Photos and stories, little sweaters and shoes, a cradle and marbles: An exhibition remembers children killed in the Kosovo War, which ended 20 years ago.
Image: DW/V. Çerkini
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"Once upon a time and never again" is the title of a new exhibition in Kosovo's capital city, Pristina. It is being held two decades after the Kosovo War ended in remembrance of the more than 1,000 children who lost their lives during the conflict.
Photographs and stories, as well as personal belongings, such as little sweaters and shoes, a cradle and marbles a child once played with all feature in the exhibition. The parents of the young victims have held onto the items to this day as reminders of those they have lost.
Remembering lost family
Ejup Caraku from Poklek, a village near Pristina, lost four family members in the war. His two sons, Hasan, 12, and Berat, 13, were killed along with his wife, Baftija, 30, and his sister-in-law, Mihria, 47. It means a lot to him that there is now an exhibition commemorating the youngest victims of war.
"I very much appreciate the idea behind this exhibition. It is good that someone has thought about our children and done something to remember them. We feel a sense of relief, although we know that our wives and children can never be brought back," said Caraku.
Items belonging to the victims create a moving remembrance at the exhibitionImage: DW/V. Çerkini
Mejreme Kelmendi's children were also killed during the war. She said it's painful to recall the details of the deaths of her sons, Haxhiu and Besimi. The two were only 10 and 12 years old when they died.
"In this exhibition, you can see the blanket I used to cover my children. I wish that the bullets had hit me instead of my children. Then I would not have to see their pictures hanging in this exhibition," she said.
Visitors from all over Europe have already seen the exhibition. Albin Morina, 20, whose mother fled to Germany before the conflict in Kosovo, made the trip especially to see it.
"I myself lost my father in the war. My mother was pregnant with me, and I never had the chance to get to know him. It's certainly good to have such an exhibition to see what we have experienced in the war, and how poor, innocent children died. It is simply moving," said Morina.
"To this day, there is no monument or day of remembrance to commemorate the children who lost their lives," said Dea Dedi of the Humanitarian Law Center Kosovo, which organized the exhibition. According to the center, a total of 1,024 children lost their lives during the war and 109 are still missing.
The exhibition wants to remind people of the war in a bid to prevent such a conflict happening againImage: DW/V. Çerkini
'So that something like this never happens again'
"We feel it important that the children who were murdered or vanished during the Kosovo war are not forgotten. We contacted their families to get information about the children," said Dedi.
"We told them about the exhibition and that we wanted to do something to remember them. The families were extremely cooperative and helpful, and supported our idea," she said.
She explained that obtaining the children's clothing, school supplies and pictures from their parents was not easy. Most things were burned or lost in the war, and many parents are left with only the memory.
But she believes that it's nevertheless important to remember the children who were killed. "Twenty years after the end of the war, we as a society have to come to terms with what this country has experienced so that something like this never happens again," she said.
The exhibition is on show at the Hivzi Sylejmani Library in Pristina until May 2020.
NATO intervention against Serbia — a look back
The 1999 NATO bombardment of Serbia ended that country's violence against Kosovo Albanians. Still, more than 20 years later, the war, which was conducted without UN backing, remains controversial.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Traces of war on the Kosovo field
The Kosovo conflict intensified at the end of the 1990s. Ten thousand people were displaced. When all efforts to bring peace to the region failed, NATO started air strikes on Serbian military bases and strategic targets in Serbia on March 24, 1999. After 11 weeks, Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic finally backed down.
Image: Eric Feferberg/AFP/GettyImages
Non-violent resistance fails
Protests against Belgrade's attempts to undermine the rights of the Albanian majority in Kosovo began in the mid-1980s. The 1990s saw a massive increase in Serbian repression. Ibrahim Rugova (l.), who took the reins of Kosovo's political movement in 1989, called for non-violent resistance and sought to convince Slobodan Milosevic (r.) to change course — to no avail.
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Armed guerrilla war
An armed resistance formed in Kosovo, in which the self-proclaimed Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) began a brutal guerrilla war. The UCK undertook violent attacks on Serbia as well as against Albanians it considered to be collaborators. Serbia retaliated by torching houses and looting businesses. Hundreds of thousands of people fled.
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Systematic expulsion
The war grew increasingly brutal and Serbian forces stepped up attacks on civilians in an attempt to destroy the UCK and its supporters. Scores of people fled into the forests. Thousands of Kosovo Albanians were loaded onto trains and trucks to be transported to the border, where they were thrown out without passports or other personal documents that could prove they were from Kosovo.
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Last attempt to negotiate
In February 1999, the USA, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and Germany convened a meeting of warring parties in Rambouillet, France, in an attempt to establish autonomy for Kosovo. Kosovan representatives accepted the proposal, yet Serbia was unwilling to compromise. The negotiations collapsed.
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'Humanitarian intervention'
On March 24, 1999, NATO began bombing military and strategic targets in Serbia and Kosovo in an attempt to end violence against the Albanians. Germany also participated in the bombing. "Operation Allied Force" became the first war in NATO's 50-year history — one conducted without the backing of the UN Security Council. Russia harshly criticized the intervention.
Image: U.S. Navy/Getty Images
Crippled infrastructure
Beyond military targets, NATO also bombed supply lines, train tracks and bridges. Over the course of 79 days and nights, allied forces flew more than 37,000 sorties. Some 20,000 missiles and bombs rained down on Serbia. Many civilians were killed: "collateral damage," in the words of NATO.
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Toxic cloud over Pancevo
Industrial sites were also targeted. In Pancevo, near Belgrade, NATO bombs hit a chemical and fertilizer factory. Massive amounts of toxic substances were released into rivers, the ground and the skies — resulting in grave health risks for the nearby civilian population. Moreover, Serbia accused NATO of deploying uranium-enriched munitions as well as cluster and fragment bombs.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Targeting the propaganda machine
State television offices in Belgrade were attacked in an attempt to deprive Slobodan Milosevic of his most important propaganda tool. Although the Serbian government was warned of an impending attack in time, Belgrade withheld that information. Sixteen people were killed when the site was bombed.
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Misguided bombs
NATO bombs in Kosovo inadvertently hit a group of Albanian refugees, killing an estimated 80 people. NATO also claimed that the accidental bombardment of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was another case of "collateral damage." Four people were killed in the misguided attack, leading to a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Washington.
Image: Joel Robine/AFP/GettyImages
The ghastly toll of war
In early June, Belgrade signaled that Slobodan Milosevic might be prepared to surrender, prompting NATO to end its campaign on June 19. The final toll of the war: thousands of dead and 860,000 refugees. Serbia's economy and large swaths of its infrastructure were destroyed. Kosovo was put under UN administration.
