Written by Prof. Dr. Bahtijar Kryeziu. Translation Petrit Latifi
The murder and disappearance of Albanians – a Serbo-Slavic tradition (On the 110th anniversary of the execution of the Roganë Albanians by the Serbo-Chetnik gangs.
The centuries-old resistance of the Albanians in general, including that of the Roganë and the Anamorava against the Serbo-Slavic-Bulgarian enslavement, is marked by many heroic but also horrific events, which have left painful and indelible traces in the hearts of the inhabitants of this region and beyond.
This resistance continued, not only during the Turkish-Ottoman occupation, but also after 1912, since the Roganë Albanians, during all historical-national events and the resistance to the enemy, were always at their forefront. Thus, in the first years of the second decade of the 20th century, due to resistance, disobedience and non-implementation of the orders of the Serbo-Slavic government, by the so-called Vojvoda Veličko Domorovski, a Chetnik and a criminal.
Serbian executions of Albanians of Roganë in 1914
In 1914, those Roganë Albanians who were most affected by the work were taken, executed and disappeared without a trace, from the previously compiled register, such as: 1. Molla Rexhep Hyseni, 2. Rrustem Ahmet Geci, 3. Ismajl Osman Mehmeti, 4. Vesel Ismajl Osmoni, 5. Halim Ukë Mehmeti, 6. Hasan Hima.
From this execution, fate would have it that the following escaped: Ramadan Halim Uka and Hysen Fazli Mehmeti, who told about the kidnapping, the mistreatment inflicted on them and finally the execution of the 6 Roganas mentioned above.
On the fateful day, a Chetnik detachment led by Vojvoda Velički Domorovci attacked Rogana. Velički was walking along the village road with part of his notorious group (according to Ramadan A. Kryeziu), while Jefta and Niça, two bloodthirsty Serbs from the Serbian neighborhood of Kërshlanëve in Hodanoc, went out to Cukel (a slightly higher place in the middle of the village), to observe if anyone was fleeing from their homes.
From their observation point – Cukeli (a higher place in the village) they notice Rrustem Geci, coming out of Uncle Ali Hime’s house, whom they force to go out to the Musë Veseli Bridge, in the middle of the village. When Rrustem goes out to the bridge, the Chetnik gang of Vojvoda’s group ties up Rrustem. There, according to the register they had, they also take Molla Rexhepi and Hasan Hime, and then Vesel Ismajl Osmani and Ramadan Halim Uka.
After handcuffing them, they send them to the village of Hodanoc, to the Chetnik headquarters of Ali Dervish. Upon hearing this, Ismajli and Halimi, the two fathers of their two kidnapped sons, go to Hodonoc in the hope of freeing their sons, Veseli and Hasani, but, to their misfortune, these two are also kidnapped by the Chetniks and reunited with the other Roganas who are handcuffed in the house of Ali Dervishi. It is said that until the evening of that fateful day, they were mistreated and beaten mercilessly.
In the evening, after darkness had fallen, with their hands tied behind their backs and one to the other, under the escort of the Chetniks, they are taken to the place previously prepared for their execution. Upon reaching the end of Hodanoc, Ramadani and Hyseni, with their agility, manage to free their hands. Due to the great darkness, these two sit down on the side of the road and, fortunately for them, the executioners do not manage to notice them.
Fearing that they would be investigated, they entered the river (Reka e Madhe) to save their lives, even diving headfirst into the water, gasping for air with a reed stalk (shavari) – they had confessed. While they were in the river, they heard the crack of guns – the execution of their two sons and brothers without any guilt or trial.
After the bursts of fire, the Chetniks lit a light to verify if anyone had escaped alive. This is how Uncle Ramadani and Uncle Hyseni had confessed to their families after their rescue and return home, after a long time, afraid that they would be taken hostage again and executed by the Serbian barbarians.
On the day these Roganas were taken, most of the villagers, out of panic in their hearts, had fled the village and gone to Guri Gat, as we still call that place today, to escape another massacre.
After this “cleansing” action, Velički, with his group, analyzes “their success” in liquidating the “rebel” Roganas. From the register they had, they notice that they had not fully accomplished the task they had planned, it is believed, not without the “advice” of some servile Albanian traitor – as the relatives of the victims still say today.
Fearing some kind of revenge for the massacre carried out against the executed group of Roganas, the Chetniks organize the capture of the two village leaders, strong and brave men, captains, not only of the village: Vesel Ismajl Musa (my grandfather) and Raqip Avdi Sinani. And so, after two days of executing the aforementioned group, Velički, with cunning and planning, organizes a voluntary labor action (angari), somewhere in Dheu i Bardh as it is called today, with the aim of trapping Vesel and Raqip, those who did not bowed to the Voivode and one of his advisors.
Since Veseli and Raqipi go out in a cart to send their Roma servants (old men) in their place (in that action), Voivode Velički’s gang, without delay, handcuffs these two and sends them to Dervish Ali’s house in Hodonac. Veseli’s mother, Aunt Sala, worried about her son, since he was taken without warning and unprepared with clothes and food, sends the hired hand (momkin – they called him), Jashar Majhupi, to send Veseli some clothes and a little bread to Hodanoc.
