Djordje Borisavljevic: I remember the bombs and sirens, hiding in the basements...

Djordje Borisavljevic, a young man from Gracanica, was only five years old during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, but 25 years later, he says he remembers that period "crystal clear." He remembers everything that shouldn't be a part of a childhood - explosions, sirens, hiding in basements...

Although he turned five just one month before the bombing began, Djordje now tells Kosovo Online that his memories of that period are quite vivid, while those before and after are mixed.

He carries memories from before that period, from Pristina, Babusa, from visits to relatives, but the time of the bombing, he says, is engraved in his memory. Top of Form

"I remember the bombs, the windows breaking, I remember hiding under the table with my brother, hugging him. I remember how they hid us in the basements, how we celebrated birthdays in the darkness, with candles, in the basement. I remember the beginning of the bombing, those cursed sirens, the departure of our army. Literally, I remember about 90 percent of things crystal clear. After that, everything is kind of blurry to me, but I remember everything from that period of 50-60 days," Borisavljevic admits.

He says that parents hid from children the fact that there would be bombing and tried to present that period as a game.

"It wasn't until the first bombs fell and the windows of the house cracked that we realized, even though we were young, that it was something very close, real, and not just a scary story. After that, bombs started falling in the village too, where it happened that houses cracked from the detonations," Djordje says.

He also remembers the period of frequent power outages during the bombing.

"I remember the sound of planes, which mostly flew at night. They bombed the Slatina base, the airport; you could only hear the whistling of rockets and the roar of engines. There were explosions, sometimes louder when bombs fell above Gracanica. I also remember the power outages," he recalls.

As he mentally returns to his childhood, he says that fear was everywhere.

"There were moments when I started to run away when the sirens went off, but I didn't make it home; halfway there, I started crying from fear. Thank God, I'm alive and healthy, but those are moments I won't forget as long as I live," Borisavljevic said.