Prishtina, 24 September, 2024
Organized under the patronage of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, the Memorial Academy was held to mark the first anniversary of the death of the Kosovo Police Sergeant and our hero, Afrim Bunjaku.
In his speech, Prime Minister Kurti said that a year ago, the Republic of Kosovo faced the most dangerous challenge since the declaration of independence on February 17, 2008, where a group of terrorists supported, armed, financed, trained and instructed by the state of Serbia, committed a clear act of aggression, with the aim of secession and annexation of a part of the territory of the Republic of Kosovo, in its north.
In honor of the life and work for the state of Kosovo, the Prime Minister described the 22-year dedication and commitment of the hero Afrim Bunjaku in the Kosovo Police, until the moment he fell in defense of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Kosovo.
“The act of Afrim Bunjaku revealed and failed the attack of the last degree of an ever aggressive state such as our northern neighbor. So, Afrim Bunjaku is a hero because in his time, in his functions, he discovered the newest activity of aggression that has planned, financed and organized a state that does not belong to peace, security and progress, but always and only aggression, conflict and war.” said the prime minister.
He added that the address of the political decision, operational planning, institutional orders and the hiding address of the executors of this act of aggression with the aim of annexing a part of the territory of Kosovo, is the official Belgrade and the state of Serbia itself.
“We know who the perpetrators of the attack in Banjska are, we know where the perpetrators and participants are, we know where they are hiding or rather how they are not hiding, and anyway we know who protects them. Serbia must answer because it is responsible for the attack in Banjska, therefore it must bear political responsibility and cooperate with Kosovo and the European Union and the United States of America, to bring to justice the perpetrators of this act of aggression, in a fair process judiciary in our country.” said the prime minister.
“Kosovo is undoubtedly that in this context it is and remains what it has been: democratic, for freedom, for progress and pro-West. Unfortunately, Serbia has remained what it has always been: aggressive, hegemonic, criminal and pro-Russia.” concluded the prime minister.
Prime Minister Kurti’s complete speech:
Honorable Glauk Konjufca, Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo,
Dear Deputy Prime Ministers, Besnik Bislimi and Emilija Rexhepi,
Dear Minister of Internal Affairs, Xhelal Sveçla,
Honorable Director General of the Kosovo Police, Gazmend Hoxha,
Dear Bunjaku family, wife Lumnija, daughter Arbenita, sons Fatlumi and Jetlumi, brother Muje Bunjaku,
Dear representatives of the government cabinet,
Dear members of the Assembly of the Republic,
Dear representatives of the diplomatic corps, distinguished ambassadors and other diplomats,
The honorable Mr. Mirsad Kryeziu and police officers, colleagues of Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku,
Families of the nation’s martyrs,
Dear invalids and veterans of the liberation war,
Dear citizens,
Dear attendees,
Ladies and gentlemen,
This year, every public reflection with references to our modern history has passed under the sign of the fulfillment of a quarter of a century of freedom. During this year, the people of Kosovo and the state institutions established and chosen by them, have marked the 25th anniversary of the liberation of our country from the invading Serbia in 1999. Especially throughout the first half of the year, almost every day, and sometimes more than once a day, we have commemorated the victims of the massacres committed by Serbia during its campaigns of ethnic cleansing, with genocide against the Albanians of Kosovo. Alongside them, we have remembered and marked the battles of the Kosovo Liberation Army and its just fight for the freedom of Kosovo, supported by the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance.
He mentioned the commemorations of all the victims of the war and the glory of the martyrs of freedom, not only because our country was raised precisely on their spilled blood and the struggle of the fallen for liberation, but also because precisely in the 25th year of freedom, we tested our readiness and ability as a state and as a society to protect the freedom gained with so much sacrifice over the generations.
Thus, exactly one year ago, our country, the Republic of Kosovo, faced the most dangerous challenge since the declaration of independence on February 17, 2008. In the early morning of September 24, 2023, a group of terrorists supported, armed, financed, trained and instructed by the state of Serbia, committed a clear act of aggression, with the aim of secession and annexation of a part of the territory of the Republic of Kosovo, in its north. In the village of Banjske in Zveçan, this group of Serbian terrorists in tactical military uniforms encountered a police patrol of the Kosovo Police, whose members attacked them. By remotely activating a cable mine that day, Serbian terrorists killed Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku and wounded police officer Alban Rashiti.
