Kosovo woman turned to I SIS: “I am not terrorist”

This article is originally written in English by Valerie Plesch and Serbian Hadziaj, and Periscope brings them translated and cut and title changed by Al Jazeera.

Ferizaj, Kosovo Laura Hyseni, a mother of four green-eyed children, was a child himself when war had escalated in Kosovo in the spring of 1999, a conflict that forced her and her family to flee to Macedonia as refugees.

Fifteen years later, she found herself in another war thousands of miles away by moving from a base of I SIS to the next in Syria and Iraq, from Raka [Raqa] towards Mosul [Mosul].

Hyseni is now 25 years old, under house arrest for three months at her parents' home in Ferizaj, Kosovo's third largest city.

She returned to Kosovo from Syria on April 20th along with her two sons and two daughters from a group of 32 women and 74 children who returned via an American military plane that flew directly from Syria to Kosovo.

Four men's fighters had also returned on the same plane and were immediately arrested at Pristina airport.

The 110 Kosovars had been taken from al-Hol camp to the province of Hassakeh in northeastern Syria, following the fall of Baghouz, the last remaining ISIS base.

Hyseni had barely escaped the battle of Baghouzi before being taken to the Kurdish-run camp. Her daughter's face still holds a wound caused by an explosion during March in the Syrian city.

She had traveled to Syria in 2014 with her husband and two sons. Three months after she arrived at the war zone, her husband was killed in Aleppo [Aleppo].

The new widow was forced to remarriage to another warrior, with an Albanian who made her a girl. But shortly after she was born, the other man was also killed, and she married again. He gave birth to another girl last year with the third man who surrendered to the battle of Baguzi [Baghouz] and remains in a Syrian prison.

It's a long and painful story. I don't even know how to begin,” says Hyseni from his parents' house salon. I never imagined [that I would go to Syria] ”

When she learned that she would return to Kosovo with her children, she said: “was like a dream, we couldn't believe we would return. ”

Unlike other European nations, who have refused to bring their citizens home from Syria or have been revoted by citizenship, the Kosovo government already had a plan to repatriate its citizens who would return from war. The plan was enabled with the assistance of the American Army and the Syrian Democratic Forces [ SDF.

With this repatriation, Kosovo has set an important example for all members of the Global Coalition for the Opposition of I The SIS and the international community,”, had been the response of the American Embassy in Pristina, one day after the event.

It is estimated that 40 Kosovar, including women and children, traveled to Syria in the past five years. Most were men who joined the ISIS war that their wives had taken with them.

There are still approximately 100 fighters, women and children in Syria, according to Kosovo government officials. About 120 had been killed in recent years.

Although Hyseni is grateful to the US and its government that sent her back, she does not want to be linked to terrorism.

I'm not a terrorist,” she said. My children and I are victims. ”

Hyseni and 31 other women are under investigation by Kosovo Police and are receiving free legal advice.

While one of her relatives told Al Jazeera that she voluntarily traveled to Syria, as reported in local media, Hyseni claims she thought her husband was taking them on vacation to Turkey.

Many of them, according to a psychiatrist, have clear symptoms of the PTSD [Post Traumatic Stres Disorder]. /Periscope