Amid deep grief and memories that refuse to fade, survivors and family members have commemorated the Rezallë Massacre, one of the most brutal crimes committed during the Kosovo war.
On April 5, 1999, in the village of Skenderaj and surrounding areas, Serbian regime forces carried out a coordinated campaign of extermination. Boys and men aged between 13 and 90 were forcibly separated from their families, robbed, taken from their homes, and executed. In an attempt to hide the crime, some bodies were abducted and buried in mass graves in Raška.
Even after 27 years, the wounds remain open. Emine Hajdari, through tears, recalls the loss of her father and brother, whose remains were found only after many years. The pain, she says, feels the same every single day.
Similarly, Milazim Rukolli recounts how 13 members of his family were killed that day. He describes the moment when men were separated and taken toward the hills, while the sound of gunfire echoed behind them — a memory that still haunts him.
Sevdije Zabeli remembers the forced separation of families, where men were led to their deaths while women and children were left behind. She recounts the story of a young boy who refused to leave his father’s side and was killed alongside him.
Witness Sadri Deliu emphasized that the victims were lined up and executed, and their bodies later exhumed and moved in an effort to conceal the crime.
A total of 98 Albanians were killed in the massacre, while the Serbian regime attempted to erase the remains of 44 of them. Only three people survived.
The Rezallë Massacre remains an open wound in collective memory — a painful reminder that lives on in the hearts of families, and a call for justice that has yet to be fulfilled.
