President of the Republic of Kosovo, Mrs. Atifete Jahjaga, has issued a statement on the occasion of June 12th – Liberation Day.
Statement states:
Honourable citizens of the Republic of Kosovo,
June 12th marks for every one of us, the people of Kosovo and the state of Kosovo, the end of a particularly hard part of our history and the beginning of a new era, a brighter one, of our life and development as a society and a state.
Liberation Day, June 12th, marks the day when the final blow was dealt to the oppression, to the policy of hegemony and genocide towards the people of Kosovo. Freedom was won through a long resistance to the occupation, through the armed war waged by Kosovo Liberation Army and through NATO air campaign together with incessant support of the democratic world.
On this day, we bow before all those who fought and sacrificed for the Freedom and Independence of Kosovo. We express our gratitude to all the leaders and states of the world, which stood for the protection of the people of Kosovo during one of the hardest periods of its history.
We honour all those men and women, members of NATO, who endeavoured for the protection of the citizens of Kosovo, thus becoming the symbol of freedom and rescue and helping the post war rebuilding and democratic development and security of Kosovo.
Republic of Kosovo today is a democratic state of all its citizens, a factor of peace and stability in the region and a promoter of good neighbourliness, with a clear ambition to become member of EU, NATO and UN.
We are building a state of law, an all inclusive state where values of each citizen are respected. Today we must be united on our joint path towards a better future of integration into European Union and in friendship with the United States of America.