Përkorë” association rejects Vučić’s statements about the war in Kosovo

The “Përkorë” Association of Relatives, led by Latif Mehmeti, has reacted to statements by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić at the United Nations General Assembly, where he denied that a humanitarian catastrophe had occurred in Kosovo during the 1998–1999 war.

For the families of victims and missing persons, such statements constitute a denial of a documented tragedy and the suffering of thousands of families, KosovaPress reports.

In its reaction, the association emphasized that during the war, Kosovo Albanians were killed, forcibly driven from their homes, and that thousands of people remain missing. According to the association, more than 800,000 Kosovo Albanians were forced to flee to Albania and what was then Macedonia.

The association also cited the discovery of the bodies of Kosovo Albanians in mass graves within the territory of Serbia as evidence of the crimes, including at the sites of Batajnica, Petrovo Selo, Perućac, Rudnica and Kizhevak.

“For the families, these facts raise serious questions that still require answers: Who transported the bodies of Albanians killed in Kosovo to Serbia? Who gave the orders? Who organized their concealment in mass graves, and who bears responsibility for this? These are not merely questions raised by the families of the missing. They are issues that require serious institutional treatment, full documentation and accountability before the law,” the reaction said.

The association called on the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo to continuously and forcefully present the facts, evidence and documents related to war crimes and missing persons to the international community.

“The truth about the victims, the missing and their families cannot be concealed through denial or propaganda. The families are seeking the truth, justice and accountability for their loved ones,” concluded the reaction by the “Përkorë” Association of Relatives in Podujevo, which is led by Latif Mehmeti.

During a speech delivered on Wednesday at the UN General Assembly in New York, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić denied that Serbian security forces, including paramilitary groups, had caused the humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo in 1998–99.

Vučić also criticized NATO’s intervention against his country in the spring of 1999, and later accused Croatia of “the revival of Nazism.”