Kosovo Memorial to Slain Jashari Family ‘Under Threat’

Monument to Adam Jashari at the memorial site in Prekaz. Archive photo: EPA/Valdrin Xhemaj.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj on Friday promised that action will be taken to safeguard one of the most important war memorials in Kosovo – to the slain family of the Kosovo Liberation Army commander Adem Jashari – amid concerns that it is deteriorating because of a lack of care.

“Every necessary action will be taken at the right time. There are no obstacles to honouring ourselves and this honourable and holy place,” said Haradinaj, who was visiting the memorial as part of activities to mark the tenth anniversary of Kosovo’s declaration of independence.

The memorial is situated in the village of Prekaz in the Skenderaj/Srbica municipality, at the site where 59 people, including women and children as well as Jashari himself, were killed in an attack by Serbian forces from March 5-7, 1998.

Public concern about the state of the memorial has already sparked a parliamentary debate last week.

The initiator of a petition to protect the memorial, Jusuf Thaci, said on Thursday that the authorities need to act immediately to prevent further deterioration.

“The houses should have a 24/7 guard because anyone can go there and damage them on purpose or to just take any souvenir or other material,” Thaci told BIRN Kosovo’s TV show ‘Jeta ne Kosove’.

“There are no security cameras and the protective roofing [over the family house] and the scaffolding are rotten and risk falling down,” Thaci added.

Visitors at the memorial site. Archive photo: EPA/Valdrin Xhemaj.

The director of the Agency for the Management of Memorial Complexes, Idriz Blakaj, rejected Thaci’s allegations and claimed that that his initiative was “driven by someone”.

He said that Thaci was not competent to talk about the condition of the memorial complex.

But Enver Hoti, an MP from NISMA (Initiative for Kosovo), which is part of the ruling coalition, demanded that Blakaj step down.

“You should at least find the moral strength to resign and to say that you cannot deal with the issue,” Hoti said.

Hoti insisted that there was institutional negligence over the memorial complex, which is in a “really bad” condition.

But he suggested that within a week “we will see concrete action by the government, which will certainly make a decision and take the necessary steps to get out of this situation”.

Artefacts left behind after the 1998 gunbattle have been preserved in a museum on the site dedicated to the Jashari family, where evidence of the gunfire can still be seen on the walls of the family’s homes and inside the rooms.

They include Jashari’s gun, children’s toys and various other small items.