26 years ago, the land of Drenica was covered by a pain that never fades. In Shtuticë, Vërbovc and the surrounding villages, the Serbian genocidal regime barbarically executed 275 Albanians: innocent children, the elderly, women and men just because they were Albanians and wanted freedom.
This massacre, one of the most terrible ones during the war, remains an open wound in the conscience of humanity and an act that cries out for justice. This macabre crime was an attempt to exterminate the population of this area.
But on that day, when the monstrous crime took the lives of many Albanians, the light of freedom was kept alive by the KLA fighters, led by the heroic Ilaz Kodra. They did not retreat, they did not surrender. They became a shield for the people, with 40 of them immortalizing our freedom with their blood.
Today, we do not only commemorate the martyrs of this massacre, but we honor the resistance, sacrifice and dignity of those who fell to win our freedom today.
May the glory of the KLA martyrs and the memory of the martyrs of Shtuticë, Vërbovc, Drenicë and all of Kosovo be eternal!
