Kosovo PM Urges Serbs to Visit War Massacre Sites

Ramush Haradinaj at the commemoration on Tuesday. Photo: Kosovo Prime Minister's Office.

"This way it would be much easier for them to understand the region," Haradinaj said during a speech to mark the 20th anniversary of the massacre in Krusha e Madhe/Velika Krusa, where 241 civilians were killed by Serbian forces in March 1999.

"I hear the statements from Serb politicians denying what happened in Kosovo. The path forward is not by denying this pain or by denying these crimes," he said.

Haradinaj added that Kosovo was now entering what he called "the season of commemorating", citing other massacres across the country by Serbian forces in the spring of 1999.

"How can President [Aleksandar] Vucic, Prime Minister [Ana] Brnabic and their Foreign Minister [Ivica] Dacic deny this truth? How do they want to take their people forward, how do they think they can bring peace to Balkans this way?" he asked.

He said that Kosovo embarked upon the EU-mediated dialogue to normalise relations with Serbia despite all the wartime deaths and missing persons.

But he argued that it was "senseless" to ask Kosovo to "give up something for recognition".

"How is it possible to ask Kosovo to fulfill Serbia's conditions for dialogue?" he asked.

The massacre in Krusha e Madhe/Velika Krusa left the village with 140 widows and 502 orphans.

Some 113 more Kosovo Albanians were killed in another massacre in the village of Krusha e Vogel/Mala Krusa between March 25 and 27, 1999.