Silence was broken and history made in 2025 in Kosovo, when Ramadan Nishori spoke publicly of how he was sexually abused during the 1998-99 war.
“I am a man, a father of three who is trying to live a normal life,” Nishori told an audience at the Kino Armata community centre in the capital, Pristina, on April 14, the national day of survivors of wartime sexual violence.
“I want people to see me as a person who has been through a lot and has struggled a lot. I want them to see me with respect, as a person who fought to survive. I have fallen many times and I have stood up again.”
Nishori, who was 21 when he was abused by Serbian forces, said he had chosen to speak out “so I don’t remain a prisoner of the past”.
“The shame is not ours,” he said. “The shame is theirs.”
Thousands of people are estimated to have been sexually abused during the war, when Serbian forces committed widespread atrocities against Kosovo Albanian civilians while trying to quash a guerrilla insurgency in what was then a southern province of Serbia.