Haxhiu: After 27 years, the families of three missing intellectuals learned the truth

Acting President Albulena Haxhiu attended a memorial ceremony held at the “Rexhep Mitrovica” Cultural Center in Mitrovica, where Adem Beqiri, Idriz Rrecaj and Salih Mëziu, members of the group known as the “Group of Intellectuals,” were honored.

Haxhiu said that, after 27 years of searching, the families of the three victims had finally received answers about the fate of their loved ones, who can now rest in peace.

According to her, on April 19, 1999, Serbian forces abducted 23 Albanian civilians from Skenderaj and Mitrovica. The detainees were taken to Melajë and Kalludër e Vogël, where they were mistreated and executed, while their bodies were hidden in an effort to cover up the traces of the crime.

Excavations carried out in Kalludër and Jabukë, together with the results of DNA analyses, made it possible to identify Idriz Rrecaj, Adem Beqiri and Salih Mëziu. They were found in unmarked graves, but will now rest under their own identities, and their families will have a place where they can remember and honor them.

Haxhiu expressed her gratitude to all those who contributed to finding and identifying them, stressing that the search process must continue for the other 20 members of the group, as well as for every person who has been forcibly disappeared.

She underscored that families have the right to know the truth and that war crimes must be punished. At the end, she conveyed her most sincere condolences to the Beqiri, Rrecaj and Mëziu families.

“May the memory of Adem Beqiri, Idriz Rrecaj and Salih Mëziu, as well as all those who fell and were killed for Kosovo’s freedom, live forever!” Haxhiu said.