Nine months ago, on January 6, 2023, Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku was appointed Supervisor of the Patrol Team at the Zveçani Police Station. On the night between September 23 and 24, 2023, Sergeant Afrimi was the shift chief at the Police Station in Zveçan. After midnight, in the early morning, at 02:40, colleagues from the Rapid Border Intervention Unit reported that at the entrance to the village of Banjské, two trucks were stationed barricading the entrance to the village. Sergeant Afrimi went with his colleagues to the scene of the incident, and a few minutes later he would return to the scene of the crime. At the entrance to the village of Banjské, a remotely controlled anti-personnel mine exploded, shooting Afrim Bunjak and Alban Rashit. Their colleague, Mirsad Kryeziu, managed to pull Afrim’s body while the entire surrounding area was riddled with bullets fired by heavily armed terrorists.
Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku died in the line of duty, becoming a martyr in defense of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Kosovo and becoming a hero of the country and our people. He had served in the Kosovo Police since 2001, when Afrim started his service at the Vushtrri Police Station, until May 4, 2007, when he was promoted to Sergeant. For the following seven years, he served at the South Mitrovica Police Station, while from 2014 he also served as an instructor at the Kosovo Academy for Public Safety. From 2015, Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku had served as the leader of the reaction team at the Police Station in Vushtrri. This entire career in the Kosovo Police, of a dedicated policeman for a full 22 years, culminated on September 24, 2023, falling in the line of duty, as a witness to the preservation of freedom with order and the protection of sovereignty by law.
At the beginning of the confrontation, when Afrimi was killed, there were nine police officers in total, four from the Zveçan station, two from the Traffic Unit and three from the Rapid Border Intervention Unit. Approaching as usual as his colleagues know well print, print boldly, print because bold, and he was killed because he did not want others, younger than him, to suffer. That day, fortunately, Afrim’s colleague and friend, police officer Alban Rashiti, escaped his injuries, surviving the incident.
The action and courage of the Kosovo police did not end there. During the following two hours, hundreds of members of the Kosovo Police undertook a police action of a high professional level, confronting the terrorists with annexation goals, some of whom were killed while others escaped injured. In the following days and weeks, the Kosovo Police discovered and seized an entire arsenal of weapons and ammunition in several locations in northern Kosovo, along with hundreds of various tactical and military uniforms, vehicles, materials and accompanying documents. From the maps of the terrorist group, it was understood that their ultimate goal was a longer, wider war, towards the annexation of a part of the territory of Kosovo, while from the captured documentation and technological devices, the role of the state of Serbia was clarified throughout this project for the occupation of a part of the territory of our country.
The drone footage on September 24 revealed that the leader of this group was Millan Radoicic himself, a high-profile criminal who, under the guise of an active politician in Kosovo, had been carrying out criminal orders from official Belgrade for years. He had run a wide parapolitical network, in the form of a mafia gang and a terrorist group, with which he had kept under control almost the entire north of Kosovo, by means of intimidation, terror and blackmail. Since that day, Millan Radoicic has been constantly wanted by the state of Kosovo, while he has been protected, hidden and left untouched by the state of Serbia. The indictment brought against him recently is not only a legal condition and an attempt for justice, but also a denunciation of a failed attempt in the form of a state terrorism of Serbia for the annexation of the north of Kosovo.
The address of the political decision, of operational planning, of institutional orders and the address of hiding the executors of this act of aggression with the aim of annexing a part of the territory of Kosovo, is the official Belgrade and the state of Serbia itself. We know who the perpetrators of the attack in Banjska are, we know where the perpetrators and participants are, we know where they are hiding or rather how they are not hiding, and anyway we know who protects them. Serbia must answer because it is responsible for the attack in Banjska, therefore it must bear political responsibility and cooperate with Kosovo and the European Union and the United States of America, to bring to justice the perpetrators of this act of aggression, in a fair process judiciary in our country.
