Prishtina, 20 June 2007 – His Excellency Tony Blair Prime Minister of Great Britain 10 Downing Street London, GB Honorable Mr. Blair, Having won three terms as Britain’s Prime Minister, you have proven to be an outstanding politician serving your great country. For this, certainly, your nation will cherish your heritage as an invaluable treasure in the history that straddles centuries and millennia.
I am very confident, Mr. Prime Minister, that your heritage as a statesman of global stature will go down as such in the universal history of modern times.
One of the brightest chapters of your heritage will be Great Britain’s action, alongside the USA, and our joint European allies, in defense of Kosovo during the tragedy of late 1990s, in the evil hours of Serbian aggression and barbarity, which resulted in unprecedented atrocities being committed against Kosovo Albanians.
The spring of 1999 brought the Calvary of Kosovo Albanians before the eyes of the world. Half of our people were ethnically cleansed by Milosevic, the butcher of the Balkans. This time, however, brought your leadership to the fore, too, the leadership of a politician of strong moral convictions, who moved to action to avert the catastrophe of an old people of Europe, and to roll back the results of the policies of ethnic cleansing.
You, Mr. Prime Minister, are stepping down these coming days, after ten years at the service of your country, after a decade of service to the cause of freedom and the best values of Western civilization. Above all, we see in you the image of an ethical and virtuous politician whose values reverberate universally.
In the name of all the people of Kosovo, I express herewith, Mr. Blair, our gratitude for your political and military action confronting the axis of evil based in Belgrade, the pinnacle of which was Milosevic and his paramilitary and military henchmen, inspired by a weird Communist-clerical ideological amalgamation, which was targeting the very existence of an entire people in the name of establishing a Greater Serbia, an anachronistic medieval creature at the end of the 20th century.
Honorable Prime Minister, your committed leadership during the action for Kosovo in the spring of 1999 will be treasured in our national memory. Under your leadership, Great Britain has played a key role in the period of freedom, physical and spiritual reconstruction of our country. Kosovo is now on the eve of its independence. An independent and democratic Kosovo, with equal rights for all its citizens, will rely on the best Western democratic traditions, which have nourished you and your nation.
We are guided by the great political tradition of our historic President, Ibrahim Rugova, a friend of yours, who, recognizing your work for the good of Kosovo, had awarded you the Medal of Freedom, which we hope to be able to present to you in the near future.
We wish you, Mr. Prime Minister, all the best in your future endeavours for the good of Great Britain, Europe, and our globe as a whole.
Yours truly,
Dr. Fatmir Sejdiu
President of Kosovo
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