Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti paid tribute to the 376 ethnic Albanians killed by Serbian forces during the Meja massacre. He commemorated the victims of this tragic event on April 7, 1999, and used the occasion to call for increased international pressure on Serbia to reveal the truth about war crimes.
Kurti wrote on Facebook:
“On April 7, 1999, in Meja and Korenicë, the largest massacre in the history of the recent war in Kosovo took place. On that day, 26 years ago, 376 innocent, unarmed Albanian civilians were killed in these villages of Gjakova. In the following days, efforts were made to hide the bodies and destroy evidence at the crime scene. The victims were buried and reburied at several locations, many of them transported to Serbia and buried in mass graves in Batajnica. In addition to Batajnica, where 744 victims of our people were found, four other mass graves have been discovered in Serbia, containing over 200 Albanians in Peruqac, Petrovo Selo, Kizhevak, and Rudnicë. Among the victims were Gjovalin and Milan Markaj from Korenica, Gjakova. Their bodies were found in the mass grave in Batajnica. Three days after their reburial in Meja, on May 27, 2003, their mother, Pashke Krasniqi Markaj, set herself on fire to end her life, driven by the unbearable pain of losing her sons.”
