Tact Against Betrayal

To honour the heroic fall of Noah Berisha and Rexhep Malaj, extraordinary figures of the Movement, and predecessors of the Kosovo Liberation Army

It says: Gafurr Elshani

Toward the end of 1981, I met Noah Berisha in Pristina at the Student Center, where we then lived.

From that time on, my friends and I have been in touch with him and have constantly consulted the joint actions in organizing protests and demonstrations that followed during 1982 and 1983.

After the February 14th demonstration, 1982, in student dormitories, we devoted ourselves to organising the first anniversary of the 11 March demonstrations. We had a tract in hand, which called for continuing protests and organising demonstrations in Kosovo.

We thus consulted with Nuh Berisha and distributed the same tract in Pristina and other Kosovo centres where there was opportunity.

At that time, we distributed material even organisations without their membership, as long as the content was appropriate against Yugoslavia. On the other hand, there was not accurate and sufficient information for the unification of existing home organisations at the time.

One evening in March, a friend invited me to go to his room, which had a view of the boarding yard. Look “We watched the police for a while, and then I went back to my room on the 5th floor of Convikt No. I.

When I entered the room, I saw Noah Berisha sitting on my bed, which to disguise himself as an old man, was wearing a bigger cloak and wearing a hat on his head. He had lit a cigarette, although he did not smoke.

What happened, Noah?

“are asking for”, answer me. When I entered the dorm, I saw that the UDBs were in the hallway, and I didn't stop in my room, but I went up the stairs. ”

What if they saw what you'd do? I asked him again.

I don't intend to give up. I would've gone up the 15x1... I got another gun and I'd shoot”. He told me that “Gafur, I'm able to jump from the 5th floor, and you don't get it alive. I know a lot of stuff”.

By the way he spoke those words, I realized that this young man meant it. Noah, stay late and sometime at night after I checked the hallway and the dormitory to see if there were any cops or suspicious people, he left my room and never went back to the dorm.

To maintain ties, he did not delay long, and Ahmet Isufi was notified, who organized our meetings on occasions when they collapsed.

Noah studied law in the third year, but he also studied at the Faculty of Physical Education in order to serve in preparation and growth of physical abilities, in the difficult illegal life, and in guerrilla warfare, which he had as an option.

In April 1982, Nuhiu decided to leave Kosovo temporarily until the group's arrests are completed to see how far this will go and also to contact leaders of Movement abroad.

After securing financial means, we accompanied Ilaz Calol to Prizren, and then, from there, to continue on the road to Switzerland via Turkey.

In September 1982, Noah returned from Switzerland. There he had come in contact with Movement leaders, the LRSHJ, who had commissioned him with the task of organising the ranks of Movement in Kosovo. With him, he had brought a tect, in which it was announced that on February 17, 1982, the union of several illegal groups was established and the LRSSHJ (The Movement for the Albanian Socialist Republic in Yugoslavia). Lists of people to be contacted with the aim of joining the organisational structure of the Movement in Kosovo were provided.

Thus, Nuhiu, without stopping, came in contact with activists who had lost ties with the organisation following many arrests that had occurred in Kosovo.

During 1982, as a result of the organisational work in the first order of Noah Berisha, LRSSHJ went by increasing its influence in Kosovo and Albanian regions under Macedonia, eastern Kosovo and Montenegro. Ties with the LRSSHJ included links on a common front of all types of organisation that were in Kosovo and which they accepted as a large LRSSHJ front.

In the period from September, December 82, with Gafurr Elshan, Ahmet Isufin, Ilaz Kadol, Shukre Gashi, Nuhiu captures the earlier ties with Shaban Shala, Enver Topallin, Bayrush Xhemajli, Bajrm Ajetin, Taip Zeka, Hamza Yashar, Ilmi Zekina of many other activists.

Nuhi Berisha has now become the central figure of illegal organisation in Kosovo.

Early in 1983, the ranks of the Movement had expanded and we worked on organizing demonstrations, or, rather, to mark the anniversary of the demonstrations on March 11, 1983.

Abandoned by the name “

At this time, a group called Albanico, with whom Ahmet Isufi was also imprisoned, and many other friends of Noah.

After these arrests, Noah's stand on illegality is difficult, since some of the activists who had cared for him had been imprisoned. This situation posed a threat to Noah, so he was forced to leave Kosovo and temporarily take refuge in Switzerland.

After a short stay in Switzerland in May, Nuhi Berisha had crossed Yugoslavia's border from Italy, foot in charge of a large backpack on the back, in which he carried several thousand copies of “Trect vs. Tradhtia“, Kosovo “Voices”, book “Pushka top Bajram Curri”, “Titists” and many other books.

As soon as he returned to Pristina, he met me, and we had to go and get some copies of books and newspapers at his home. We discovered it from the piles of soil and started sharing the material he had brought.

