With a broken heart, but a strong memory, Feride Muli recounts her experiences from the massacre on May 2, 1999, in the village of Studime e Epërme, where Serbian forces massacred 116 innocent Albanian civilians.
She lost her husband, Hazir, and her brother-in-law, Asllan, that day of terror, an event that, even after 26 years, still feels as if it happened yesterday.
Her son managed to escape, but her husband Hazir and her brother-in-law Asllan were stopped and killed by Serbian forces.
“We were in Studime e Epërme. They said the Serbs were coming. We left. They told us to stop because the curfew was from 8 a.m. Serbian forces could be heard approaching. We left with tractors, around 500-600 tractors. We were on our way when it got dark. When we reached a turn, the Serbs arrived, started cursing at us. My son escaped, my husband and brother-in-law were both on the tractor, they pulled them off and shot them. We were on the tractor when one of the Serbs came up to us and said, ‘Throw the money, because we will kill all of you.’ I gave him 200 euros, knowing that they would have killed my husband if I hadn’t given it to them,” Feride Muli recalls.
After getting off the tractor, Feride faced the bitter reality. She explains how she went to the bodies of the victims.
“They came, the others came, they were speaking Serbian, I didn’t speak with them. I understand Serbian well, but I didn’t want to speak. They kept saying ‘give the money.’ I told them I didn’t have any. The girls behind me were telling me to give them the money. I said no. When he shouted at me, I told him to kill me because I didn’t have any. He told me to get back on the tractor. Where could I go? My husband had been killed. I asked a cousin where Hazir was. They said, ‘He’s there.’ They had killed them both. My daughter ran after the tractor. The jeeps arrived, and the lights went out. My daughter said, ‘Mom, are those four legs showing, are they humans or animals?’ I said, ‘No, those are people.’ Immediately, it crossed my mind. The jeep passed, and I went to the bodies. When I got there, my husband was lying on his back, I touched him. He was cold. I was returning, I called my daughter, and she asked, ‘Mom, what happened?’ I said, ‘They must have killed him,'” she recalled for EO.
116 innocent civilians—men, women, boys, and girls—were killed and massacred in a brutal and inhuman way by Serbian criminal forces on May 2, 1999, in Studime, Vushtrri. Now, after 26 years, none of the Serbian criminals responsible for this crime have faced justice for their actions.
