The Forgotten Heroes of Serb-Albanian Comradeship

“We are one sky

Two leaves from the same branch

Two stones from the same river…”

In the Yugoslav era, pupils in Kosovo used to learn this patriotic poem about two Partisan soldiers, Boro Vukmirovic and Ramiz Sadiku, who fought against fascist occupation during World War II.

The poem - which was learned by schoolchildren in both Serbian and Albanian - describes the Serb, Vukmirovic, and the Albanian, Sadiku, as “two bodies of the same blood”.

It lauds them as heroes because they refused to be separated on the day of their execution, and “fell from the same bullet”.

The two men famously embraced as they were executed by Italian soldiers in April 1943.

After WWII, Vukmirovic and Sadiku, who were also members of the Communist Party, were declared to be heroes, and during the Yugoslav period they were promoted as symbols of Josip Broz Tito’s state ideology of ‘brotherhood and unity’.

Many streets and schools were named after them, as well as the Boro and Ramiz sports centre that was built in Pristina in 1977.

They were executed on the outskirts of the village of Landovica, near Prizren in Kosovo, and a monument was raised there, symbolically showing them embracing as they stood together before the execution.

But today, Boro and Ramiz are seen rather differently in Kosovo, where their comradely hug is largely forgotten and their shared struggle has been overshadowed by a more recent conflict.

When the war between Kosovo guerrillas and Slobodan Milosevic’s forces ended in 1999, their monument in Landovica was removed and another one, dedicated to the Kosovo Liberation Army ‘martyrs’ who fought against Belgrade’s rule, was erected in its place.