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Adnan was about to turn seven years old when he lost half of his family to cluster munitions.
On the 17th August 1999, Adnan and his family went swimming in a lake. Adnan found a yellow metal can on the bank of the lake and brought it back to his family, not suspecting he had found a very dangerous unexploded BLU97 sub-munition. Adnan’s older brother, Gazmend, 17, let it fall on the ground and it exploded. Gazmend and their father were killed instantly. Adnan injured his left arm and leg and was taken to hospital.
The next day, Adnan’s sister, Sanije, 14, went back to the lake to pick up the things the family had left amid the confusion. Once there, she also stepped on a sub-munition and died.
Adnan had medical follow-up for two months as he had lost a lot of blood. He is still anaemic. His left arm is still weak and he cannot carry anything heavy. Adnan only went back to school in January 2000. His results are not very good and he will probably soon drop out of school.
When you meet him, you can feel his terrible sadness and feeling of guilt.
His older sister, Ymrije, takes care of him and his mother who was traumatised by the accidents. The three of them live on the father’s £53 monthly pension, which does not give them much to get by on.
