A gun, some cartridges, a friend by the side. In the middle of 1998, Bekim Shala stood for half an hour positioned near the mosque in his native village, Shala e Lipjan – the central part of Kosovo. He and his comrade in arms expected to face the Serbian forces. Although not sufficiently armed, they had come out there in defense of the thousands of refugees sheltered at that time in Şala.
“An incredible feeling when you wait for an enemy. I don’t know if you will come out with armored vehicles, tanks or what… Meanwhile, you are only with a rifle and some cartridges”, Shala says to Radio Free Europe. After a while of waiting, he started towards Gryka e Shala, met another soldier and settled near the place known as Lugu i Unaza, together with other soldiers. He remembers that from the resistance of the soldiers on the front line, the civilians gathered in Shala that day were saved.
This was not the first time that Shala had taken up a weapon in his hands, ready to die. Only 23 years old at the time, Shala tells how he was forced to think about death several times. But, he says that, more than his life, the lives of the civilians in the village were important to him. The sense of responsibility did not let him sleep comfortably at night, as he was listening to any crackling, any shouting, any noise…
“There is no person who is comfortable any night. Since then, I don’t think there is a KLA soldier who sleeps well because of the maximum concentration we had to have during the war”, says Shala, more than 25 years later. Shala contributed to the KLA mainly in terms of logistics, such as recruiting new soldiers. A few days after the end of the war, he lost one of his legs after falling into a mine, as he, together with other members of the KLA, tried to isolate some areas.
“Then, the post-war part was more difficult, especially for those of us who lost limbs. We had to revive ourselves once again, gather our physical and psychological strength to stand up once again”, he says. For Shala, recovery did not take long. He started his pedagogy studies at the Faculty of Philosophy immediately and in 2001 he was employed as a psychology teacher. In these books, he found the help he needed.
“A psychological tip is like giving him a mountain of money… it can often solve a problem,” he says.
But for his fellow soldiers, Shala often experienced disappointment when he saw them emotionally burdened, due to problems finding housing, money or work. His younger brother, who was also part of the KLA, was forced to emigrate due to poor conditions.
Shala says that there are veterans who committed suicide, as a result of the problems that appeared after the war. “In our country, after the war, there was not even a branch of psychology at the University of Pristina, there was no person to deal with these individuals. The biggest help has been the family”, says Shala.
Since 2015, veterans of the 1998/99 war in Kosovo, who have been unemployed, receive a monthly pension of 170 euros. According to the data of the Government of Kosovo, more than 53 thousand people have the status of combatant veteran, while, according to the data of the Statistics Agency of Kosovo, almost 37 thousand are beneficiaries of the scheme for war veterans.
However, they have not been offered any free services for the treatment of trauma experienced during the war. Neither the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, nor the Ministry of Health responded to REL’s interest in this topic. The establishment of the Posttraumatic Stress Center for KLA Veterans was foreseen by the Law on Veterans, approved in 2014. But, even a decade later, the establishment of this center was not realized. “Today, that day remains only on paper,” says Xhevdet Qeriqi, head of the Kosovo Field branch of the Association of War Invalids, for REL.
He says that, since the war, there are about 100 veterans who have committed suicide. There are no data related to the psycho-social problems of the veterans of the last war in Kosovo. One of the few related studies, published by psychiatrist Ramadan Halimi in 2015, found that 52.6 percent of the veterans included in the study suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
According to the American Psychiatric Association, PTSD is “a psychiatric disorder that can occur in people who have experienced a traumatic event” and that is manifested by “strong and disturbing thoughts and feelings related to their experience and lasting even after the end of the traumatic event”. In the study entitled “Psycho-social characteristics of Kosovo war veterans”, Halimi also observed a high degree of suicide risk, hatred and desire for revenge. Now, nine years after the publication of this research, he expresses concern that this field still remains understudied in Kosovo. “We don’t know how serious this problem really is. And when we don’t know, then we only see the tip of the iceberg. It is enough to be exposed to an event like that of Banjska [v.j. armed attack in the north of Kosovo in 2023], or a war in the vicinity, to remind them of the trauma and the problems reappear”, says Halimi for REL.
He says that now in Kosovo there are enough clinical psychologists who could treat veterans suffering from mental health problems. “We have not had a regular army like in other countries in the world. In our country, there was no proper training, no proper supply, the soldiers had to protect not only themselves or their comrades, but also the displaced population and the family. The psychological pressure on them has been greater than in other armies in the world,” he adds.
And, while he says the expectations for KLA soldiers to deal with mental health issues have been high, for a long time it has been stigma that has made them reluctant to seek psychological services.
“It’s the mentality that if you’re scared, you’re not a man. “You were scared, you questioned all that manhood you did.” This has extended the period until help was requested”, says Halimi.
In the absence of a specialized and free psychological service for veterans, they often found support in each other, says former member of the KLA, Shala. “Soldiers are so connected that they don’t even feel the age difference between them. Simply, they feel proud that they have contributed to their country”, he says./Rel/
