Written by Besim Muhadri and Nexhat Çoçaj.
Ujzit te Hasit or Ujz massacre (alb: Masakra e Ujzit te Hasit).
On November 1913, the Serbian army in Ujzi of Hasi killed and burned 72 Albanians, members of the family of the patriot Avdyl Zeqa, participants in the Albanian League of Prizren. Among the massacred and burned were ten children and infants in cradles and as many women. This was one of the most terrible massacres of that time, which the press of the time also wrote about.
On November 28, 1912, Albania’s independence was proclaimed, meanwhile, a large part of the Albanian lands remained under foreign occupation, namely neighboring countries, which continued to exercise terror against the defenseless and forgotten Albanian population. The year 1913 also marks the setting of the borders, which was crossed by a great dissatisfaction of the Albanian population, due to the further fragmentation of the Albanian villages and the division of the population into many parts.
The annexation of the Albanian-majority inhabited areas (remaining outside the administrative borders of Albania), sanctioned by the Conference of Ambassadors in London, was also accompanied by the establishment of a brutal, oppressive and criminal Serbian regime. At this time, in Kosovo, Serbian and Montenegrin terror was unbearable, due to Serbia’s dissatisfaction with the decisions of the London Conference for the non-realization of its hegemonic appetites, and the failure to fulfill the old dream of taking the preferred parts from it and the provision of a corridor for access to the sea, arbitrarily establishes a “strategic border”, which passed along the Drin valley.
During this time, especially during the summer months of 1913, there were many persecutions and murders against the Albanian population. At this time, the execution of Albanians was carried out without any trials, while the resistance of the Albanians continued by the Kachak groups in many parts of Kosovo, where preparations were being made for a major uprising against the Serbian military-police regime, which was massacring and terrorizing the vulnerable Albanian population.
Meanwhile, towards the end of August and the beginning of September of that year (1913), the Albanian National Movement, led by Isa Boletini, Bajram Curri, Elez Isufi, Qazim Lika, Sadik Rama, etc., was making the final preparations to launch in armed insurrection. The Serbian government, meanwhile, when the uprising broke out, officially declared that it would extinguish these uprisings in any way, even using unprecedented methods.
When the Ujzit of Hasit (alb: Ujzit te Hasit) massacre happened, 72 Albanians from the Gashi family of Ujzi were killed and burned alive, and this was documented by the press of the time. Thus, the researcher Xheladin Shala, in his book “Albanian-Serbian Relations 1912-1918”, quoting the newspaper “Politika” of Belgrade dated November 3 and 16, 1913, among other things, writes that in a house near Gjakova the army massacred 72 people and burned them.
While the other researcher, Shaban Braha, in the book “Serbian Genocide and Albanian resistance (1844-1990)”, published in 1991 in Tirana, based on the reports of the consuls of the great powers sent from Prizren-Vienna, on 18.09.1913 and from Shkodra-Paris, on 21.09.1913, says, among other things, that 35 members of a family have passed away in Ujz.
The same author, in the same book, referring to the data of the newspaper “Përlindja Albanian” no. 14 of 1913, says that “In Ujz, near Drin, 32 people were locked up and burned in a house”. These data are sufficient facts to learn about the truth of this terrible event, of genocidal and criminal proportions against humanity in general and the Albanian people, in particular, committed by the Serbian army 91 years ago.
The dates of the occurrence of this event noted by the aforementioned scholars, who are referred to in the annals of the newspapers of the time, seem to match the account of its eyewitness, the old man Cufë Sadik Gashi, from Ujzi (1903 – 1997), who eleven years ago, at our request, agreed to tell how that event had happened, what he had seen and experienced as a child and his close family who managed to escape.
