When Gani Jakupi returned to Kosovo in 1999, the first person he encountered was a KFOR peacekeeper. “Mirëmbrema,” the foreign soldier said, greeting him with “Good evening” in Albanian.

It was a startling moment for Jakupi, who’d left Kosovo in the 1970s and relocated to the West. In his experience, people in uniform only spoke Serbian and weren’t friendly. “In Kosovo we never were accustomed to foreigners making efforts to speak our language.”

Jakupi recounts the episode in the graphic novel “Retour au Kosovo” (Return to Kosovo). Published in France in 2014 and illustrated by Jorge Gonzalez, it chronicles his experiences as a photojournalist in the aftermath of the war. It is a decidedly more personal account than his 2012 comic “La dernière image” (“The Last Image”), which focuses on how he and other journalists covered the aftermath of the war.

There are obvious parallels with the works of Joe Sacco, who blended journalism and comics with his celebrated books on the Bosnian war “Safe Area Gorazde” and “The Fixer,” and others on Israeli-Palestinian relations. Jakupi’s voice, however, is unique because he approaches Kosovo as an insider and an outsider. It’s a place and culture he knows, but one that’s changed radically since he left.

Jakupi, 59, has been drawing comics since he was a boy. He was born in 1956 in Nishec, a village north of Prishtina. At the end of the 70’s, Jakupi left his homeland and went to Paris.

Jakupi is a man who relishes diversity, and cites the need for difference as one of the reasons for his emigration. “I was always fascinated with knowing other cultures, other mentalities and ways of life,” he says.

Today, the artist lives in Barcelona and is a jazz musician, writer, illustrator and comic artist. In “Retour au Kosovo,” he opted to have another artist do the illustrations because doing so himself would have been too painful. “To draw something means to undergo an experience again,” Jakupi says.

Jakupi uses little dialogue but his descriptions are vivid, painful and disturbing. “The Kosovar soil vomits corpses,” he writes.

The book is not pro-Albanian. Jakupi does not directly point to the sufferings of the Roma in Kosovo, but highlights the problematic situation of Kosovar Serbs who spent their whole lives there – until the war. The book is not pro-Serbian either. The reader learns that the Serbian secret police was responsible for the shooting that took place at the Panda Bar in Peja – a meeting point for Albanians and Serbs.

“Retour au Kosovo” is autobiographical, but is not explicitly about the author. The central topic of the comic is post-war Kosovo; it provides glimpses the grotesque facts and human suffering of this time. That said, Jakupi is guarded about any claims to full knowledge of the conflict and its aftermath.

“My experience has taught me that people who actually know things don’t run and proclaim it to the four winds. For example, I’m in the midst of a comprehensive investigation into the Cuban revolution. It took me six to seven years to earn the trust of people who keep sensational secrets. Authors who’ve preceded me have only seen the ‘fire’…They haven’t scratched the surface, they haven’t invested. We can’t win people’s trust without showing sincere respect,” he says. The honesty and uncomfortable truths of “Retour au Kosovo” demonstrate this philosophy.

“Retour au Kosovo” is currently available in French and can be ordered online from Amazon or publishing house Dupuis.