by Xhafer Shatri

Today marks 35 years since the day that Zijah Shemsiu—a Hero of the Nation and one of the most unyielding activists of the Kosovo National Movement—was brutally killed in the Central Prison in Belgrade. Unbridled Serbian propaganda linked the arrest and brutal murder of Zijah Shemsiu to one of the most severe and sordid anti-Albanian fabrications, known as the “Martinović Case.”

This affair concerned the self-inflicted injuries of a Serbian military reservist and sexual deviant named Đorđe Martinović, who—incited by the Serbian occupying authorities—subsequently accused Albanians of being his attackers. This sordid incident took place on the very day that Zijah Shemsiu was brutally killed.

The vitriolic Serbian press did not hesitate to pin this unprecedented slander on Zijah Shemsiu’s family—even though all four men of the household had been in prison for many months, and one of them, Zijah, had been massacred that very day.

Zijah Shemsiu was born in the village of Përlepnicë, in the municipality of Gjilan, on July 1, 1950, and was killed on May 1, 1985, in the Central Prison of Belgrade.

At the age of 20, he went into exile, where he joined the Kosovo National Movement, quickly becoming one of its primary pillars. I am publishing below this piece about Zija Shemsiu, which appeared 21 years ago in issue no. 9 of the magazine “Pasqyra,” dated September 2, 1999.

Article

https://xhafershatri.info/udha-e-gjate-deri-te-liria/?