Petrit Latifi

In 1912, according to the Berliner Tageblotts correspondent Captain Berdos, reporting from Uskub (Shkup), the Serbian officers ordered the soldiers to cut the head of every Arnaut (Albanian). Allegedly, this due to Albanian atrocities against Serbs in previous years. Wounded Albanians in the hospitals asked for permission to remain in the hospital as they would be killed immediately if they returned to their homes. The Serbian troopers killed all Albanian adults over the age of 18 between Mitrovica and Skopje.

“Berliner Tagebloti’s correspondent, Captain Berdos, reports from Yskyb that the Serbian officers, on account of the fact that the Arnauts have in the course of time carried out massacres of Serbian women and children, had ordered the soldiers to cut off the head of every Arnaut, there was nothing else to do but to clear the Albanian people from the face of the earth.

The soldiers only too willingly obeyed orders. In all the towns of the country between Mitrowisa and In Yskyb, all adult Albanians over the age of 18, as well as many women and children, were murdered. In Yskyb’s hospitals, the sick Albanians asked for permission to remain in the hospitals, as they would be killed immediately when they returned to their homes.”

Reference

Bornholms Social-Demokrat (1902-1951), page 1.