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Blair in Kosovo: NATO bombings were the right thing

2024-06-10 14:51:00, Kosova & Bota CNA
Blair in Kosovo: NATO bombings were the right thing
Tony Blair and Vjosa Osmani/ Photo taken from Facebook

The former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, addressed the deputies of the Kosovo Assembly on Monday, recalling, as he said, "the difficult decision to take action to stop the war in Kosovo" in 1999.

Blair, who is in Pristina on the 25th anniversary of Kosovo's liberation, said the decision at the time for NATO strikes against Serbian military targets "had wider effects than just liberating the people of Kosovo".

"If we had allowed the people of Kosovo to be brutalized even further, to have their rights taken away and their future to be stolen, our future would also fade," said Blair.

As prime minister, he was one of the key people who set in motion the NATO intervention in Kosovo, with the aim of stopping the violence by Serbian forces.

The bombing campaign lasted 78 days and ended on June 10, 1999 - the day after the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement.

With this agreement, negotiated between NATO and Yugoslav military officials, the then Yugoslav forces were withdrawn from Kosovo and an international peacekeeping force led by NATO was created.

Blair, before addressing the Assembly, also met the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani.

"It's a moment of deep emotion to be here again," he said.

"I believed that [the NATO campaign] was the right thing to do then, and I still believe that it was the right thing to do," Blair said at a press conference with Osman.

"In 1999, your role as British prime minister was decisive. Just as you were a hero of the people of Kosovo, of freedom and democracy, you are also a hero of peace today," said Osmani, addressing Blair.

This is Blair's third visit to Kosovo since 1999. /REL 





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