Jusuf Gërvalla

Jusuf Gërvalla (born October 1, 1945 in Dubovik , Dečani municipality , Yugoslavia ; † January 18, 1982 in Untergruppenbach ) was a Kosovar activist , musician , author and journalist . He was shot dead in Untergruppenbach in 1982.

Life

Jusuf Gërvalla's father died when he was six years old. In 1959 his mother Ajshe moved with the siblings to Slovenia and he stayed with his maternal uncle in order to be able to complete his education at the grammar school in Peć . He then studied at the University of Pristina and the University of Ljubljana and at that time also began to play theater. 1972/73 he completed his military service. He then worked as a journalist in Skopje and Pristina . In 1978, the year in which he also began working as a radio and television editor, he co-founded the LKÇK. He wrote poetic and then also prosaic literature and made music together with his brother Bardhosh, among others . In 1974 the university magazine Bota e re ( Albanian for The New World ) of the University of Pristina published poems written by him for the first time: Baladë për shevarin and Kalon pranë meje . His first novel from 1975 with the title Dy florinj të një dashurie was never published, his second novel Rrotull only after his death, as well as his drama Procesi .

On January 17, 1980, Jusuf Gërvalla fled from an imminent arrest for political reasons to Ludwigsburg in Germany, where his younger brother Bardhosh had lived since 1974. A few months later, his wife Suzana fled to Germany with her two sons and daughter. His daughter Donika was in the 1990s a. a. Deputy Chairwoman of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) of Ibrahim Rugova and during the Kosovo War 1998/99 temporarily the spokeswoman for the President of the Republic of Kosovo, which was officially only officially recognized by Albania at the time, under Serb arrest .

Gërvalla murder case

The then 36-year-old Jusuf Gërvalla, his brother Bardhosh (31) and the journalist friend Kadri Zeka (28) who lives in Eastern Switzerland drove backwards out of a garage near Heilbronn in January 1982 . Two men appeared and shot the inmates twelve times, hitting the lungs, heart and neck.

A police expert stated at the time: “Three shots per person to nail the victim down, then came the deadly margin. They were absolute professionals. ”The attack on the three freedom fighters was considered the bloodiest and most brutal attack on foreigners in Baden-Württemberg .

The investigating public prosecutor's office in Heilbronn had offered a reward of 10,000 marks for catching the perpetrators . The special commission “Untergruppenbach” was set up especially for the case . The then Prime Minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Lothar Späth , warned foreign extremists not to violate their conflicts in Germany. The Federal Criminal Police Office then took over the investigation , and the Swiss Federal Police also took part in the investigation. The case could never be solved; to date no perpetrators have been identified. "To date there have been no real investigations by German authorities into the case. This although it was clear to the BND that it was an action by the UDBA . To date, German authorities have been silent about the murders in Baden-Württemberg."

Gërvalla's body, which was buried near Stuttgart, was transferred to his birthplace Dubovik in 2002, where several 10,000 people are said to have been at the grave.

aftermath

The erection of a memorial plaque near the scene of the crime in 2003, which the municipal council and mayor had already approved, failed recently due to the concern of neighbors that Untergruppenbach could develop into a place of pilgrimage for Kosovars. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the attack, the Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hajredin Kuçi , visited the "Memorial Academy" event in Pristina, which Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi had under the patronage , and said that the aftermath of the triple murder of the Gërvalla and brothers to Kadri Zeka would have strengthened and promoted the political organization of Kosovo as well as its internationalization and promotion in Western diplomatic circles.

literature

• Jusuf Gërvalla. In: Robert Elsie : Historical Dictionary of Kosova , Scarecrow Press, 2004, pp. 65-66. ISBN 978-0-810-85309-6 ( limited preview in Google Book Search)

Web links

• Jusuf Gërvalla at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ R. Elsie gives 1943 as the year of birth
2. ↑ Focus 25/2013 pages 46–50
3. ↑ Jusuf dhe Bardhosh Gërvalla - Njeri ku je ; YouTube video.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Alexander Goeb: The destruction of Yugoslavia did not just begin in 1992 - the death of the patriot Jusuf Gervalla. Neue Rheinische Zeitung , January 8, 2017.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Secret Murderers. Tages-Anzeiger , January 3, 2014.
6. ↑ “The whole thing looks like an execution” , Der Spiegel 4/1982, January 25, 1982.
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} Triple murder on the street unsolved. Heilbronn Voice , January 14, 2012.
8. ↑ Agron Sadiku: 35 years after the murders of Jusuf Gërvalla, Bardhosh Gërvalla and Kadri Zeka in Untergruppenbach , Kosova-Aktuell of January 18, 2017.
9. ^ Kuçi: Jusuf Gërvalla, Kadri Zeka and Bardhosh Gërvalla are trinomial that marks the idea of ​​political union of organized forces after the 1981 demonstrations. Ministry of Justice, Republic of Kosovo, Pristina, January 18, 2012.