Oral history interview with Valbona Peci Kadriu

Interview: 14 minutes

Valbona Peci Kadriu grew up in a village near Mitrovica in Northern Kosovo, close to the Serb border. She married Besim, an engineering student, when aged sixteen. She was newly pregnant when Besim was shot by Serb military, receiving a severe facial injury. The day of the attack her home was burnt to the ground, one brother was killed, another injured and four other brothers, later identified in a mass grave, were kidnapped. Valbona fled to the hills and survived there until the Liberation. To her surprise, Valbona was invited to accompany her husband to the UK in 1999 when Besim was medically evacuated by the British Army. This was the beginning of a new life in Manchester with Besim, whose face has gradually been re-constructed. Valbona and Besim live in Manchester with their four young daughters. She has fond memories of her beautiful home in the village.

In the interview Valbona talks about how the war affected her family in rural Kosovo, and how she came to Manchester in 1999, pregnant aged 16 years, with her injured husband, Besim, who was medically evacuated from Kosovo by the British Army.