The large-scale attack that Serbia had launched in Drenica to eliminate the Kosovo Liberation Army was concentrated in Prekaz, in the heart of the KLA, placing it under an iron siege.
What happened in early March 1998 is living testimony for the civilized world and its political and diplomatic leaders. In fact, this event—so direct and so powerful in terms of the scale of its unique sacrifice, resistance, and massacre—placed the issue of Kosovo at the top of the global agenda. Thus, on the night of March 4 and 5, 1998, Prekaz was surrounded by numerous military and police forces. There was a complete and iron-tight siege there.
March 5 marks the 28th anniversary of the fall of the legendary commander Adem Jashari, his family, and other members of the Jashari family. However, each anniversary makes Adem Jashari even more glorious in the history of our nation.
With the act of the fall of the legendary commander Adem Jashari, his family, and other members of the Jashari family, Kosovo overcame fear, thereby opening the paths to freedom and the future. Not by coincidence, in Prekaz, in the Jashari neighborhood, the largest monument of the war for freedom, independence, and democracy has been erected. On these days and dates—specifically March 5, 6, and 7 every year—the attention of the entire Albanian nation turns to the legendary Prekaz, which for centuries and years has given so much to Kosovo.
From 1991 until 1998, Prekaz and Drenica were surrounded by Serbian paramilitary forces. The aim was to kill the commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Adem Jashari, and his family, in order to extinguish and suppress the resistance that the Jashari family, led by Adem and Hamza, were mounting against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic.
On December 30, 1991, the first attack against the Jashari family was carried out. The second attack by Serbian paramilitary forces took place in January 1998. On January 22, Serbian forces attacked the Jashari family, but even in this battle the children and women of the Jashari family resisted. However, in this battle, which lasted about 30 minutes, Iliriana, the daughter of Rifat Jashari, and Selvetja, the daughter of Hamza Jashari, were wounded. After this attack, friends, companions, and compatriots came to the Jashari family to express solidarity with them. They asked the head of the family to withdraw the women and children from there. But the women and children had also made the decision to stay, saying that “if the sons are killed, life is not worth living for us.”
They decided to remain, to show the world that Albanians do not leave their land and homes.
The third attack, which took place on March 5, 6, and 7, 1998, took the lives of 55 people in the village of Prekaz, 22 of whom were close family members of Adem Jashari. Only Bashkim, the son of Rifat, survived this attack, managing to leave the area between March 5 and 6 and escape the assault, as well as Besarta, the daughter of Hamza, who witnessed and experienced the horror as members of her family were killed.
The history of the Jashari family and its exhibits have been placed in the Museum of the Epic of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
On the 28th anniversary of the heroic fall of the legendary commander Adem Jashari, the Jashari family, the martyrs of the nation, and all those who fell for freedom, the Government of Kosovo is organizing the nationwide manifestation “The Epic of the Kosovo Liberation Army” on March 5, 6, and 7.
Meanwhile, the Assembly of Kosovo will today hold a ceremonial session on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of the Epic of the KLA, with the marking of this anniversary as the only item on the agenda. /KosovaPress/
