Confession of survivors in Dubrava Prison Massacre: We're still carrying wounds in the body, justice s'u decided

25 years after that macabre act, Rexhepi has confessed to Online Economy, how he managed to escape this massacre of Serb forces, who had used NATO bombings to execute all prisoners.

Rexhepi shows how during the attempt to visit his family, he was kidnapped by Serb forces to be persecuted by Serbs in prisons where he was sent.

“On the way to visit the family after the August offensive, I have been kidnapped by Serbian forces with the help of Albanian collocationists in the vicinity of Blineja. From there I was sent to state security in Pristina. There I had seven days of suffering, persecution on the brink of death, and then I was sent to cell number one in Pristina, and there I stayed a long time until the start of the NATO bombings, and then brought here to the Dubrava” prison, says Rexhepi, as it tells of the purpose that Serb paramilitary forces had on Albanians.

He says 24 Albanians have been killed by NATO bombings, while Serbs have continued firing.

The goal was known for our execution, and the bombing of May 19 has begun here. NATO and those NATO bombings have killed 24 people I have seen with my own eyes, and then Serbs have taken advantage of the occasion and killed hundreds of other Albanians with the intention of leaving NATO behind. On May 22nd we were lined up right next to the wall, where I was among them all and suddenly I was standing right, I saw the grenades when they came in, and my destiny that I fell to the ground that I had a little war experience and I didn't move any more. When I fell to the ground, I had a bit of a nackle left, and all the jackna parts were pierced by bullets. I've stayed half an hour and half an hour later the situation has calmed down and I've been up and there's some that the exact number is not known because we've been trying to write down the names of what we've known and there's about 200 dead, like the number and over 600 injured”, Rexhepi said.

Rexhepi cites even one mistake the Serbs said they were making at the time.

The Serbs made a small mistake that many do not know. On May 23rd, some foreign journalists in their midst were a reporter from the BBC, came with a friend from Belgrade, because their idea was propaganda that Albanians were killed by NATO bombings, and when journalists from Belgrade come and see people killed with bullets, and at that moment they order them to stop filming that the truth was discovered and that's why we've saved”, Rexhepi said, as he indicated that after four days Serbian forces had been organised from Dubva. He says he has managed to see many killed in the courtyards, the peaches of every piece of Dubrava.

This has taken four days, it's a terrible slaughter because it's been a long time, we haven't even eaten or drunk, but we've been trying to save our heads in the wells and we can. Four days later they organized buses. We've been put in buses, the wounded in the killing truck have been lying that way across the yard, wells, basement”, Rexhepi says.

Even the other survivor of this massacre, Valdet Rama, in a story about Online Economics, tells of what they experienced 25 years earlier when the May 19, 1999.

I was in ward B and we went out, we experienced those horrors, there were killed, wounded, as I said, survivors. That series from 19 May to 24. On May 22nd, we've been listed here by Serb forces and we've been told that there's no security here anymore and we want to transfer to Nis, even then the Serb bombings started here in this area and we've been left near 300 injured, about 170 are killed and the others have escaped, have been hiding because they've fired every time, lasted three or four hours. I'm left injured, seven wounds are in my body, and after three or four hours the situation has calmed down, then the prisoners have taken us to ward C, and there I've got some sheet treatments, and there's Bislim Zogaj, and many others have helped us, tied the wounds to sheets. Then on May 24th, we were transferred to the Lupjan prison, and thus continued to the Pozharevci prison and released on March 16, 2001”, Rama told Online Economy.

Rama has expressed disappointment over not bringing criminals who have caused this massacre to justice.

He even says that after 25 years he was interviewed by the Prosecutor for the massacre.

After 24 years of this event have become very successful, but in this direction, it's a little bit about justice, I can tell you, there's no initiative to catch those criminals of this massacre, no one has responded to this massacre and remains as a shadow. We actually know what happened here, like survivors. From the state since 17 this month, special prosecution has been interviewing me at home, receiving the notes, after 25 years it means this on May 17 of this month I've been interviewed”, Rama stressed.