Prishtina, 17 February 2026
Honourable Mr Atdhe Hetemi, Executive Director of the Institute for Crimes Committed During the War in Kosovo,
Distinguished Professor Arben Hajrullahu, Rector of the University of Prishtina,
Dear family members of the victims, and you survivors,
Honourable representatives of domestic and international institutions,
Honourable professors, researchers and students from Kosovo and from around the world,
Honourable representatives of civil society,
Dear attendees,
Ladies and gentlemen,
On this landmark day for our state, we are opening the proceedings of the international conference “From War to Recovery”. There is no more powerful symbolism than to link Independence Day with our responsibility for scientific and institutional reflection on the wounds of war and on our path to recovery.
Beyond an academic event, this conference is part of a broader state and societal process of coming to terms with the past, of documenting the truth and pursuing justice. Because our independence, besides being a democratic political act, is also a moral duty of remembrance towards our loved ones who were killed, and a responsibility towards the generations to come.
In this context, I cannot but mention the court hearings currently taking place in The Hague, within the framework of the Specialist Chambers, in a judicial process that is still underway and will follow its legal course to completion. Yet regardless of this, he cannot and will not change a fundamental historical truth: that the war of the Kosovo Liberation Army was a just and necessary war, for freedom and for survival, not out of a desire for violence or power. It was a response to an oppressive regime, to systematic repression up to apartheid, and to the denial of the fundamental rights of our people up to genocide. This process cannot call into question the liberation and anti-colonialist character of our war, nor Kosovo’s legitimate aspiration for freedom, equality and human dignity.
The so-called “Yellow House” in Albania never existed as a place for organ trafficking by members of the KLA, but is part of Serbia’s hybrid narrative against the KLA and Albania, initiated by the Russian MP Konstantin Kosachev on 15 April 2008 – less than two months after the proclamation of Kosovo’s independence. There is no “Yellow House”, but there is ever more information, testimony and facts that there was a “Sarajevo Safari”, in which the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, is said to have had a role, whereby, for a sum of money, from the hills around Sarajevo one could shoot Bosniak civilians with snipers in the besieged city in the early ‘90s. To investigate and prosecute the crimes of the “Sarajevo Safari”, some special international court would need to be engaged.
Dear family members, whose loved ones were killed during the war,
Our state hears you, sees you, and acknowledges your pain. Your suffering is part of our state history and of our national conscience.
Documentation is an act of respect for the life of each and every person who was killed, disappeared or tortured during the war.
The Institute for Crimes Committed During the War in Kosovo has significantly strengthened its documentation and archival capacities. Verification procedures have been standardised, new databases have been built, and work has been advanced on the registration of war victims and war damages. These steps may sound so technical, but they are so essential to transitional justice. Because a state that confronts its past moves more strongly towards the future.
Dear attendees,
The agenda of this conference, which spans three days, includes sessions on memory, testimonies, trauma, memorialisation, sexual violence during the war, missing persons, children’s experiences in war, as well as the paths of justice and healing. This multidimensional approach is vital, because the consequences of war are psychological, legal, social, cultural and political alike.
This approach speaks to our society’s desire to understand deeply, not to simplify. To heal, not to conceal or forget.
Dear young people here today,
The Kosovo we are building is a Republic of knowledge – of active universities, of researchers who cooperate with the world, and of conferences that bring together international and local experts. It is a Kosovo that turns its difficult experience into a contribution to science, to international law, and to studies on just peace and transitional justice.
The Republic of Kosovo has been built on the aspiration for freedom and equality. Our state has a duty to preserve memory, to support women and men survivors, and to ensure that crimes are neither relativised nor forgotten. Memory is an institutional responsibility and a guarantee of non-repetition.
In this spirit, we have submitted an official request regarding the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The Government of the Republic of Kosovo has requested that any decision on their future guarantee equal and dignified access for victims and our institutions. These archives constitute a highly valuable part of the international documentation of crimes committed during the war in Kosovo, and for this reason they are inseparable from the research, documentation and archival work carried out in Kosovo today. The Institute, as a state mechanism for documenting crimes committed during the war, is ready to cooperate with the International Residual Mechanism to establish an information and documentation centre in Kosovo, which would ensure access to the public materials of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), support scientific research and education, and strengthen the integrity of collective memory in accordance with international standards. This is a natural link between international justice and our national responsibility to preserve the truth.
Dear attendees,
On this 17 February, as we celebrate our independence, we also reaffirm our commitment to justice, to full documentation, and to an honest confrontation with the past.
We build our future on documented truth, honouring the memory of every victim and the sacrifice of our entire people.
I wish you fruitful proceedings at the conference, to deepen knowledge, strengthen international cooperation, and consolidate our institutional commitment.
Honorable citizens,
Kosovo’s future is not determined only by the challenges we have overcome, but by the way we have addressed them. We have chosen the path of law and justice, the path of institutions and professionalism.
The Kosovo of tomorrow is a Kosovo of knowledge, of justice and of cooperation.
And we are building it together, today and every day. With unwavering dedication, with the highest professionalism, with great love and full faith in our future as a sovereign and democratic Republic, as a state governed by the rule of law and committed to development, bringing together equality with solidarity, and the livelihood of each and every person with dignity.
Happy Independence Day!
Glory to the martyrs and fallen heroes of freedom!
Long live the Republic of Kosovo!
