nr. 127 / 11 prill 2009

Blood-feud, this medieval killer of modern times

Today and the future, in self-justice sense, have never had, it has not and it will never have any positive chance to change for the good of civilization, tolerance and coexistence in peace and harmony between people. Raised amongst Albanians, not as much as a form of justice in the conditions of a lack of State, but to give place to the “dividit et imperam” philosophy, the blood-feud came and stayed preaching murder as the only way of survive of honor. Wherever Albanians live, in Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, this shadow is still running by night, causing wail and making tombs. What makes an imperative for the present of working of blood-feud as a self-justice, springing from the Canon of Lekë Dukagjini, the so-called “The Canon of the Mountains”, and what concerns at the same time every form of State, in the way of struggle to integrate in the Euro-Atlantic structures, NATO and European Union, is stopping this medieval cruelty. Theoretically and practically, all the initiatives resulted in fail. No matter how the hand of the State tried to be unmerciful to condemn the crime, according to the followers of the tradition-right, it is the punishment of the law, while they have the punishment of the Canon.

The life of the families in blood-feud looks like a Purgatory inside Hell. Tears and pain are the puzzle that completes the sad picture, that picture that is hanging on in our civilized conscience. Wail and cry follow with the shadows, the past and the present of many Albanian families. All the initiatives of NGO groups and the strong hand of the State to punish murders resulted in fail. In their eyes, the Canon is the only legal right that makes “justice”, no matter it is medieval. The law is insufficient in all the forms of State, whenever Albanians live. The “Shqipëria Etnike” journal has often treated this phenomenon being a tribune of preaching of tolerance and coexistence, forgiveness and leaving this phenomenon to the past. But it looks like blood-feud is and will be the only “justice”, despite the aspirations of the civilization of today’s generation. None can speak about the victims of this medieval killer, than the victim itself.

The road to Kosovo sends us to the family Sollova, in the Municipality of Kastriot, of Obliq. We went to bring this message to a family living closed-in, and here’s what Sofije Sollova, the Murat Sollova’s wife, says: “Please listen to these words, please, for we’re in great trouble. We’re not only badly reduced, but our dears are spread all over the world”. She spoke while crying and drying her tears. Telling us about her beloved son, Fadil Sollova, she continues: “The enmity with the family of Haki Krasniqi, since 1997, caused me to miss him so much. In the beginning of that year”, she says, “for property problems, the uncle of Fadil was killed, and since then, our families, the family of Murat Sollova and that of Haki Krasniqi, are in blood-feud. According to the Canon of Lekë Dukagjini, blood wants blood, and the bullet demands bullet, son after son, man after man, until there is not any man at all in the house. In this situation”, continues Sofija, while looking somewhere at the corner of the room where is hanging on a picture of the family, “our son had to leave. Between two bad things he had to choose the littlest. If he was here, the family Krasniqi would have killed him to take revenge. Though he wouldn’t like this to continue, it would be impossible for him to stand above the tradition, above the Canon”, says Sofije for the journal. “In this situation, he couldn’t have any other choice, but emigration, for him, his wife and their four children” concludes Sofije, while with her shacking hands holds a handkerchief to dry her tears falling down to her lips.

We leave that house, those eyes that are always dropping tears and that voice hoarse of crying. The shadow of life was living within those cold walls. From behind the windows of those houses it looked like there were guns and not eyes watching. This is part of many sad Albanian realities in the after-war Kosovo, in the newborn Kosovo, in the Kosovo aspiring to be recognized by the States that didn’t yet, in the Kosovo that wants to replace coexistence with Serbs, like the prosecuted with the prosecutor.

Blood-feud came to remain as a witness of the past, as a traditional right that was held forth that was born for self-justice because of the missing of State. It came to kill peace between people, to divide them, to erase families, somewhere for the property, somewhere for the honor, somewhere for a word and somewhere for a watercourse. Nevertheless, the dresses of those killed for blood-feud are saved by their mothers in the closets, to be washed only when the blood is paid. Men smoke and oil their guns until these will bear death. Children listen to histories of blood-feud and death, bravery of struggles and men, from their grandparents.

Doesn’t it look like a medieval picture named “Blood-feud”, without light, violent, without color, cold, sad, a picture that none would like to see in an exposition. This indeed is the reality of tens and hundred of Albanian families in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia.

editor office