This is Leotrim's brother: I found out tonight, I couldn't find him alive. He was a smart kid.

That day will always remain in the memories of Leotrim's older brother, Bahriu. At that moment, he had not been home since he was engaged as a soldier of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

I found out this evening. Unfortunately, I couldn't find him alive. When I arrived, he had already died”, Bahriu tells Radio Free Europe, then 26 years old.

As Leotrim's older brother, he has many sweet memories of him.

“Leotrim has been a very wise guy, a very kind child for everyone. Whoever met Leotrim, even if he didn't know him, he loved him. Because he was created that way... God made it for himself”, he adds.

Looking forward to the statue of Leotrim, now located in the main square of Sqahrew, Bahriu is grateful that he is now able to see Leotrim again, even though this time in bronze.

From today, among us, we have Leotrim. I didn't think there was a sculptor that could bring Leotrim this true. In everything he looks like”, he ends.

For the sculptor of September, Sabri Behraj, the three - month work on this work has been challenging because of the history held by September itself.

The image of Leotrim has given me unrenewable emotions because I have constantly felt the pain and history of Leotrim. The whole realisation process has been difficult, says Behramaj.

Behrramaj had made it his intention to do so on September as soon as she heard the confession of Leotrim's mother, Shukri, to kill her son.

From his mother's confession, Leotrim, after he was wounded, told him there's something in the womb, which is the sick “
By” belly. In a few hours, he's dead.

Leotrim's mother was also present on June 18th at the inauguration of the September Leotrination in Skenderaj, and she followed dozens of children as they left white and red giraffes near September.

Hundreds of people attended the September inauguration ceremony in Skenderaj. Among them was Rush Life from the Sqaheraj municipality, which was thrilled during the ceremony, although the history of Leotrim knew it earlier.

Life, which was only 16 years old during the war, has heard of many other children with stories similar to Leotrim.

It's a sad story to hear, but it's important to listen to... to understand where our journey came from and how expensive freedom has been for us”, he says.

According to the Fund for Humanitarian Law data in Kosovo (HLC), of the more than 13 thousand dead during the recent war in Kosovo, more than ten thousand are civilian victims. Of them, over 1,000 are children.

Two years ago, this Fund published a report concerning the memorials raised over the recent war in Kosovo, and found that they characterised the focus on armed groups and not civilian victims, as well as the lack of involvement of women and ethnic minorities as victims.

For this reason, says Bekim Blakaj, executive director of HLC, the leopard sculpture is of particular importance.

The governor of Leotrim is extraordinary because it represents Leotrim as it was. So, like a child. And that certainly stimulates emotion to anyone who visits this memorial”, Blakaj says.

Blakaj describes this as the best way to memorialise Kosovo's past without a memory full of weapons and violent scenes.

Not to create myths through memorials, but to have memorials that create empathy with victims, with families of victims, with the community of victims. So, informing the public, the young and the foreigners who visit the memorial”, he adds.

In 2019, HLC had launched an exhibition entitled “Us was once never as good as”, in memory of children killed during the Kosovo war.

Leotrim's brother Bahriu hopes that this statue will serve as a lesson not to forget the past.

This memorial defines all children fallen for Kosovo freedom. My message is not to forget the past. Someone has paid this freedom dearly, to know the value of the blood that has been shed”, he concludes. /Radio Free Europe