Vetëvendosje’s (LVV) Tirana branch has presented the Albanian parliament with a draft resolution demanding the recognition of Serbian massacres against Kosovo Albanians during the Kosovo war in 1998-99 as genocide.
It announced the draft submission on Tuesday, and published it in its entirety.
LVV proposes the Albanian parliament to set January 15 as the “Commemoration Day of the Genocide against Kosovo Albanians”, as it was set last year by Kosovo’s parliament.
The date marks the Reçak massacre in 1999, in which Serbian forces murdered 45 Albanians after they surrounded the village, attacked it, and raided houses. Men were dragged from their homes, beaten and then shot, women were sexually assaulted and raped.
The massacre triggered the NATO intervention in Kosovo, which forced Serbia to end their military campaign.
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić, who was Slobodan Vučić’s minister of information during massacres in Kosovo, including the Reçak massacre, still denies the latter. “It was all fabricated by that global fraudster, scammer and swindler, Walker,” he has stated.
The resolution of LVV foresees a memorial to be erected in Tirana, as well as joint Albania-Kosovo state activities on the day. The inclusion of the date in the school books and change in the penal code are also suggested.
The Albanian branch of the largest Kosovo party urges Albania to lobby internationally for the recognition of the Serbian genocide against Kosovo Albanians.
Serbian forces killed more than 12 thousand people in Kosovo during the war, more than 1,300 of who were children. They orchestrated more than 100 massacres, and raped more than 20,000 girls and women. Additionally, about half of the population, over one million Albanians were expelled from their country, according to a similar Kosovo parliament resolution of 2019.