I took the material to my apartment and shared it with my friends, and they abandoned it according to Noah's instructions, and we decided to distribute it in two ways.

So Ilazi and I distributed the “into Suhareka putting it in the backyards, while Hakki Gashi took over to deliver the Thracians through office with the student group.

They, had gathered the addresses of the functionaries of the Communist League, the associates of power, and the Thracian envelopes had been distributed from the various cities of Kosovo, as well as a part of the city of Skopje.

The “Tact against Betrayal”, issued in the name of the LRSSHJ and distributed to towns and settlements, made a huge stir in Kosovo. Yugoslav spies and their servants were warned to respond to the ugly acts of betrayal. The leaf starts with the lyrics of the Hill Mos of poetry “Traitor” and is conveyed with the lyrics of the popular singer dedicated to Azem Bata's activity against <x4hashaphijies” (spirits).

In June 1983, Kosovo had reached a large quantity of Kosovo's “office, which was published in Switzerland. It was transported through buses and to Pristina, brought by Taip Zaka, brother of witness Kadri Zeka. With a hooded truck, as if it was carrying dice, because the bags with the papers were stuck in the sand.

We hid the bags in a safe place and received some numbers of Kosovo's “Office to distribute to the students.

Traveling alleys in Pristina's peripheral neighbourhoods, and discussing the most efficient ways of action against invaders, at one point Nuhu addressed me: “The enemy has to fight for every day. I, if I can't do more in one day, at least one trick won't leave it unbroken.“And then it went on: “I, I swore never to stop in my life, without even taking it out and calling it the Trust of Kadri Zeka in place of”.

The murder of Kadri Zeka raises deep indignations, not only because he was the son of the aunt, but also because he had been inspiring for years to Noah's activities to death.

During Noah's stay in Switzerland, he held constant meetings with Xhafer Shatrin and other companions of the Movement. Meanwhile, during his stay in Switzerland, Nuhiu wrote memories of the 1981 demonstrations, which two years later were published with the title “The Spring of Red Flowers” and a writing expressing his views on the organisation of rows in Kosovo, entitled Landing Thoughts. Nuhi Berisha was tasked by the centre, Xhafer Shatri, the main leader at the time of the LRSSHJ, member of the Movement's Central Committee and editor-in-chief of the Kosovo newspaper “Zer”, to make the organisation of the Movement in Kosovo. In the first place, it was tasked with catching all scattered threads of the remaining illegal lines in Kosovo and centralising them in order to act as a single organisation. Noah Berisha fulfilled the task with high responsibility.

Meanwhile, in 1983 the organization joins the new ones from prison: Rexhep Mala, Kadri Osmani, Emrush Xhemajli and Jabir Morina. Then Ali Ahmeti, Musa Xhaferi Fadil Bajrami (Macedonia), joined other activists like Ilmi Recica, Agron Morina, Shahadie Shaban (Ferizaj). Rame Bouja, (Lipjan), Hakki Gashi, Isuf Hoxha, Raif Gashi (Therand), Fehmi Laddrovci Shaban Shala, Idriz Hyseni, Ilmi Zeka, (Drenas), Xhavit Haziri, Nuhi Ahmeti and Abdullah Dorgi (Pristina). Sejdiu Veselini, Bajram Bahtiri, Africa Dzitia, Ramadan Avdiu (Pristina) also joined. Kamer Elezi, Sahit Berisha, Zymer Gashi, Feriz Hoti, Isa Krasniqi, Haki Morina (Kline). Sheriff Konjufca, Mustafe Xhemajli (Ferizaj), Bajrami Ajjet Ismet Begoli, Abdullah Rulustolli (Besssane) and others.

The closest group of freedom activists and fighters, gathered around Rexhep Mala, Kadri Osman and Nuhi Berisha, had established conviction that the time for an armed uprising had come. They planned and began to live a new organisation, in the political and military organisation. This reform organisation was to be proclaimed at the Congress of Liberation Forces in 1984, called the Kosovo War Party “, which had a base of support, logistics and LRSHJ interconnection. A project that would only be realized, 10 years later with the formation of the glorious: The Kosovo Liberation Army, from the Kosovo People's Movement in November 1994.

On the night of 11 January and 12 January 1984 in Pristina, in the face of forces of Yugoslavia's special unit, LRSSHJ activists, leaders of the War Party, in formation, Rexhep Mala and Nuhi Berisha, fell fighting with weapons and singing freedom songs until the last round. Though aware of the uneven nature of battle, they were convinced of the war to be won.

The fall of Nuhi Berisha and Rexhep Males was the inexplicable loss. But the inexorable example of their heroic resistance had clear orders that the people of Kosovo would never give up, that it would go to the end of the war, despite the sacrifices.

So Noah and Rexhepi became symbols, references, and examples for freedom fighters, followed to their deliverance, and they have remained forever.