Kosovo still without war crimes museum, numerous evidence threatens to be forgotten

Professors, the history of these events say that the non-creating of such a museum, in addition to showing disrespect for the sacrifice of the fallen, risks collective memory of events that rocked the country two decades ago.

Annie, why there have been discussions about the creation of such a museum, the Department of Cultural Heritage, in the Ministry of Culture, has not answered questions about where this process has remained.

Kosovo Humanitarian Law Fund Director Bekim Blakaj says of KosovaPress, that it is a pity that Kosovo state institutions have not created a large archive that will contain the data of all events during the last war.

Until the absence of a museum that testifies to war crimes, it says it can create a problem in collective memory.

“Definitely the absence of a general museum that was going to deal with the past is a big problem, in the first place, in our collective memory as a society, where even the new generations would visit it and learn about the past, but it's also important for foreign visitors or tourists coming to Kosovo, of course they've heard there's a terrible war going on here, but when they care about where they can learn more about this war in fact there's not a single address of<16> he says.

According to him, the problem is also the fact that the state has no precise data on the injuries Serbia has caused in Kosovo during the war, economics and various targets.

And historian Memli Krasniqi says such a museum is important for testifying the crime committed by Serb forces to the people of Kosovo, then informing new generations.

“On one hand testifies to Serbian crimes, on the other hand helps in the collective memory of Albanians not to forget, not to plant any sense of revenge but not forgetting, to recall the serious damage and crimes that have occurred during the war in Kosovo... while any delay or delay of time until the opening of museums has consequences because many material remains have either been destroyed or cannot be found broken, or photos may lose that have not been digitized, as well as the recordings that have not been digitised, and that have not been lost by time distance, even the memory of persons who have survived, or Krasni.

While Professor Ismet Salihu, who was part of the Institute for Investigation of War Crimes, the institution that actually doesn't work, says the state showed negligence on the issue.

The very harmful “is, extremely harmful because it not only forgets, because it does not show a minimum respect for witnesses, of the war that has been killed for this freedom, of war victims, of billions of other material damages, therefore it is harmful not to establish the museum for war crimes, but also the quick reopening of the Institute for War Crimes Research<1>, he says.

According to him, the creation of a museum that testifies to war crimes is essential, even stressing that one had to be built 15 years ago. Besides the museum, he adds that the Institute for Investigation of War Crimes must be reopened.

And in Vetevendosje Movement, the party that has won the February 14th elections and is expected to form the government, says they will file genocide indictments against Serbia, and establish the Institute for Investigation of War Crimes and the Museum that testifies to war crimes.

State institutions in Kosovo so far have not held the collection and documentation of war crimes committed by Serbian forces during the 1998-1999 period, a part of Kosovo.

The country has several memorial initiatives that it undoubtedly took to Prekaz, where the Yasar family sacrifice is testified to, but it too has remained in a difficult position without proper state care.