The long-awaited project for the Massacre Museum in the “Bosnian Neighborhood” comes to life

The investment of the Ministry of Culture has preserved the house as it was left by the last war in Kosovo, and the signs that have been there for years have not been touched. More intervention has been made in the premises around the house to ensure the sustainability of the building. After several attempts, in 2019 a kind of foundation stone was laid there by the Municipality of Mitrovica, together with the organization “Voice of Parents”. In that house, in April 1999, 9 Albanian civilians were killed by Serbian forces.

After almost a decade since the project to turn the house where, in April 1999, 9 Albanian civilians were killed by Serbian forces in Mitrovica into a museum began, the house has been inaugurated as the Museum of the Massacre in the “Bosnian Neighborhood”. It is a house that used to have plaques with the names of the killed, but which has recently been surrounded by glass and other equipment to withstand the passage of time. It is a private house of Mustafa Sahiti, located in what is now officially North Mitrovica.

"This project, worth approximately 150 thousand euros, in this place of memory, is an investment in the historical awareness of our society and in the education of new generations. Because without truth there can be no complete justice, and without justice there can be no lasting peace," said Prime Minister Albin Kurti at the inauguration ceremony on Monday afternoon.

The Ministry of Culture's investment has preserved the house as it was during the last war in Kosovo, and the signs that have been there for years have not been touched. More work has been done on the premises surrounding the house to ensure the building's sustainability.

After several attempts, in 2019 a kind of foundation stone was laid there by the Municipality of Mitrovica, together with the organization "Voice of Parents".

Representatives of various local and central institutions, families of the victims, and many citizens participated in that ceremony. The then mayor of South Mitrovica, Agim Bahtiri, had said that April has always been the most difficult month of commemoration for Kosovo.

"Today and always we will remember the people who were truly the most devoted people of this country, thanking the KLA and the people who helped us to be free here in Kosovo today, for which we have paid many times more than was necessary. This month has always been the month of the most difficult commemorations for our country... Today we will also inaugurate the museum, where I promised that this part would be here, because we owe it to these people to come and let others see this macabre thing that happened, thanking the Government of Kosovo as well," Bahtiri said.

At that time, Jahja Lluka, advisor to then-Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, had said that the space would take on the appearance that all the nation's martyrs and martyrs deserve.

"We promised that we would restore a museum here that befits us as citizens and as Kosovo. We have not managed to complete the work in time due to administrative reasons. We have gone short with the decision of the Government of Kosovo and Prime Minister Haradinaj. The funds have been allocated, as the mayor of Mitrovica said, and I hope that very soon all this will change and will take the form that befits us and that all the martyrs and martyrs of the nation deserve... We are ready at any moment to be with you for all your problems... Be proud, you have the support of the Government of Kosovo", Lluka had said.

Meanwhile, Bajram Çerkini, now deceased, at that time president of the Association of the Missing in Mitrovica, had said that the tears of this country are special, while expressing dissatisfaction with justice for the failure to catch the perpetrators of this crime.

"The tears of this country are special in Kosovo, because we are seeing where the criminals are. They behave here, they are here, they look at us through the windows, they laugh at us, while we do what we have done," he said.

Last week, the state also remembered Ymer Elshani, who was killed along with his family and 46 other civilians in the Poklek Massacre in Drenas. The writer will now also be remembered and honored through his house turned into a museum in Korrotica e Poshtme, Drenas.

According to the Ministry of Culture, this institution of memory becomes an important point of reference for the preservation of historical truth and the education of future generations.

"Writers and intellectuals are the soul of a people, as was the poet and writer Ymer Elshani for the Albanians of Kosovo. He was killed and massacred on April 17, 1999 by Serbian forces in the village of Poklek i Vjetër in Drenas, along with his wife, four sons, sister-in-law and 45 other villagers who were killed and massacred on the same day. While his mother was killed a day later, on April 18," Prime Minister Kurti said at the inauguration.

He expressed special gratitude to Teuta Elshani, the only survivor of the Elshani family, who has dedicatedly and carefully preserved the family's belongings and memories.