Mejreme Kelmendi from Gjakova has been seeking justice for 21 years for her two sons, one 10 years old and the other 12 years old, and her husband, who were mercilessly killed by Serbian forces with armored vehicles on the night of January 24, 1999.
She says that for a mother, there is nothing more difficult than burying her two children.
“On January 24, ’99 at 8:00 PM they came out and shot the ‘Shki’ (Serbs) with blinders and I heard the shots. When they shot with blinders, I went out that night and asked them for nothing. I didn’t know. The next day when I turned on the television and when I heard it, they were all killed. The OSCE came. When they came, I didn’t ask for anything, I just said, let them give me the children back… We buried them after 4 days. There was nothing more I could do than bury my two children and go to Albania and leave the children’s graves,” says Kelmendi through tears.
For this mother who has lost her loved one, it is not at all fair to judge Albanians and soldiers of the Kosovo Liberation Army, and not the Serbs who killed and massacred children, elderly women and men in Kosovo.
“It’s not right to judge Albanians, why, it was better to judge Serbs because they killed women and children, I didn’t see how many, the ’cause’ (Serb) should have been judged, to punish the ’cause’ (Serb), where are my children and thousands of children, they should have been punished… Why should the Special Court punish these people, we have defended our country, they came, they killed us here, they have committed crimes, they have only been able to kill and massacre, they didn’t see what it is and how to punish an Albanian, to punish the ’cause’, to take them to Court, where a ’cause’ was punished, where a ’cause’ was tried where”, she stressed.
The families of the 377 people killed and missing in the Meja massacre have also expressed their concern over the actions of the Special Prosecution Office.
During the last war in Kosovo, Serbian paramilitaries killed Lush Krasniqi from the village of Ramoc in the Gjakova municipality. Their bodies now rest in the memorial complex in Mejë, Gjakova.
For Krasniqi, the tendencies to tarnish the Kosovo Liberation Army are ill-intentioned.
“The tendencies from all sides are malicious and different, but nothing that is pure can be tarnished, the KLA cannot be tarnished, it is not a question of the KLA being attacked because I was also a member of the KLA… I think that there are malicious tendencies here and no one who is accused of anything if they do not feel guilty needs to fear any court,” he stressed.
On June 24 of this year, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had filed a proposed indictment against President Hashim Thaçi and former Speaker of Parliament Kadri Veseli for crimes against humanity. The news of this indictment came a few days before the Kosovo-Serbia meeting was to be held at the White House. The head of state was informed while he was traveling to Washington, until the latter later canceled his participation. And this Monday, the head of state, Hashim Thaçi, has been invited for an interview by the Hague prosecutor’s office.
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