What we do

Luigj Ndou tells his personal story for ’DwP Histories’ describing the 90s and the events that led to the war. As a professional psychotherapist, he offers us his perspective on war and a detailed analysis of violence, perpetrators and torture as the main tools of totalitarian regimes.

During the NATO bombings, Mr. Ndou was in Belgrade as a PhD candidate. He talks about the challenges of living there, how he and his friends were captured by the Serbian police and how they suffered as prisoners in Belgrade, where they were locked up for 27 days in a police station before being sent to prison.

Ramë Manaj tells his personal story for "Dealing with the Past - Histories". He starts his narration with memories from his childhood, the difficulties and the distance of several kilometers just to reach the village school. He continues the story by retracing the 90s, the period before the war and his memories related to the important events surrounding the foundation of the Democratic League of Kosovo.

As a result of the war in Kosovo, Ramë Manaj lost his son Ylli and his younger brother Ismajli. He narrates the vicissitudes from the point of view of a family member of the forcibly disappeared and the unimaginable difficulties to discover the truth, being himself a participant and witness of the trials and commissions for the forcibly disappeared persons as a result of the war.

Svetlana talks about her personal stance on the notion of belonging. What constitutes a community, displacement, experiences of loss and grief. She tried to open a discussion on the different forms of systemic/political violence that occur in our daily lives (in our families and in other institutions). All those who are different and/or who do not conform to the prevailing social norms and values experience some form of political violence.In dark times, these types of policies often lead to more serious forms of harm, such as expulsion, suspension or death. Finally, she recounted the events leading up to the tragic summer of 1999, when her grandparents Ljubica and Jovan Lazarević were first abducted from their apartment in Gjakova, and then killed (Svetlana's grandmother is still officially listed as a missing person).

Arjeta Spahiu was the fourth invited guest in the series of oral histories for 'Dealing with the Past – Stories.' She begins the narrative by recalling a happy childhood surrounded by the care of parents within an extended family in the city of Ferizaj. It is crucial for her to differentiate between life before and after the year 1999, a year that marks the end of the war but also the confrontation with its losses. For Arjeta, this year coincides with the disappearance of her father, taken by Serbian forces. She narrates the ongoing search for him after the war, her determination not to give up, her involvement with humanitarian organizations, and the realization that thousands of others in the country shared the same fate as her father.