Peja, 14 January, 2023
The complete speech of Prime Minister Kurti at the ceremony honoring Ambassador William Walker with the title “Doctor Honoris Causa”, from “Haxhi Zeka” University:
Dear Ambassador William Walker, great friend of Kosovo,
Dear Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Information, Mrs. Arbërie Nagavci,
Dear other ministers of the Government of the Republic, Elbert Krasniqi, Rozeta Hajdari and Armend Mehaj,
The honorable rector of “Haxhi Zeka” University in Peja, Mr. Armand Krasniqi,
Dear rectors and professors of other universities,
The honorable Head of the municipality of Peja, Gazmend Muhaxheri, and you mayors of other municipalities, of the municipality of Deçan, Bashkim Ramosaj, of Junik, Ruzhdi Shehu, and of Shtime, Qemajl Aliu,
Dear Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Education, Ardian Gola,
The honorable member of the Assembly, Bexhet Pacolli,
Dear students, representatives of diplomatic missions, employees of the University and administration,
Dear Deputy Ambassador Alyson Grunder,
Ladies and gentlemen, honored guests,
In difficult historical times, as well as in periods of personal crisis, a good friend can be the necessary salvation. Even when you don’t have a good friend, it’s precisely the hard times that can bring you one. In the world of Albanian traditions, the friend of the house is a highly respected figure, which is honored to the point of inviolability, according to our customary Albanian codes of hospitality, which is a prominent value of ours. Today we have gathered here at the “Haxhi Zeka” University in Pejë, precisely to honor a great friend of Kosovo and its people: the American diplomat William Walker.
Mr. William Graham Walker is truly a friend of the people of Kosovo, because among the people of our country, there are few foreign citizens who are so widely known and so unanimously appreciated as Mr. Walker. At this point, I want to say especially that Ambassador Walker is also my friend, since the time of the war when we met for the first time and got to know each other in Pristina and until today when we are meeting again here in Peja.
In 1998, Ambassador William Walker came to Kosovo to head the OSCE Verification Mission, whose mission was to verify that Serbian forces were acting in accordance with the October United Nations agreement to withdraw armed forces and respect the ceasefire. For the citizens of Kosovo at that time so welcome, this mission was easily identifiable by the orange colored cars with which all 700 members of this verification mission moved.
In the international media at that time, Kosovo was still presented as a province of Serbia, where on one side were the Serbian armed police and military forces of the Milosevic regime, while on the other side were the volunteers of the Kosovo Liberation Army. This army was created as an armed guerilla movement, by the Albanian people of Kosovo, who since 1945, had been violently held by Serbia under the second Yugoslavia, as the most oppressed and discriminated ethnic community in Europe after the Second World War. Second World War.
The goal of the KLA at that time was to fight the Yugoslav forces until the liberation of Kosovo, which was achieved in June 1999. But in its beginnings, being not very well known for its goals and techniques, the KLA was classified as extremist and even terrorist. It would be precisely the Verification Mission in Kosovo of the OSCE, which, with its reports from the field on military operations, population movements and other developments in Kosovo, would help change the international perception of the KLA, what provided it with assistance from NATO.
When Yugoslavia began to disintegrate due to the nationalistic chauvinist policies of Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbia, after sparking wars with thousands of victims in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was Kosovo’s turn, as we know. Over 60,000 armed forces of Serbia undertook police and military operations against Kosovo Albanians, with the aim of ethnic cleansing, using genocidal techniques. Between 1997 and 1999, over 13,500 people were killed, about 20,000 women and girls were raped, among whom there were also children killed, over 1,100, while over 860,000 other citizens of our country were expelled from Kosovo, while over half a million were displaced within it, as hundreds of entire villages and city neighborhoods were burned and their possessions previously looted.
Aiming to completely destroy and disband the units of the KLA, in order to take revenge on its soldiers, in January 1999, the Serbian police surrounded the village of Recak i Shtime, with the excuse that they were looking for “terrorists” Albanians. They did not allow the OSCE verifiers to enter the village. On the morning of January 15, 1999, Serbian forces killed 45 Albanian civilians in Recak, leaving their bodies in a valley between the mountains. When the head of the Verification Mission in Kosovo, William Walker managed to enter Reçak, he saw the bodies of 45 Albanians killed in this village by Serbian forces. Among the slaughtered bodies of these 45 residents of the village and in front of the journalists, William Walker declared: “From what I saw, I do not hesitate to describe the incident as a massacre and a crime against humanity.” This was a clear and very powerful message from an OSCE ambassador to the entire public and the international community. Nothing has changed the course of events of the war in Kosovo more than the echo of Reçak’s mask on the international level, learned as it was reported about him by Ambassador Walker.
That same evening, at a press conference at the headquarters of the auditors in Pristina, William Walker declared in front of many local and international journalists, saying: “I have no words to describe my personal grief … in front of a scene that can be described as a crime inexplicable. Although I am not a lawyer, from what I personally saw, I do not hesitate to describe the crime as a massacre, a crime against humanity. I also do not hesitate to accuse the government security forces of responsibility.”
Ambassador Walker, before being a friend of Kosovo, was and is a friend of the truth. And being a friend of the truth, he always remains a friend of Kosovo.
Dear attendees,
These statements by Ambassador William Walker were his official denunciations on behalf of the Verification Mission in Kosovo of the OSCE, against the Serbian forces and authorities who were committing crimes against humanity and war crimes against civilian Albanians in Kosovo. These reports of Ambassador Walker changed the international discourse and course towards the war that was taking place in our country. The then US President Bill Clinton reacted immediately by condemning the murders of 45 Albanians in Recak by Serbian forces, as he made sure that NATO troops were ready for action. Two months later, on March 24, 1999, NATO aircraft launched the bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, which led to the liberation of Kosovo in June of that year.
So from here in front of you, let me address you personally: thank you Mr. William Walker!
We Albanians will never forget what you have done for Kosovo and the history of our people has already reserved a special place in Kosovo for your name and for the role and contribution of your work.
At that time, Milosevic’s Serbia tried to cover up its crime in Recak by falsifying the narrative about it. But fortunately, the massacre of Recak is witnessed by international media footage, by dozens of surviving eyewitnesses and by the Verification Mission in Kosovo of the OSCE. Then we also saw the truth, which was first revealed to us by Ambassador William Walker. On the basis of these testimonies, the interview of 63 witnesses and the evidence of the Hague Tribunal, the Special Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo has issued an international arrest warrant for 18 Serbian persons suspected of being involved in the massacre of Recak on January 15, 1999.
Meanwhile, at the last meeting of the Government of Kosovo, we shared the means to finance the publication of the book written by Ambassador Walker about the Reçak massacre, which will undoubtedly be a very valuable written testimony about the history of this massacre and of the war in Kosovo. For this I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I look forward to reading this book and distributing it to those who still do not fully know the case of the Reçak massacre.
On this 24th anniversary of the Recak massacre, remembering the 45 victims massacred by Serbian forces, I am glad to see that Ambassador Walker is still in good health, that he will continue his testimony about this massacre in the future. Congratulating you on the title of “Doctor Honoris Causa” which you are receiving today from the “Haxhi Zeka” University here in Peja, allow me to thank you once again and wish you a long life and good health. I am grateful for your correct, concrete and so humane role shown in relation to the war crimes that Serbia has committed against the Albanians of Kosovo.
Thank you!
Last modified: January 16, 2023