Agim Hajrizi

Agim Hajrizi

Agim Hajrizi (born February 20, 1961 in Kosovska Mitrovica , SFR Yugoslavia ; † March 25, 1999 there ) was a Kosovar human rights activist and union president . In the early morning hours of March 25, 1999, when the NATO air strikes on Serbia began during the Kosovo war , Agim Hajrizi was murdered in his house with his eleven-year-old son Ilir and his mother.

Life

Hajrizi had been married to Afërdita Hajrizi since June 1984. The couple had three children and lived in Mitrovica. The family belonged to the ethnic group of Albanians . Hajrizi obtained a degree ( ecc. Dipl. ) In economics from the University of Pristina . He then entered the battery factory of the industrial combine " Trepča as head of the" IT employs Department. The increasing pressure of the Yugoslav government on the Albanian ethnic group led in 1989 to the dismissal of all Albanian ethnic groups. In the following years he began to campaign for the rights of the Albanians. Hajrizi became chairman of a local support committee and in 1992 he was elected in an unofficial election to represent the interests of the Albanians in Mitrovica. He also campaigned for the abolition of blood feuds and was posthumously honored in 2015 as a pioneer of the “National Movement for the Settlement of Blood Feuds”. In 1995 Hajrizi became chairman of the "Union of Independent Trade Unions of Kosovo" (Bashkimi i Sindikatave të Pavarura të Kosovës; BSPK), founded in 1990 . In this capacity he acted as a representative of the interests of the Albanian ethnic group before the Yugoslav, later Serbian authorities and held weekly press conferences on television. As a result of his activity, he was repeatedly visited and questioned at home by police and secret services staff and arrested several times. He was sometimes physically abused and threatened. His wife received telephone threats. In several cases, visitors to Hajrizi were beaten by strangers after they left the house.

assassination

With the start of NATO air strikes on Serbian targets on March 24, 1999 , a wave of targeted killings of Albanian intellectuals and public figures began. At noon on March 24, 1999, an air raid alarm was given in Mitrovica . After no attack occurred, Hajrizi's wife bought food supplies and after Hajrizi's return around 5:00 p.m., the family barricaded themselves in the house. At 8:00 p.m. it became known that NATO planes had attacked various Serbian targets. There were riots in the street. Shortly after midnight, two vehicles pulled up in front of the house. The front door was broken open, six people broke in and opened fire from automatic weapons on Hajrizi, his eleven-year-old son Ilir and his 65-year-old mother Nazmija. They were killed instantly. Then the attackers withdrew with their vehicles. Hajrizi's wife testified that the perpetrators were wearing uniforms belonging to a paramilitary police force.

His wife Afërdita Hajrizi knew two of the attackers personally; they were long-time neighbors Nenad Pavićević and his friend, whom she only knew by the nickname “Boban”. Immediately before her death, Hajrizi's mother addressed Pavićević by name. Furthermore, Hajrizi recognized Ratko Antonijević and Dejan Savić as further perpetrators during the intrusion. All persons were Yugoslav or Serbian police officers from Mitrovica who belonged to the Serbian ethnic group. Two other people as well as the drivers who stayed with their vehicles remained unidentified.

On November 16, 2000, the Mitrovica District Court sentenced Nenad Pavićević to a maximum of 20 years in prison for the murder of Agim, Ilir and Nazmija Hajrizi. The court ruled that he had acted out of ethnic hatred and on orders from superiors. Another person was exonerated from allegations of complicity, but given a suspended sentence for illegally possessing military weapons. Pavićević stayed away from the trial and has not been found since then. It is believed that he went underground in Serbia. The offense was tried in 2002 before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the proceedings against Slobodan Milošević and again in 2006 in the proceedings against Milan Milutinović and others. Hajrizi's wife testified as a witness. Files from the Mitrovica District Court were used in the proceedings.

Memorial plaque for Agim Hajrizi in Mitrovica

Honor

A street in the center of Mitrovica, not far from where he lived, was named after Agim Hajrizi.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Labornet Germany : Trade Union Leader Assassinated in Kosovo. March 31, 1999, accessed January 19, 2017 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} United Nations International Criminal Tribunal: Aferdita Hajrizi, a Kosovo Albanian wife and mother, responds to questioning in cross-examination about the identity of the perpetrators who killed her husband, son and mother-in-law. In: United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. April 26, 2002, accessed January 16, 2017 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Andy Soltis: 'Dreadful' New Atrocities Reported. In: New York Post . June 24, 2015, accessed January 21, 2017 . 
4. ^ Stephan Israel: Terror in camera. In: tagesspiegel.de . March 26, 1999, accessed January 21, 2017 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Judgment of the Mitrovica District Court of November 16, 2000, Document No. K0224338
6. ^ President Jahjaga's speech held at the marking of the 25th anniversary of the Nationwide Movement for Reconciliation of Blood Feuds. March 27, 1999, accessed January 21, 2017 . 
7. ^ Testimony of Afërdita Hajrizi from August 22, 2001, Document No. K0208928
8. ^ Mitrovica town center on OpenStreetMap