BBC News Online: UK

A refugee's return to Kosovo

Within the next 48 hours, Sofije Shala will see her husband Nasser for the first time in the five months since she became a refugee.

Sofije, 32, and their four children, are boarding a plane on Wednesday to return to Kosovo.

From Macedonia's Skopje airport, they will be transported back to Trude, their village, which lies 7km outside Pristina.

Since April, Sofije, Leutrim, 8, Albesa, 6, Aglon, 3, and Dlerta, 11 months, have been living in a refugee centre near Leeds.

On 9 March, they were forced out of their home by Serb police, who arrived en masse to evacuate Trude.

Nasser, 34, was not home when it all happened - he had left earlier to visit his parents - and Sofije was forced to pick up her baby and her children and be herded through the village with the rest of its 800 citizens.

Through an interpreter, Ilir Hamidi, Sofije spoke to BBC News Online as she prepared to return.

She explained how the villagers made their way to Pristina, and she and her children stayed with relatives for just over a week.

She said: "On 19 March at two o'clock, masked policemen came and expelled us. We were told we had 20 minutes to get our belongings and go to Pristina train station.

"Then they sent a train for us, and there were too many people. It was overcrowded. In our carriage there was a sign which said eight people maximum. In our carriage there were 29 people.

"We were putting the children where luggage should be so that they were safe. I was very frightened. My children were very frightened.

'I thought we would die'

"After about an hour, the train was stopped and surrounded by Serb police and soldiers who frightened and intimidated us. I thought we would die. I thought we were brought there to be killed."

The train, however, continued to the Macedonian border, where the family were found shelter at Stankovec refugee camp.

Sofije said: "I did not know if Nasser was well. I did not know if he was alive, but our children were safe and I could phone my brother-in-law, Bekin, in London to tell him we were safe."

Bekin eventually heard from his brother Nasser, who said that he had been twice arrested by Serbian police in his attempts to rejoin his family in Macedonia.

Bekin told BBC News Online: "It was terrible. I didn't know what had happened to them. But then he rang from Pristina to say he was safe.

"My mother and father were safe too. They had been hiding in the mountains near Pristina.

"Nasser was held by police for 10 days at one time. He was beaten, beaten too much, but he is safe now."

Sofije says she is optimistic about the future of Kosovo, and for her family.

She said: "Nasser had a job in a factory near Pristina until eight years ago, when the Serbs took his job. They also took the jobs of his colleagues.

"He now expects that he will be able to reclaim his job in the factory, and we will have a better life.

'Our posessions are broken or stolen'

"In our village there is a road through the middle. All the houses on one side are burned. On the other side, where our house is, they are damaged, but they are still there.

"Nasser is already in our home, making things better. The windows are broken and our possessions are broken or stolen. There are no resources to fix windows, but he is doing things to repair anyway.

"We have a vegetable patch and we have our home. There is freedom and there is safety for us now.

"I am pleased to be in Britain but we need to go home now. I am optimistic. We can never go back to the way things were in our country. I don't believe it will be allowed to happen.

"Of course it will be difficult repairing and rebuilding - but it was more difficult in the conflict. I am glad and I am happy that I will see Nasser."

Relevant Stories

Refugees fly home to Kosovo (26 Jul 99 | UK)
Full text of Kosovo agreement (23 Feb 99 | Europe)

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