As an autocratic and hegemonic state, Serbia aims for territories. The tactics are hybrid, the conscience is morbid. Remaining a Republic only in the nominal sense of the word, and failing to become a monarchy even in the formal sense of the word, Serbia is a paramilitary state.
But what are we? We are the Republic of Kosovo, we are the high consciousness of establishing independence with heroic struggle and democratic justice. We are therefore not only a part of humanity that escaped the Serbian occupation, but also the most incriminating example of the deception that leads the Serbian state. The success of our Republic is the argument that opposes more than any political theory on the citizen and democracy, the ugly essence of today’s Serbia of Vucic.
Afrim Bunjaku’s act revealed and foiled the last-ditch attack of an ever-aggressive state like our northern neighbor. So, Afrim Bunjaku is a hero because in his time, in his functions, he discovered the newest activity of aggression that has planned, financed and organized a state that does not belong to peace, security and progress, but always and only aggression, conflict and war.
Dear participants, I invite you to think a little more deeply about the heroic marking of our Sergeant, our hero Afrim Bunjaku. Let’s think about the triple importance of Afrim Bunjak.
First, it is the link between the complete establishment of institutions, order and justice, and the protection of the inviolability of the institutional unit of the state, up to the self-denial of the official.
Secondly, he is the discoverer, the accuser to the point of self-denial, towards a Serbia that, built on a foundation of evil for others, for its neighbors but also for itself, having gone through all historical forms of aggression political and economic hegemon, oppressive social aggression with prisons and apartheid, denigrating aggression with dispossession and impoverishment, military and paramilitary aggression up to genocide, after having carried out the aggression of emptying the north of Kosovo of the Albanian and non-Serb population, the hybrid aggression of crime and pressure on the Serbian population in the north of Kosovo, a situation that we corrected with the establishment of the all-republican order in the north as well, is now thinking about new forms of terrorist aggression.
All these aggressions were defeated by the long-term resistance of the people of Kosovo and the strength of our justice, which does not discriminate or privilege anyone, neither according to ethnicity nor religion or anything else. The resistance was full of selflessness, with a large number of martyrs and victims. In this truth and reality of Kosovo, Serbia had no choice but, in desperation, in a last chance of its perversion, to try a grim form of aggression: state terrorist aggression. But, again, the hero, the police of Kosovo, came out to declare this attack a failure as well, making it impossible, witnessing it and becoming its martyr.
And, thirdly, the Police Sergeant, the hero Afrim Bunjaku, is the high discoverer of the institution, the high witness of a deep responsibility and passion of the Kosovo Police. Afrim Bunjaku is the hero who proves the authenticity of our police.
Dear attendees,
Heroes write with deeds our historical phrases and stages towards full freedom and sovereignty. It is enough to read their names well, and then it is certain that we will learn where we come from and where we are going. They teach us to respect the land where we are, to build democracy in the most accurate and honest way, to respect the energies that each of us enjoys, that is, to aim in our Kosovo, a mature common and equal life for all its citizens, and in a hot world, we seek and aim for a safe Kosovo.
They didn’t succeed because we were willing. They failed because we were determined. Our public official protects our republic of Kosovo. We always knew that, now, they know that too. As we know that as much as it was difficult to free ourselves from Serbia, it also requires willingness, strength and vigilance to preserve the freedom of Kosovo, especially from itself, especially from all of us.
The north of Kosovo is the neuralgic node, where today the geopolitics of all the Balkan countries can be read in miniature against the security of our European continent, against the background of the aggressive Russian war in Ukraine, Kosovo undoubtedly in this context is and remains what it has been: democratic, for freedom, for progress and pro-West. Unfortunately, Serbia has remained what it has always been: aggressive, hegemonic, criminal and pro-Russia.
At this point, heroes like Afrim Bunjaku make the lines between the camps clear. So today, I am standing in front of the honorable Bunjaku family, in front of his police colleagues and in front of all the people of Kosovo, with the deep conviction of the value of sacrifice and the righteousness of faith, which Afrimi bequeathed to us.
Glory to the hero Afrim Bunjaku!
Last modified: September 25, 2024