Jashari goes to Hodanoc and, after entering Dervish Ali’s house, sees the brave men nailed to the wall, headless and with their pockets pulled out of their bodies (Veseli and Raqipi). Immediately after what “momki” Jashar had seen, he returned to Roganë to tell the story. He had also told this to the family of the massacred Veseli. Jashari, after having narrated with great anxiety and sadness all the horror he had seen with his own eyes, from that terrible day, had left Vesel Ismajl Musa’s house and the village of Roganë, without leaving any trace of where he had gone, and never to return there again.
It is said that the nailed ones, before giving up their lives, had asked for death as soon as possible, but the executioner (a Roma gypsie) had replied: “No gentlemen, no, reap the harvest high”.
Aunt Sala, the mother of Veseli (my grandfather), not wanting to believe the words of the salaryman Jashar, and hoping that those ominous words were not true as their salaryman had told her about her son, had gone to a village family who were believed to know something about Veseli’s fate. Upon knocking on the doors of that house, a girl came out, who had heard from the family about the case of Veseli and Raqip, and addressed Sala’s mother: “Don’t worry, Aunt Sala, Veseli and Raqip had been taken away.”
Upon hearing these bombshell words, from a broken heart and a broken spirit, Veseli’s mother replied: “In the forest, I have Veseli, I have Sahitin”, who was Veseli’s brother: Veseli was a very strong man, who stopped the cart of wood, on not so great slopes, with his own hand and usually cracked the pumpkin with his strong fist – our family and relatives told us and still tell us today.
After 4-5 days, the Serbian Chetnik gang leaves Rogana and their headquarters in Hodanoc, to continue the “cleansing” in other villages. Upon realizing this, according to the accounts of the now deceased elders: Selman Musë Veseli, Zylfi Murat Hyseni, Xhemail Fetah Shabani, Salih Shaban Ymeri, Shefki Abaz Musa, the Roganas explored the terrain around Hodanoc to find even the bodies of Rexhepi, Rrustemi, Veseli, Ismajli, Halimi, Hasani and the two executed two days later (Vesl Ismaj Musa and Raqip Avdi Sinani).
However, despite all the searches carried out in the fields, ravines and up to the hill of Bello Voda, above Hodanoc, they found no trace of the bodies of their sons anywhere. However, during this search, the Roganas had encountered numerous bodies of people who had been taken from the Dardana Highlands and executed by the Chetniks, in the streams and bushes of the slopes of Bellovoda.
That even a thorn reveals blood, as the people say, later it was learned that the 6 Roganas executed on the first terrible day, were buried in a field belonging to a Serb from Kërshlanë, today the property of the Hotnjans of Starakuqe. It is said that before the execution, according to an old Serb, a large pit was prepared in that field, for the burial of the executed Roganas and the loss of traces.
And, after the execution and the hiding of the bodies, the pit was covered, that same night and the entire field was plowed. Although the bodies of the 6 massacred of the first group are assumed (approximately) where they were buried, to this day nothing is known about the traces of the bodies of the two executed two days later (Raqipi and Veseli), neither about them nor about their horses and carts, this “school” of Serbs that was also seen in the last war in Kosovo, where over 1600 people are still missing.
After the bombing of the so-called Ura e Mbretit, in Dheu i Bardh, during the LDB by the German army, Ramiz Hysen Musa with Vesel Vesel Ismail, the son of the executed Vesel, who, on the occasion of his father’s execution, according to Albanian tradition is baptized with his father’s name, since he was still in his mother’s womb when his father was executed, they set off supposedly for Ura e Mbretit, to get iron bars for the slag – as an excuse before their families. They don’t even go there, but instead break into the house of Vojvoda Veličk Domorovc, in Domarovc, to draw Veseli’s blood.
Ramiz (Veseli’s cousin), with Veseli (Veseli’s son), enter Velički’s house, and when they ask to meet Velički, his wife comes out to them, telling them that “Velički is not at home and we don’t know anything about his whereabouts”.
Ramiz, as the eldest, enters, searches the house to kill Velički, in revenge for the murders of Veseli and Raqip, but also of his his deputies. Since he does not find him there, he throws two or three flares at Velčki’s wife, hoping that she will discover the truth about Velčki, but in vain. She does not say anything. Voivode Velčki escapes that day without a thorn in his foot.
From the information of the Rogans, learned later, it is said that Voivode Velčki Domorovci, in those days, took Ibrahmaj of Kranidell to save him, hiding him in a cart filled with straw or hay and sheltering him in the village of Kranidell. During the journey through the villages of Hodanoc, Roganë, Mučivërc, Velčki, out of fear, was covered with straw, but upon reaching the Meadows of Mučivërc, on the way to Kranipërdell, he was seen by the shepherds of Roganë sitting cross-legged on the cart loaded with straw.
For their service to Velički, the Brahimajs are rewarded with several hectares of land in the Qarakoci plain.
(* We received many details of this event from Ramadan Abaz Kryeziu (and this from grandfather Shefkiu) and I from my mother Hana (and this from her mother-in-law, my grandmother – Hamidja).
On this occasion, it should be added that it remains the moral and legal obligation and responsibility of the leaders of our state, of the Republic of Kosovo, regardless of who leads it, to do more for the victims and women who have been raped, demanding more insistently that those responsible be brought to justice by the organs of our state or the international one and receive the deserved punishment.
And finally, when it comes to the Roganas, it should be added that these 8 Roganas were massacred, killed and disappeared. According to some of our estimates, their fate, since the time of the Turkish-Ottoman and Serbian-Slavic rule, it turns out that the victims of those barbaric rule are approximately 50 victims, for whom the Roganas should also do something more.
Reference
Balkan Academia 