The damages of the last war in Kosovo are considered to be great both in people and in the economy, which according to the estimates so far are thousands of people killed, and billions in damage to family economies and destroyed enterprises.
Based on some research by various organizations in the country, there are approximately over 13,000 civilians killed, of which 1,393 are children, whereas over 20 billion euros are material damages.
Experts consider that after the collection of this information in an accurate manner after the population census process that started this month, in the framework of which both human and material damages will be recorded, the Government of Kosovo should sue the Serbian state for all the macabre crimes it has committed. While they say that they expect positive results in this regard, they express concern that the new generations may not have much knowledge about the damage that Serbia has caused to our country.
However, they say that these data should also be presented to the world opinion, since according to them, this issue is little known to them.
Archival researcher, Jusuf Osmani, says that according to the evidence he has made, over 13,000 civilians have been killed, including over 1,300 children. According to him, this is the best evidence for the macabre crimes that Serbia has committed against Kosovo.
While he shows that there is enough evidence, he says that more than 1 million houses have been destroyed, 1 thousand and 100 settlements in Kosovo have been affected by violence and terror.
Osmani, while expressing concern that young people may not know the damage caused during the recent war, says that according to the research done, the municipality of Skenderaj has the largest number of victims in the country.
Whereas, the founder of the Institute for Development Research “Riinvest”, Muhamet Mustafa, tells KosovaPress that in terms of demands towards Serbia, what people declare may not be very relevant, but he considers that our country should work more so that to present the truth of the Serbian genocide committed in Kosovo.
According to him, these damages should also include lost wages, the destruction of the budget system, pensions, that is, all the aspects that have been evaluated earlier by other experts in this regard.
Mustafa says that despite the fact that these issues were not addressed in the Ohrid agreement, he considers that this does not mean that Kosovo has no possibility to request these compensations.
The director of the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, Avni Kastrati, says that the questionnaire includes those damages that have been caused to physical objects and people. According to him, these questions should have been asked in 2011 since the data were fresher.
For the first time in Kosovo, the damages and crimes caused during the last war in the country by Serbian forces will now be recorded.
We recall that, in November 2023, the executive in Kosovo founded the Institute for Crimes Committed During the War in Kosovo.
Based on the law, the Institute must deal with several types of crimes, for example crimes against humanity, economic crimes, military crimes, psycho-social crimes, and those committed in the environment.
Meanwhile, the report cites a survey by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), according to which, almost 40 percent of all residential houses in Kosovo were severely damaged or completely destroyed.
In a report of September 1999, compiled by the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development of the Council of Europe, it is mentioned that international organizations active in Kosovo estimated that over 120,000 residential buildings had become uninhabitable.
According to the HRW report, schools and mosques were similarly affected: “According to a United Nations damage assessment of 649 schools in Kosovo, more than one-fifth of the schools surveyed were heavily damaged and more than 60 percent were completely destroyed”.
Many witnesses have been quoted as saying that Serbian forces robbed them of valuables, including wedding rings and automobiles, and threatened them with their lives if they did not hand over all their money.
The war is believed to have caused considerable psychological and emotional damage, to have greatly set back economic development, to have hindered foreign investment, to have caused political instability and social tensions.
