Deadly Provocation: How Village Killings Kindled Kosovo’s Resistance

Sejdiu was not in Qirez/Cirez that day as he was visiting a relative, but when he tried to return, he soon found out that the village was packed with Serbian forces.

"I was told by dozens of local residents that in Likoshan and Qirez, a battle was unfolding and I heard voices telling me to stop going forward," he recalled.

Sejdiu knew nothing of the fate of his family and only later after the gunfire ceased after midday did he enter the village.

"On the way, I met a person from our village who was crying. Two members of his family were killed while his father was also wounded and he told me that 'your sons were killed'," he recalled.

When Sejdiu got home, his wife told him that she was inside the house when three uniformed policemen executed his four sons and two other men who happened to be in the back yard of the family house that day.

"When I reached the yard and I saw my four sons lying there, I just had to lean on God," he said.

As well as his wife, his daughter-in-law and her children had witnessed the killings in their yard.

"I didn't let my daughter-in-law or my wife remain near the bodies as I was afraid about the effects that scene could have on them," said Sejdiu, who now lives with his daughter-in-law, nephew and niece after his wife passed away in 2020.

'The attack was to terrify other families'

Lah Hasani at the monument to the men killed in Likoshan/Likosane in February 1998. Photo: Agan Kosumi.

A report by international campaign group Human Rights Watch said that Serbian special forces staged a series of armed operations on February 28, 1999 and in the week that followed in the Drenica area, claiming they were pursuing KLA 'terrorists' who had attacked...