacuate the population and not be taken hostage. We had thought that the protection of the population could be done in the Turjaca region, in the Leshan South, and also an evacuation around the mountains was considered an option, but we never thought that we could move the population together with our military team. Under these circumstances, the background of the war was near Pozhar around the road leading to Lumbard, about Lumbardhi, about Dasinoci, and all the way to Low Ratish. The terrain was like this, like in the form of the letter éL. The absence of weapons and humans made us hold a straight line of defense. On the third day, we were able to establish our positions in Pozhar, at the entrance (V.Y.), which was Sephedin Shehu as a guard with a group of young men, and there I decided to go home to Lumbardhi and rest a little. At the same time, Jabllanica declined despite being fought by an armed group led by Alush Agushi ya Mala. This whole group had managed with the population to cross the streets of Izniqi and Broliqi and now wanted to meet me. After I had created a front where we could answer with fire and three days after I had not slept in my eyes, a man of the old Lumbardi, whose name I do not remember now, had invited us to his house, offering us everything he had in his house, even having arranged for the beds to sleep and rest a little. Thinking that our front lines are functioning as before, we decided to get some rest.

After an hour and a half of sleep, Alush Agush and Lahi Brahimaj came to the house where I was resting and asked to see me. I refused to get up because I was very tired. They hit the room where I was sleeping and started shouting: We've been betrayed. The whole army is gone. We're going to be delivered to”

Now I was realizing that something unusual had happened, I woke up and the two of them (Agushi and Brahimaj, our version) were explaining to me how all the army made up of 2000 3000 people had left the first day of the Strelci goods and how the greenhouse forces had entered Izniq and had crossed Krusec's way and had headed for Lumbard over to the village where I was. So we were meant to be surrounded in Lumbard. We could not stand at the front, and we wanted to know what happened so we decided to move from Lumbarde to Brolich. We also put a line across the Bistrica River, thinking that our forces were in Assaj, Isniq, Dubovich, Krusec, Lug of Baran, etc. I never thought that no single soldier could betray us, and I never thought such military organization could be divided in such a way. He was a big friend to me and a spiritual blow that I could not afford.

There was a plan to catch me alive.

We had many wounded soldiers at the Krusheci hospital, where Yll Morinnai was later killed by Serb forces at the Novi Sad hospital, Arben Spahia Cukla, who was with us, my brother Enver, who was already disabled, and the medical team consisting of -- Iliriana, Ryva, Tima, Hilmi, Hakhu, Shehu, Rrusem Berisha, and others. With the division of our army, our line of defense was no longer that, so we were defenseless. Of course, our families were here, somewhere. I knew nothing about my father. I asked one of my oldest fellow fighters, Isuf Dervisaj, to go to Vranoc and see if he could hear something about my family and then go to Izniq and see what happened. In Vranoc, he had found no one, everyone had been evacuated; he had not even seen Serbian forces. He had then arrived at Izniq, where he had seen people talking about handing over weapons, and there he had seen that our army had been removed from the barracks in the Pasakan. There were only a few offices in Izniq where some of the villagers were already staying. This was where Isufi met one of my fellow fighters, Naser Ahmetxaj, who had asked him to send me a message: Tell Rmush that the army is gone, now you're just you and the people who are with you, leave before they catch you alive. Then Isufi had come to me and had alarmed me with what he had heard. I told Isufi to go back to Izniq and find my father because his place was at the men's place, and I also told him to tell my family not to stay in one place (all together) but to be scattered in the population. My father came that night and we all stayed together in Brooklyn, on the front line, not wanting to believe what had happened to us. The next day, Serbian forces had managed to locate us at a distance of 500m. The war took place at a distance of 100 meters and we were very few in number.

How many soldiers did you have with you?

Haradinaj: I still had about 100 soldiers in Brooklyn. Analyzing the situation we were in, some soldiers came to their personal conclusions that they had to leave and leave. I saw the situation was pretty serious, Serbia could see us, but it couldn't attack us because they were waiting to evacuate the population and thought that we would be together with the population who would evacuate. We were attacked from all sides so that we could be forced to become with the population that was being evacuated so that some of us could be arrested, some of us caught alive, and some of us might get killed. Serbian forces had told groups of people gathered in Isnic that within two hours they would hang Ramush on an electric stake. During this day, I listed (those few v.j) soldiers in order to freeze their morale. I told them that we would deal with this situation and overcome it, but I didn't tell them how we would do it. I kept talking about the mountains as an escape route, but my mind was in Glogdjan and Jablanice. I divided everyone into four small groups around the Bistrica River, so we could keep the front line, but in fact, that day I informed the leaders of the group that were very reliable people on the way to go. We were able to cross the Bistrica River in the direction of Jabllanica, and we withdrew around the water where it was less and somewhat higher. The distance between us and them during the withdrawal was between 50 and 100 meters.

I was left with only 50 soldiers

Sokol Dobruna and his brother Musliu, Deli Hajosa and my father were with us and were very old, Shaban Lajqi was with us and a young man about 13 or 14 years old, some women fighters and some wounded soldiers. We all made it to Jablanice but, of course, without any military activity. When we arrived in Jablanice, we were 75 in total. 50 of them could be considered soldiers, the rest was escorts. We put the flag up in Jablanice, and the next day we continued on military activities, which meant that we were in a state of readiness. We didn't have anywhere to take a nap, we actually slept a little bit in our positions.

Jablannica was all burnt up, right?

Haradinaj: Yes, it was all destroyed, and the day we arrived there we were not sure if Serb forces were still there. As they were leaving we were going in and in fact, that day we were on one side of the village and they were on the other side of it. The next day, they all withdrew from the village.

-So the Serb forces didn't notice you were in the village?

Haradinaj: Maybe I didn't.

He relates in this account how even when only 50 were left, they had put a large flag in the place where they were staying, for what purpose, fellow fighters had told him to remove it because they could easily be identified where they were, but Haradinaj had not done that, had decided to keep the flag where it was. /Periscope/