Cufë Gashi, who at that time was a ten-year-old child, what he saw he was not only able to remember well, but in a certain way also talks about the circumstances and the cause of its occurrence. Those who were massacred not only had neighbors, but also people of the tribe, of blood and flesh, as he expressed at that time. Now when we are republishing this (because part of the writing has been published eleven years ago in the local magazine “Etja te Hasit”), the witness Cufë Sadiku is no longer among us, but his authentic words and confessions have remained.
The killing of two gendarmes or the pretext of committing a crime
At the time when Albanian uprisings against the brutal Serbian violence had broken out in many parts of Kosovo, the Serbian regime was taking all measures to quell them. Thus, during that time, many gendarmerie and military stations were erected, which were also transformed into graves of defenseless Albanians. Such a Serbian gendarmerie station was also set up in Fshaj of Has.
“It was the fall of 1913, during the time of the corn harvest, which means the time between the months of September and November. During this time, Serbian gendarmes in a house in the village of Fshaj investigated two Albanian criminals. There were three gendarmeries at the gendarmerie station, while one of them goes to ask for reinforcements in pursuit of the criminals, while the other two surround the house where the criminals were. But in the meantime, someone from the house informs the Kacaks that they were surrounded by gendarmes. Then he raises his rifle, where both gendarmes are killed. Among the dead was the chief’s secretary (secretary).
This is what Cufë Sadik Gashi, from Ujzi i Has, said about the beginning of that event, which would have serious consequences for his family and extended relatives. Cufa was no more than nine years old at that time. “When reinforcements arrived, he continues the story, the Kachaks had already fled, while the gendarmerie, when they saw their comrades dead, terrified and full of ferocity and madness, called the commander of the gendarmerie in Fshaj, Tomë Marku (always according to Cufë Gashi’s confessions ).
On that occasion, they decided to burn Tun Ceta’s house, where the Kacaks had been sheltering. The decision was made and, as a sign of revenge, they burn Tuna’s house and with it Tuna himself along with his wife. They burned them alive. The revenge continued. After the burning of Tuna’s house, Tuna himself and his wife, the reinforcements of the gendarmeries forces kept coming and increasing.
In addition to the gendarmeries, now the Serbian army also joined the action. In the evening from Fshaj, they learned about the town of Ujzi, where they suspected that the Kachaks, who had killed the two gendarmeries, might have taken refuge.
After burning Tun Ceta with all the women, the Serbs travel to the towers of Gashi in Ujzi
In Ujz, at that time, the families and towers of the Gashi Albanians, who were known for their patriotism and bravery, as well as for their generosity, hospitality and wealth, were in vogue. In the towers of Avdyl Zeqë, Ali Tafa, Jusuf Selman and Daut Sadik, who all belong to the Gashi tribe, the Albanian insurgents had their dormitories. All this patriotism and this unparalleled generosity was no accident. It had its roots much earlier.
The oldest of this family, Avdyl Zeqa (Gashi), was not only a participant of the Albanian League of Prizren, but together with Dervish Salihu from Lugishta, he was also the organizer of the Assembly of the League. Being a man with schooling (he completed madrasa), Avdyl Zeqa was also an organizer and participant of the Kaçak Movements of that time. His closest friends, incidentally, were Sulejman Vokshi, Bajram Curri, Shaban Manxholli, Azem Bejta, etc., who in Avdyli and his family had found a strong home and powerful support for the organization of uprisings and for the development of wars against the invading Serbian hordes, who at that time were wreaking havoc on the Albanian population.
“Before the Serbian and Montenegrin army and gendarmerie arrived in Ujz”, old man Cufë Sadiku said, “Hazir Makolli, who was a policeman at the time, came to our house and told my grandfather, Dauti, to remove the families from the house, because , he had told his grandfather, they also intend to call you the Sweeper. After this warning, my grandfather came out and told Avdyl Zeqa, so that they could take all the measures and remove the families from the house, but Avdyl, as a man with fiery feelings that he was, had not agreed to do such a thing.”
