Who were the members of the units from Kosovo that arrived in Bar?

Continuation of yesterday text "At the Center of the Event: A Witness' Account"

…That's how we escaped without danger. I was looking out the window of Monopol, into the passage of a Kosovar, half of the skull from the head with the entire brain in that circle was blown away by the bullet, and the Kosovar with the rest of the body and the other half of the head was lying under the window. It was terrible to look at. Everyone was dressed the same in some tight cloth pants, and jamadans, and they all had white fez and red belts. When we came out in front of the entrance door of the courtyard of Monopol, there is something to see here too. All along that road, Kosovars were lined up eight in a row. At the moment when they opened fire on Martinović, it is clear what an avalanche it was when Martinović opened fire on the eight-line formation of Kosovars. It was not only Martinović who opened fire, but several automatic weapons opened fire on them at the same time. You could only see the dead on the road, one over the other. You cannot see the road of dead bodies all the way to the bridge leading to the entrance to Bar. Streams of blood flow onto the roads in puddles.

I hear gunfire on all sides, in the fields and on the outskirts of Old and New Bar, in positions around New and Old Bar, in Zaljevo and in various villages around Bar. These units immediately took up positions to prevent the Kosovars from escaping to the hills. Some had hidden in houses, so they jumped up and tried to save themselves and escape. It was interesting to watch them, running and jumping around, they looked like chamois, like some savages. During the entire fight, they tried to seize weapons from the partisans, attacking one by one in groups, and they managed to seize a rifle from one of the partisans, but they were unable to seize the ammunition. So they tried to penetrate in groups with our rifles, holding them at the ready. They had not only managed to seize a rifle from our men, but they had also seized a machine gun from one of our comrades, and a rifle. The Kosovars did not hold the weapons stolen from the partisans for long, but our partisans attacked them and stole their weapons.

Group after group of captured Kosovars had already started arriving, our partisans were escorting them towards Pristan. Kosovars were shouting slogans like "Long live Tito", you could just hear them shouting such slogans all over Bar. They were passing by the pile of dead and wounded but were constantly chanting slogans like "Long live the Partisans" and "Long live Tito". A place was designated on Pristan by the port, on that sand, for everyone to gather here and first be searched in the passage by the stairs that lead to the sand. The search began, columns of Belokapovićs were constantly arriving. Weapons, pistols and bombs, as well as daggers were found with them. They managed to hide these weapons with them when they were captured in Kosmet. More than 300 bombs were found with them, of various kinds - German, Italian, English, American, and Yugoslav. About 60 pistols of various calibers and several daggers were found. They were all gathered on Pristan on this sand.

One of them tries to escape towards the sea, starts wading into the sea and when the water is already up to his neck, he starts swimming dressed. He moves away from the shore, we watch him, one of them wants to shoot him, to kill him, but our commander doesn't let him, let's see what he wants, he'll do it as long as he wants. He moves almost half a kilometer away, and then a boat with two partisans sails after him, catches up with him and they start to throw him in, although he tries to escape them too. They throw him into the boat and bring him to his comrades. Well, from that example, you can conclude what kind of Kosovars they were, like wild animals. Our male and female nurses, helping the other partisans, immediately started to transfer the wounded Kosovars to the hospital, having previously bandaged them on the spot. There were many wounded. There were many who were not helped by any medicine or doctors, who could not have stayed alive even if they had been put in the most modern hospitals with the greatest medical specialists. What could be done with such people, but with one bullet each, to stop them from suffering further. The hospital was filled, as were several private houses, with the wounded.

Later, after all the Kosovars who had fled to Pristan were gathered, the transfer of those who were in Monopol to Pristan began, and they walked the entire way raising the slogans "Long live Tito and the Partisans". Machine guns and submachine guns were set up on all sides. And so this group of Kosovars remained under guard on Pristan all night. Several ships had already arrived at the dock to transport these Kosovars to Istria and Croatia and distribute them among our units. On the very first evening before nightfall, at the same time as the wounded were taken to the hospital, our partisans collected the dead bodies of Kosovars at the railway station, loaded them into wagons, so that the dead could be transported somewhere further away from Bar. About XXX -700, seven hundred dead were collected, four wagons were filled with dead Kosovars. These Kosovars were full of money, especially medicine. Many of them had jewelry and watches, mostly Turkish pocket chains, rings and money. There were also those who took something when they were thrown into the wagons, although this was strictly forbidden, somehow all this seemed hateful to me.So around 700 dead bodies were taken by rail, pulled out somewhere below Sutorman, doused with gasoline and set on fire. Since there was no time and no one could bury such a mass.

