THE DIRTY WAR of the Yugoslav SECRET SERVICE

Book Review

Of the autobiographical novel, "The Dirty War of the Yugoslav Secret Service" by Bajram Mehmeti

Reading "The Dirty War of the Yugoslav Secret Service" by Bajram Mehmeti took me back to my summers spent in Kosovo in the 1980s and 1990s. As an Albanian-American visiting my family, I remember what I saw and felt, but didn't understand.

Bajram Mehmeti's autobiography explores why the land I loved felt so violent and controlled. Mehmeti lays out all the things Albanians were accused of by Yugoslavia-which amounted to loving our land and our people. He shares his own pain as a victim of politics and the suffering of families whose sons and daughters were forced to serve in the Yugoslavian military and ordered to terrorize their own people or be tortured themselves.

As Executive Director of the National Military Family Association, we know military families serve, too. But in the United States, that service is for the protection of our freedoms. In Yugoslavia, their service was a violation.

This book is a true, unfiltered account of Mehmeti's personal experience and all he bore witness to-from false testimonies to brutal torture. It's a difficult but important read. We must all hear these stories and celebrate that their suffering was not in vain. Read how the strength of young Albanians who refused to bow down to their oppressors led to a movement that freed a nation.

Besa Tafilaj Pinchotti, Executive Director of the National Military Family Association, Washington, D.C.