“A job that cannot be done”, he had said, also saying that whoever tries to do such a thing, or who will leave the house, has no place here. I remember how today, said the old man Cufë Sadik Gashi, when his grandfather came and told us to leave the house and go to the mountains with all the family members, since he had not been able to convince Avdyl to do something like that.
“We took what we could get with us. Halil Sadik’s family went up the mountain with us, but on the way, Halil’s son, Bajram, is told by his wife that he forgot the ducats (ornaments) and he returns to get them. In the meantime, the Serbian-Montenegrin army and gendarmerie had entered Ujz and caught him coming out of the house and killed him immediately at the door.”
The Serbo-Montenegrin troops barricated women and children and burned them alive
According to Cufë Sadik’s confessions, the families who had left without escaping, Serbian-Montenegrin soldiers surrounded them, at first supposedly to control them, because they suspected that the commies who had killed the gendarmes were there.
First, they tell Avdyl Zeqa to take all the relatives of the house out into the yard (45 in total) and then let them settle in Avdirrahim Halil’s house, which was built with boards. In the meantime, the Serbian soldiers and gendarmes bring the 14 members of Ali Tafa’s family, the 12 members of Jusuf Selmani’s family and the two guests from Pataçani, who were there, to that house. A total of 73 people.
The gendarmeries and the Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers searched for the fugitives, but since they could not find them, they separated only Avdyl to one side, to whom they said: “We will leave you and the ducats you have alive, otherwise, we will flay you and the whole family alive”. Meanwhile, Avdyli the old man, hoping that after the cats have received the ducats, they will go where they came, decides to give them a part of the ducats he had.
However, the Serbian war criminals and terrorists didnt stop there. After taking the ducats from Avdyli, they order him to enter the house with boards, where the other 72 members of the three families were. As soon as Avdyli enters, the criminals close the door of the house and start shooting at the people locked in there, among whom there were also ten children in cradles and many women.
After a while, the rifles stopped, which we, who were on the mountain above the village, could hear very well. We also had a lot of children and women with us, among whom I was also, who was watching that event with sadness. The criminals, after stopping their rifles, began to cut down the oaks, which we had cut for the cattle, with which they surround the house and then set it on fire.
The flame kept coming and growing between the Gashi towers. At first we only saw flames, but it wasn’t long before we started hearing the screaming of people who were being burned alive inside. That they were all our blood and flesh people. There, in that flame, which kept coming and growing, I also had many peers, with whom we were born and were growing up together. “They were screaming, they were dying painfully, oh my god” uncle Cufa confessed, whose eyes were full of sadness, remembering that distant day.
According to the confessions of the old man Cufë Sadik Gashi, Binak Avdyli (Avdyli’s son and Et’hem Tafa, Ali’s brother) had managed to escape when the fire broke out. But they were also injured. Binak died only after a few days, while Ethemi after two or three years. As Cufë Sadik Gashi told, Ethemi, who managed to live another three years, had seen how people were burning and how he had seen a Montenegrin soldier remove a child from the fire, but on the orders of to his superiors that if he did such a thing (that is, if he did not let the child burn), he would be burned instead of the child, so he had thrown it into the fire again. According to Cufa, this child was called Ukë and was the same age as his.
Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers burned children and women alive of the Avdyl Zeqa family.
And so, on that autumn day of 1913, Serbian and Montenegrin criminals killed and even burned alive 45 members of Avdyl Zeqë’s family, of which only two survived, Smajli, Avdyl’s son, who did not was at home and his wife, Shaha, who was at home in Ramoc. Then 13 members of Ali Tafa’s family were killed and burned, and then the fourteenth, Et’hemi, also died of wounds.
From the family of Jusuf Selman, all of the twelve were burned, none remained. Even from Avdyl’s family, there would have been no one left, if Smajl’s wife, Shaha, had not been shot in the groin, who was also pregnant and only three months later gave birth to a son, who was baptized with the name of the first in the family. , Avdylit. of which there are 60 members today. The gendarmes will also kill Smajli upon returning to Kosovo, with the sole purpose of losing the traces of this crime and extinguishing the family of the patriot Avdyl Zeqa.
