Today marks 27 years since the heroic Battle of Shkëmbi i Gradinës, where fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fought to halt the advance of Serbian forces toward the Berisha plateau—an area of extraordinary strategic importance. This zone hosted the KLA General Staff, the Military Hospital, the Provisional Government of Kosovo, the KosovoPress News Agency, Radio Kosova e Lirë, and around 100,000 civilians sheltered in the mountain gorges.
On April 18, 1999, five martyrs fell heroically in this battle:
Islam Kastrati from Kishnarekë,
Halim Bajraktari from Drenas,
Mentor Morina from Bushat,
Ramadan Bytyqi from Gjergjicë,
and Mentor Gashi from Llapushnik.
The fighting in this area during April of that year became one of the most significant confrontations of the liberation war—not only for its military impact, but also for saving thousands of civilians who had taken refuge in those mountains.
The fighters who stood their ground in this battle became a living wall, stopping at all costs the advance of Serbian military and police forces toward the civilian population—a sacrifice that remains forever in national memory.
