Exhibition in Kosovo Showcases Wartime Civilian Invalids’ Pain

On March 28, 1999, Besa Guci was getting her children ready for sleep when a grenade landed in the room and killed her one-year-old daughter Ndriqesa.

Besa, then pregnant with another baby, was injured by the explosion along with her husband and two other children. Even to this day, she has a piece of glass in her eye.

When the grenade hit the room, Besa was living in a house of her relatives deep in the village of Damjan of Gjakove/Dakovica, in western Kosovo.

Four days before, when NATO launched its bombing campaign against the Yugoslav army and police, she had left her own home in search of a safer place.

Besa Guci is one of 11 civilian war invalids whose stories have made the photo exhibition “In Sight”, which was opened on Wednesday in Pristina by the Humanitarian Law Centre Kosovo.

Dashnor Ajeti, the author of the exhibition, says that it brings people’s true stories of pain and suffering.

“This exhibition aims to highlight the stories of people who were victims of a brutal and harsh regime. It is the first exhibition in Kosovo exclusively dedicated to civilian invalids in Kosovo,” Ajeti told BIRN.

“This exhibition aims to highlight the stories of people who were victims of a brutal and harsh regime. It is the first exhibition in Kosovo exclusively dedicated to civilian invalids in Kosovo,” Ajeti told BIRN.

“Kosovo counts around 2,000 civilian invalids who bear in themselves different experiences; children who while searching for hazelnuts in forests, fell into land mines – mothers who became shields for their children during shelling and lost their sight, hearing or limbs,” he said.

Photo exhibition “In Sight” opened on June 14, 2023, in Prishtina. Photo courtesy of Dashnor Ajeti