The Serbian and Montenegrin war criminals stole the animals and cattle
After committing the barbaric and inhumane act of massacring and burning 72 Albanians, the Serbian and Montenegrin criminal army and gendarmeries completely burned the Gashi towers, and took with them 1,500 sheep, about 100 cows and some horses, and sold them in the market. Before burning the towers, the Serbs looted everything that was to be looted.
Only the tower of Daut Sadik remained unburnt, also of the Gashis. “They left this with the intention of turning on us and killing us alive inside,” said the old man Cufë Sadik Gashi. But we, knowing the insidious intention of the criminals, did not return home for almost two years, during which time we stayed in Albania. When the Serbs saw that we had no intention of returning, they also burned our tower, so with the burning of our tower, the entire homeland of the Gashans of Ujzi was razed to the ground, said old man Cufë.
Two years after the Serbian and Montenegrin armys and gendarmeries burned 72 people of the Gashi families of Ujzi and all their property, the military-police power with a decree declared the victims innocent. But even after this time, Daut Sadik Gashi, who was in Albania with his family, did not believe that he would return to his soil, because what had happened two years ago was hard to forget and he was afraid that the Serbs would just do the same to him as well.
But, finally, he decided to return to Ujz, to the troll turned to ashes and ashes, where for two years in a row no human had dared to set foot. There were signs of carnage, almost frenzied. There were the burnt and charred memories. The flames, the smoke, the smell of burning human flesh, and the screams of the people in his womb as they burned alive. “It was difficult for us to return”, confessed Cufë, remembering the moment of returning.
He was now twelve years old. He now missed all his childhood friends, he also missed Uka, whom the Serbian soldier had wanted to save, but who, under pressure from his superiors, had thrown him into the fire again. “The day of our return was the saddest day in my life,” said the old man Cufë Sadik Gashi. He began to cry.
In the place where Avdirrahim Gashi’s clapboard house was two years ago, there were traces of crime, traces of death and barbarism. There, instead of the house, was the pile of bones of my men, which looked as if someone had carefully stacked them one on top of the other. But the worst thing was that many bones were missing, which had been scattered by wild animals all over the mountain. We found many of them far from the scene.
I remember like today when grandfather Daut, father Sadiku, grandmother and us children spent the whole day looking for and collecting the remains of our people who were scattered in many places. And after we collected what we could find, in the place where they were burned, the grandfather opened a big pit in the shape of a grave and with tears in his eyes he started to fold them one by one.
We covered them like that together to preserve the memory and the painful history that happened at that time, so that one day someone would remember that a massacre had taken place here, a crime had taken place, committed by a foreign army against a people vulnerable and left almost orphaned. This is the story of the Gashi tribe of Ujzi, which happened eighty years ago, said Cufë Sadik Gashi eleven years ago, the direct witness of that event, which was later followed by many others of the same kind.
“This is the story of that tragic event, as far as I remember, Cufë Sadik Gashi, born one hundred years ago”, said the old man, alluding to all those experiences and suffering carried on his ninety-year-old back. “Perhaps I have forgotten something, but forgive me for saying that I am old and tired. But know that what happened here was not accidental.”
The “Shkije” (Slavs) never do it out of spite, because they have it all written down, and I bet that such things can be repeated, so be careful, said the old man in 1993, five years before the war in Kosovo started. Chilling events are happening like the one in 1913 that he saw and experienced himself. But what the old man Cufë said and that he was afraid that they could happen, he did not manage to experience again, because only a year before the war for the liberation of these lands began, by those who had done all that massacres and crimes and they were committing them, he left this world and went to meet the people of his blood and womb, whose cries he felt and saw when they were killed and burned alive.
Reference
Balkan Academia 