Today marks 28 years since the death of the hero Luan Haradinaj, who fell in one of the first battles of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) against Serbian occupying forces on May 6, 1997, at the Albanian–Albanian border.
The several-hour-long battle with Serbian forces occurred while Luan was leading a KLA expedition on the road into Kosovo. It claimed the life of one of the sons of the Haradinaj family.
On this day, Luan Haradinaj, together with his brother Ramush Haradinaj and a group composed of Fehmi and Xhevë Lladrovci, Selim Krasniqi and Ramiz Lladrovci, Abedin Rexha and Ilaz Kodra, Rafet Rama and Gani Rama, Emrush Xhemajli, and Ali Ahmeti, set out for Kosovo.
They reached above the village of Larë, near Kushnin in the Hasi region, in a location known as “Qafa e Mullarit”, when the group was ambushed by the Yugoslav army on the Albanian–Albanian border, sector 179.
In this ambush, Luan Haradinaj was killed. Rafet Rama was wounded, as were Ramush Haradinaj and Fehmi Lladrovci.
Luan Haradinaj’s body rested in Vlanë until the liberation of Kosovo. After the war, he was reburied in the Martyrs’ Cemetery in his hometown, Gllogjan of Reka, where he now rests in peace alongside 20 other martyrs from the area.
Luan Haradinaj was born on November 17, 1973, in the village of Gllogjan, in the Reka region of Deçan. He completed his elementary schooling in the village of Irzniq and attended the “Vëllezërit Frashëri” high school in Deçan. After finishing secondary school, he enrolled at the Faculty of Physical Education in Tirana, which he did not complete, choosing instead to join the fight for Kosovo’s liberation.
