Massacres in Mejë and Korenica/ Kurti: Call on internationals to increase pressure on Serbia for crimes

2025-04-27 16:59:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Massacres in Mejë and Korenica/ Kurti: Call on internationals to increase

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti today paid homage to the Albanians who lost their lives in the massacres in Mejë and Korenica. Today's tributes are being held on the 26th anniversary of the massacres. On this occasion, Kurti met with several relatives of the victims and laid wreaths of flowers at the graves where the martyrs are buried.

In a post on social media, Kurti also shared a message, calling this massacre the largest in the history of the recent war in Kosovo.

Kurti called on internationals to increase pressure on Serbia to reveal the truth about these crimes.

Kurti's full statement:

"The massacre committed on April 27, 1999 in Mejë and Korenica is the largest in the history of the last war in Kosovo.

On that day, 26 years ago, 376 unarmed and innocent Albanian civilians were killed in these villages of Gjakova. In the days that followed, the hiding of the bodies and the destruction of evidence at the crime scene continued.

The killed were buried and reburied in several locations. A large part of them were transported to Serbia, to mass graves in Batajnica. In addition to Batajnica, where 744 of our people were found killed and kidnapped, four other mass graves were discovered in Serbia, with over 200 Albanians, in Peruqac, Petrovo Selo, Kizhevak and Rudnica.

Among the civilians killed were Gjovalin and Milan Markaj from Korenica, Gjakova. Their bodies were found in the mass grave in Batajnica. Three days after their reburial in Meja, on May 27, 2003, their mother, Pashke Krasniqi Markaj, set herself on fire with gasoline, to end her life and the pain for her children.

At the entrance to the memorial in Mejë, we honored the memory of Mother Easter. Today and always, we bow before the sacrifice, strength, and resilience of the mothers and family members of those who disappeared violently during the war.

Not only the people abducted and forcibly disappeared during the war, but also their families are victims of this ongoing crime. They are in the most terrible anxiety after the war, waiting for truth and justice for their loved ones.

Today, Kosovo is marking the Day of Persons Enforced to Disappear during the War, in memory of the massacre in Mejë and all those forcibly disappeared from Serbia.

The Republic's justice institutions must prove themselves most and first in cases of crimes committed during the war, because time is passing and witnesses are aging and many of them are passing away.

In December 2023, the Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo filed an indictment against 53 people suspected of the massacre of Meja and the villages of the Reka e Keqe region of Gjakova. The persistence and efficiency of our justice system is necessary, but also international support for these unsolved crimes, which require answers as soon as possible.

Today and always, I call on the international community to increase pressure on Serbia to reveal the truth about these crimes by opening the archives, and to bring justice by punishing the political and military leaders responsible for the genocide committed in Kosovo. This is the foundation for a peaceful, secure and stable region. Peace cannot be built with those who stand over mass graves while denying them.

With pain, longing and sorrow, today and forever, we honor the martyrs of Meja and Kosovo!" /CNA