Shtime, 15 January, 2023
The complete speech of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, at the commemorative ceremony organized by the Office of the Prime Minister, on the 24th anniversary of the Reçak Massacre.
Dear President of the Republic of Kosovo, Mrs. Vjosa Osmani Sadriu,
The Honorable Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, Mr. Glaucus Conjufca,
Dear Ambassador William Walker,
Dear family members of those killed in the Recak massacre,
Beloved Ramë, survivor of the Reçak massacre,
Dear Deputy Prime Ministers, Bislimi, Gërvalla and Rexhepi,
Dear Ministers of the Government Cabinet,
Members of the Assembly of the Republic, deputy ministers, representatives and heads of state institutions,
The honorable mayor of the Municipality of Shtime, Mr. Qemajl Ali,
Excellencies ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives of partner and friendly countries in our Republic,
Dear attendees,
Ladies and gentleman,
Sisters and brothers,
Dear children and descendants of those who were killed in Recak,
Dear war veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army everywhere in Kosovo, especially those who fought in this area,
Dear invalids who even today carry the wounds and consequences of our glorious war with you,
Every beginning of the year in the middle of January and every time we come to visit and pay tribute here in Reçak, in front of the page of the memorial wall that bears the 45 portraits and names of the civilian victims killed in the village of Shtime, the images of their bodies, massacred on January 15, 1999 by the police and Serbian forces in general. These are the images broadcast by the world media since then and then shown again and again over many years, returning to the images through which the democratic world recognized us and recognized us as a country of victims where Serbia committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
True, in the chronology of the war in Kosovo, the massacre of Recak is one of over 400 massacres committed by Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbia against Albanians. But in the history of this war of ours, this Reçak massacre, although it is one of the over 400 massacres, is nevertheless the war crime that has mostly encouraged changes in the attitudes of the most powerful states in the international community, in relation to the fact that what Serbia was doing in Kosovo. Witnessed by many local and international media, as well as observed by the OSCE Verification Mission in Kosovo, the massacre of Recak turned into one of the most indisputable and powerful arguments for the NATO intervention which would come After two months.
For this, special credit goes to the American ambassador who headed the Verification Mission in Kosovo of the OSCE, diplomat William Walker. After seeing the executed and slaughtered bodies of 45 civilians in Recak, Walker had the courage to describe what he saw by its true name, when he said it was “a massacre and a crime against humanity”. Taking the side of truth at an extreme time for Kosovo, Ambassador Walker gave his diplomatic activity an important place in the modern history of our country.
Today, 24 years later, he is writing a book about the massacre of Recak and with which I firmly believe that Ambassador Walker will monumentalize in the text his professional and personal experience in a public statement said the day after the massacre of Recak, in a literal historical testimony narrated with all the circumstances and context of that time.
For this, the Albanian people will always be grateful to Ambassador Walker, that at a time when there were few voices who spoke clearly and strongly about Kosovo in the international discourse, he told the truth about the war crimes that Serbia was causing in Kosovo, speaking not simply with diplomatic language, but especially with the language of pure humanity.
In general, when the truth is as powerful as that of the Reçak massacre, narratives denying it also appear, as Serbia has done since the day of the Reçak massacre until today, trying to blur and falsify the direct role planner and executor of the state of Serbia in the realization of the massacre of Recak.
On December 5, 2019, the current president of Serbia, who at that time was the minister of information, that is, just a little more than three years ago, this president of Serbia declared that the massacre of Recak is a fabrication and forgery. Meanwhile, two years later, he who was once the vice-president of Milosevic’s wife’s party, and then the minister of internal affairs, meanwhile today is the head of intelligence of the Serbian state, precisely on December 10, 2021, that is, on the Day of of Universal International Human Rights, that is, December 10, exactly on this day, repeat what the president of Serbia says, falsification and fabrication. Those who deny the genocide dream of its repetition.
But, a crime against humanity and a genocide like the one committed by the Serbian forces in Recak on January 15, cannot be hidden, cannot be clouded and cannot be amnestied. Referring to the testimonies of the time, the statements of 63 interviewed witnesses and the evidence of The Hague Tribunal, the Special Prosecutor’s Office of Kosovo has issued international arrest warrants for 18 Serbian people who are suspected of participating in the massacre of Recak.
Today, on the 24th anniversary of the massacre of 45 Albanians by the forces of Serbia in Reçak, as we remember and honor all the dead and living victims of that dark time, allow me in front of you, from the position of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, let me tell you that our democratic state does not pardon criminals and does not forget war crimes.
The corpses of your loved ones and ours, on January 15, 1999, were also protected by the Kosovo Liberation Army, because we know that after they killed us, the civilians wanted to steal the corpses. And we also have 11 KLA soldiers killed protecting the corpses of 45 civilians. Today the corpses are among us, but as the lady president said, we fight oblivion and we will keep and maintain both nationally and institutionally the memory. Through memory we protect our history, the suffering of the people of Kosovo.
For international justice, war crimes never become obsolete, while for world history, they are the past that must be truly recognized, in order to draw from it the necessary lessons for building our future as a society and as a state, as a nation and as humanity.
Thank you Ambassador Walker, thank you everyone.
Last modified: January 16, 2023