Heroins March 23rd 1989

They had not done work either in March or in the strikes of miners, nor had long-standing protests on Kosovo streets. But the day before, two close friends, Sannie Aliu and Hattmane Salauka, then only 20 years old, were knocking from door to door at the houses of Balaj village, about five miles [5 km] northwest of Ferizaj.

They did not lose much time in their mission to convey their message to the women and girls in the village. To war with time. They were short and Albanian: Tomorrow you go out at the 10 o'clock intersection of two village streets in front of Ali's house, writes today “Koha Ditore”

It was to begin a women's march to the city, breaking several broken police barricades twice the then wide Nerodim River bed at the entrance of the Balaves and at the entrance of Ferizaj. On the way, women and rural girls were also joined by the Nerodimes of the Manastircs, and the neighborhoods on the outskirts of the town of é especially of the Sheret Quarter. The crowd would join thousands of citizens who were demonstrating in three parts of the city center, divided with special units and heavy mob distribution machines.

The range of our march in Balaj had arrived in town before we were”, Aliu points out. I told Saniya the day before I came back from town that a kneestone in the city is enough and it bursts, because the situation was very tense”, Hallouca steps in.

The purpose of Ali and Salauca was achieved: Not to be passed without any civic dissatisfaction with the approval of the constitutional changes Kosovo received from the Federation of Yugoslavia's constituent entity, whose steering wheel was being kidnapped violently by nationalist Serbia. Students in Pristina even rose. Student discontent was also related to Balay.