Prishtina, 15 January 2026, dtt-net.com – Kosovan officials, citizens, and several diplomats of western countries today place flours at the memorial centre in Reçak honouring 45 Albanian civilians, including a 14-year-old boy, killed by Serbia army and police during the 1998-1999 war of independence from Serbia.
The massacre of 15 January 1999 triggered intervention of NATO two months later preventing ethnic cleansing plan by Belgrade regime then-led by the ‘Butcher of Balkans’ Slobodan Milosevic whose associates and cheerleaders are in power today in the EU candidate country.
“We are here together as heads of institutions, with the Mayor of Shtime, with colleagues from the government and parliament, but also with other state officials, to express our pain for this open wound, which still lacks justice, but at the same time our commitment, that we will always be committed to bringing criminals to justice and punishing them for the atrocities of the past 27 years,” Kosovan incumbent Prime Minister Albin Kurti said at the memorial centre.
Diplomats of France, Germany, USA, UK and Italy were there too to pay tribute to the victims.
“Moving ceremony in #Reçak where the authorities & the people of #Kosovo remember the hideous massacre in 1999. Amazing to see how 🇽🇰 developped since then. 🇨🇵 willing to continue supporting 🇽🇰 on its 🇪🇺 path & evonomic development,” French Ambassador Olivier Guerot said on his part through X after placing flours at the memorial centre in Reçak.
“May today serve as a reminder of the importance of building a peaceful future where such atrocities shall never be committed again,” the German Embassy said after Ambassador Rainer Rudolph honoured the victims of the Reçak massacre of the 15th January 1999.
Kosovo’s prosecutor’s office last month announced indictment against 21 former members of Serbia forces of war crimes in Reçak village.
The prosecution proposed to the court to hold the trial absentee, since the defendants are inaccessible to the judicial bodies.
Nearly 13,000 Kosovo Albanian civilians were massacred by Serb forces, 20,000 girls and women raped, 120,000 houses destroyed and more than 800 000 deported forcibly to Albania and North Macedonia during the two-year war.
