Ukshin Hoti was a worrying figure for the Serbian government. For the same government that gave the opportunity to an Albanian originally from a village of 5 inhabitants such as Krusha e Madhe to rise step by step in the ranks of the Yugoslav state administration, to find itself facing this man who had gathered sufficient knowledge to understand the functioning of the Yugoslav state apparatus, having understood global issues from his research and international travels, denouncing first the insufficient economic development of Kosovo and then, secondly, Serbian apartheid.
To better acquaint you with the life of the Albanian patriot whose disappearance still remains a mystery, in collaboration with Ukshin Hoti's son, Andi, we bring you some things you didn't know about him. These facts are told by his family and prison friends.
1. Ukshin Hoti was born on June 17, 1943 in Kruše e Madhe in the municipality of Rahovec, Kosovo. He is the eldest of 6 children in the family. His mother, Fatimja, was a housewife, while his father, Nazifi, ran a newspaper kiosk in front of the village school.
2. He is one of the most educated intellectuals in Kosovo! He had also been a lecturer at several universities in the USA where he had studied and graduated. In 1978, having won the Fulbright scholarship, Ukshin Hoti traveled to the United States to continue his specialization at the University of Washington, Chicago, and Harvard, where he also worked as an independent scientist.
3. Ukshin Hoti was also one of the architects of the agreements between Yugoslavia and Albania. This has enabled several Albanian professors to come and settle in Kosovo to lecture at the University of Pristina.
4. Ukshin Hoti did not agree when the press of the time gave Ibrahim Rugova the status of the Gandhi of the Balkans.
"I would like to add that one should not exaggerate with what journalists call the Gandhism of the Albanian people, and which is again based on their method of struggle. What is being praised as Gandhism in the press today, why certain individuals who have nothing to do with it are exalted to the sky, receive awards, are patted on the back, thanked, etc., really has nothing to do with Gandhism," Ukshin Hoti had said at the time.
5. On May 21, 1982, when Ukshin Hoti was arrested and sentenced to 9 years in prison on charges of "Criminal offenses aimed at overthrowing the power of the working class and employees, breaking the "brotherhood - unity", violating the equality of nations and nationalities and unconstitutional change of the federal regulation of the SFRY", but after the request made by his wife Edi Shukriu to the Belgrade court, the sentence was reduced to 3 and a half years in prison, noting that the act of his trial had no legal basis.
Ukshin Hoti served his sentence first in the prison of Pristina, then in the prison of Zagreb and finally in the prison of Ljubljana. Then he will be transferred to the prison of Gjilan. In the latter, books and pens were forbidden, then Ukshin Hoti, according to Ismail Begolli, a fellow prisoner, will go on a 12-day hunger strike to be transferred back to the Slovenian prison where he had access to reading and writing and better working conditions, but unfortunately without achieving his goal.
His family paid a heavy price for his conviction; in fact, his sister, Myrvetja, a teacher in Kruše e Madhe, was fired from her job, while her other sister, Resmija, who had just completed her studies, was unable to practice her profession as a teacher.
Ukshin Hoti's brother Ragip Hoti is also a KLA martyr in the last war, while his other brother Afrimi was a political prisoner in 1981.
"Grandfather was wounded in the last war, then died as a result of his wounds. Political commissar in World War II," says Andin Hoti.
6. In April 1985, Ukshin Hoti was released, but gradually forced into isolation in the village. His passport was taken away and he was guarded by the Serbian police and secret services. At this time he had nothing else to do but to engage in agriculture and, according to his sister Myrvete, to devote himself to his scientific studies and his doctoral thesis.
7. When his isolation from society was lifted after nine years, the political party “UNIKOMB” proposed Ukshin Hoti to be its chairman. On May 17, 1994, on his way to Pristina to take up his new position, he was stopped by the Serbian police and imprisoned in Prizren. He was accused of being a member of the illegal movement in Kosovo (LPRK) and of having founded the newspaper “DeA”, under the latter’s governance and financing. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison for undertaking unconstitutional actions endangering the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia. He was then transferred to Dubrava prison, then to Niš, to Mitrovica, and then back to Niš.
When Ukshin Hoti was serving his sentence in Niš prison in Serbia, he and many other prisoners were transferred back to Dubrava prison. On May 16, 1999, when the war had been going on for almost a year, Ukshin Hoti reached the end of his sentence. According to Bajrush Xhemaili, one of the prisoners, he was escorted by two guards to the exit, on Sunday, an unusual day for the release of prisoners. From then on, we would not see him again. His fate was in the hands of the Serbian authorities.
On May 19, 1999, the prison, surrounded by tanks and anti-aircraft guns of the Serbian army, is bombed by NATO. In the following days, Serbian guards and paramilitaries line up 800 Albanian prisoners out of the 1000 that the prison had in the yard, while the others hide in the prison cells. Serbian guards and paramilitaries empty their bullets on the prisoners with all the arsenal they had at their disposal: grenades, machine guns, snipers and bazookas. 176 people are massacred and over 200 others are injured.
Ukshin Hoti has laid the foundations of diplomacy, international relations and a professional policy in Kosovo. His awareness of political issues and international geostrategy for the future of Kosovo and Albania are based on scientific, analytical and historical facts./MekuliPres
