PRISTINA, Jan 15 /ATA/ – Kosovo commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Reçak massacre on Monday, with survivors and relatives remembering the 45 innocent Albanian civilians killed in an assault by the Serbian troops in the village in the central part of the country.
The bloodshed in the village of Reçak became a turning point in the conflict between the Serb-led Yugoslav security forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), fighting for Kosovo’s independence from Serbia after the breakup up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Former Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, veteran US diplomat William Walker visited the village one day after and publicly declared it as a massacre by Serb security forces, describing it a crime against humanity.
This declaration garnered international attention and paved the way for the US-led NATO bombing campaign in Kosovo that began on March 24, 1999, and lasted for 78 days, driving out Slobodan Milosevic’s forces out of Kosovo.
Kosovo state institutions, President Vjosa Osmani, Parliament Speaker Glauk Konjufca, and the Prime Minister Albin Kurti visited the village of Reçak to pay tributes to the innocent victims.
President Vjosa Osmani called for justice for the innocent victims killed in this macabre crime against the civilians.
During the commemoration ceremony in Reçak, PM Kurti expressed gratitude to the then OSCE Ambassador to Kosovo, William Walker, who also attended today’s event, who told the world what had actually happened in this country.
On January 15, 1999, during the Kosovo War, 45 people were murdered in the massacre when Serbian forces surrounded the village of Reçak attacked it, and raided houses. Serb army and paramilitaries bombarded the village and then raided houses and 45 men, women, teenagers and children were taken from their homes and beaten and shot in the hills above the village.
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