I wondered later how and why it was thought that all this had happened. From the interrogation of these Kosovars, it was concluded that Chetnik propaganda had been circulating through them along the way. Someone told them somewhere along the way, when they were resting, that the partisans were taking you, that they wanted to take you by sea and throw you into the sea. They didn't want to waste bullets on you to kill you, and they didn't have enough food to keep you in prison, they didn't have any, and so they decided to throw you into the sea. And when they got to Bar, they saw many ships at the dock, they thought it really seemed like it would happen to us as he said, and that's why they organized themselves to try to escape, and it seemed to them that there weren't many partisans in Bar and that they might succeed. That's how it really looked, they saw few units, only headquarters units, the rest were in positions. Maybe they thought, there are few of them, we will manage to disarm them, take over this terrain, and gradually expand.

That's how this whole tragedy ended. Basically, I've never been in a worse predicament or situation than when I was among the Kosovars - only fourth, expecting death from both the Kosovars and the partisans. The moment when I entered the Germans and Chetniks at Podbižur for half a kilometer was still easier for me, although it wasn't easy either. Especially since I didn't have to get into such a situation in Bar, but I just happened to go out to see what was going on, and got into such a predicament[1]...

In attempting to convey this interesting account of an event for which there are relatively few primary sources, we are obliged to scientifically determine our position on it and its content. First, it is undeniable that any statement of this nature is necessarily subjective, and unfounded acceptance of it as fact would be an unacceptable professional and scientific interpretation.

The value of the quoted statement lies primarily in the fact that we can compare it with the written testimonies of survivors ("on the other side") and that we can position some facts based on comparative analysis, with the obligatory note that for them to be truly "true" they would have to be confirmed by other historical sources.

But, regardless, we will dare to position and consider some important facts, leaving open the possibility that they may be changed, strengthened, and even disputed by new, more comprehensive research:

First fact which can be partly deduced from comparative narrations, concerns the question: ko Were the members of the Kosovar units that arrived in Bar, starting at the end of March 1945 - prisoners, Ballistas or mobilized partisans? Judging by Vujović's testimony, there is no doubt that these were prisoners taken after the heavy fighting in the liberation of Kosovo, whose number was so great (40.000?) that it was impossible to imprison them all or otherwise control them, and the decision was made to distribute them among partisan units in Istria and Croatia. On the other hand, this view is relativized by the testimonies of surviving Kosovars, who do not mention any fighting in Kosovo, nor capture. Hence the subtitle in the work of Kosovo researcher Mustafa Balja "Mobilized like regular army, killed like ballistas"[2] makes sense. Because, one of the narrators in the text, named Mehmed Kaplani, as one of the survivors of them "60 mobilized from Jablanica, six of whom were shot", or rather from Gornje Ljubinje where it is from "27 of them were mobilized on two occasions", Where did Kaplani come from, who explicitly states: "The mobilization took place on Saturday, March 10, 1945, when they gathered us and took us to Sredska, and then to Prizren. At the beginning, they informed us that they were taking us to help the partisans in the fight against the Germans who had dug in somewhere on the coast. Vojo Mandušić, a sergeant by rank, was with us from Sredska. Those who had a 'pick' from the authorities were mobilized.

This witness claims that among them, besides Albanians, there were others who were "mobilized": Serbs, Montenegrins, Bosniaks, and he lists some of these names. Similar statements are made by other survivors, of whom Balje concentrated mainly on those originally from Župa, Gora near Prizren, among whom was the miller Bedžet Demiri, who escaped "mobilization", but who claimed that he was informed about the massacre in Bar by the partisan Anila and that based on her testimony he was certain: "It was, in fact, a set-up. Several thousand people were killed there.". So after the massacre in Bar, Anila, a partisan, informed me. She also informed me that the mobilized people were being treated like regular soldiers here, and that they were being killed there like ballistas." Allegedly, describing the details of the massacre, Anila told him: "She told me that there were a lot of Chetniks there who helped with the shooting."... [3]

The author is a regular member of CANU, BANU and DANU.

To be continued tomorrow

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[1] The manuscript is in the Archives of the Historical Institute, still uncatalogued.

[2] M. Balje, nd 108.

[3] Ibid, 108-110.