Kurti: Before local and international justice, Serbia will always be held responsible for crimes in Kosovo

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has remembered the victims of the massacre of the village of Kotlinë in Kaçanik, which occurred on March 24, 1999 by Serbian forces.

Through a reaction on the social network Facebook, Kurti recalled that the 243rd Mechanized Brigade of the Yugoslav Army, together with special units of the Serbian police, surrounded the village of Kotlinë, causing a severe massacre of Albanian civilians.

Initially, Serbian forces killed three elderly people and then burned their bodies.

He further described how women, children and the elderly were expelled from the village, while the men were taken to Ferizaj, where after torture they were deported to Macedonia.

Meanwhile, almost all the village's houses, school, and ambulance were burned down.

According to Kurti, Serbian soldiers executed 22 young Albanians by throwing their bodies into two wells, which were then destroyed with explosives.

The forensic medicine of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in September 1999 opened these wells and found mass graves.

In his reaction, Kurti recalled that Serbian General Vlastimir Djordjevic, one of the perpetrators of this massacre, was initially sentenced by The Hague to 27 years in prison, but his sentence was later reduced to 18 years.

“Before domestic and international justice, as well as before the modern history of Europe, Serbia will always be held responsible and guilty for all crimes committed in Kosovo,” Kurti wrote.

He concluded by emphasizing that the victims of the Kotlina massacre will always be remembered and honored, just like all those who fell for the freedom of Kosovo. /Telegrafi/