Kosovo Massacre Memories Torment Survivors, 20 Years On

"When the line of women and children departed toward Gjakova/Djakovica, they started punching us. One person, Isuf Nushi, was wounded by the grenades and they cut his body with knives," Tahir Krasniqi told BIRN.

A total of 119 men were separated into four groups.

"The first group was of children between 13 and 17 years old. They pushed them to walk around 30 metres beyond us and executed them. The same happened with the second group. I was in the third. There were around 20 soldiers with machine guns who were shooting," Krasniqi recalled.

The last thing that Krasniqi, now 75, remembers is the moment he tried to avoid a blackthorn tree that was near his face as the executioners were preparing to act.

He does not remember when two bullets caught him in the left thigh, or when the fourth group of villagers came under fire.

"I don't know if I lost consciousness or I was in another world. I only remember the flow of water in the stream when half of my body had fallen in, and the bodies around me. It was night," he said.

He said that he stayed there for some hours without moving in the stream because a house nearby was burning and it lit up the surrounding area.

"At one point I woke up and walked through dead bodies. The last face I remember was that of 17-year-old Zaim, who came from another village and was being sheltered in my house," he said.

Moving through the water, he then saw two of his relatives who had escaped and were walking down the stream. Later, he saw that 13 people had survived. All of them were wounded.

"We walked all night through the stream and mountain until we reached the neighbouring village of Polluzhe. Only then did I see that two bullets had caught me. I didn't feel them until that moment,"...