Prishtina, 27 April, 2023
On the Day of those forcibly disappeared during the war in Kosovo, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, together with the Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, Glauk Konjufca, and pays tribute at the Memorial for the disappeared.
April 27 is the day when we commemorate the Meja massacre, but it is also the Day of the Enforced Disappeared in Kosovo, i.e. the Day of the Missing, of those who were forcibly abducted by the genocidal regime of Milosevic, who in addition to abducting the most beloved of the many families of our people, and many of them also snatched their corpses afterwards in an attempt to hide the traces of the crimes committed during the war, said Prime Minister Kurti.
He emphasized that in five mass cemeteries in Serbia, around 950 corpses have been exhumed so far, while there are still over 1600, who are still missing from the last war.
We need justice, we need responsibility, we need the criminals, the guilty, the executors of the order giver to be behind bars and for this we need international support, but also national mobilization, said Prime Minister Kurti.
Ministers Albulena Haxhiu, Rozeta Hajdari, Hekuran Murati and Arbërie Nagavci, accredited ambassadors in Kosovo, leaders of the Government Commission for Missing Persons in the Prime Minister’s Office, family members and representatives of the disappeared.
Under the auspices of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, on the occasion of marking the Day of persons forcibly disappeared during the war in Kosovo, the Office of the Prime Minister, the Governmental Commission for Missing Persons, in cooperation with the Coordinating Council of the Family Associations of the Disappeared in Kosovo , the association “27 April 1999 Mejë”, family associations and local and international organizations engaged in the process of illuminating the fate and location of missing persons, organize tributes in Pristina and Mejë (Municipality of Gjakova).
Prime Minister Kurti’s complete statement:
April 27 is the day when we commemorate the Meja massacre, but it is also the Day of the Enforced Disappeared in Kosovo, i.e. the Day of the Missing, of those who were forcibly abducted by the genocidal regime of Milosevic, who in addition to abducting the most loved ones of the many families of our people, and many of them also snatched their corpses afterwards in an attempt to hide the traces of the crimes committed during the war.
In five mass cemeteries in Serbia, around 950 corpses have been exhumed so far, and as the Speaker of the Assembly said, there are over 1,600 who are still missing from the last war. We need justice, we need responsibility, we need the criminals, the culprits, the executors and the order givers to be behind bars and for this we need international support as well as national mobilization.
Next month it will be four years since the Assembly of the Republic enabled the prosecution, accusation, trial and punishment in absentia and there is no more appropriate day than April 27 to once again call on the Special Prosecutor’s Office that the thousands of testimonies, which we have for the crimes committed during the war in Kosovo to be turned into indictments for those responsible, who I am repeating as in Croatia and Kosovo will be able to be tried and punished in absentia. It is not just about the history of our people, it is about our life, which has been torn in half since these crimes committed happened within our lifetime. We should neither read the history books nor ask our grandparents and parents about these crimes because we have experienced these crimes ourselves. Therefore, any delay is unreasonable at a time when time does not work for us in terms of witnesses who are aging and dying and in terms of material evidence, which families and institutions continue to preserve with great effort 24 years after these macabre crimes.
Last modified: April 27, 2023