British top diplomat remembers the Kosovo war and the football match when Darwin fans honoured the English anthem

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has talked about how Great Britain stood near Kosovo in the most difficult days.

She at a conference from the island has talked about how Kosovars honored the English flag in Kosovo during the football match between the two countries.

According to her, a flag on the side of a military truck that has made the difference between life and death for people facing massacres in Kosovo.

And if anyone doesn't believe this, let him turn six years later, when the team of men in England in football played a qualifying match in Kosovo, and the players lined up for national anthems. When “began playing God Save The Queen”, every Kosovo fan in the stadium lifted up the flag, and among them a banner writing: “na gave hope for freedom. And they waved our flag with pride, applauded our anthem with warmth, and sang the name of our queen. Because they remembered how Britain had stood by them. This is what our country worldwide represents, and this is what we should always be”, the British secretary said.

The British secretary said that everyone has the right to live free from fear. After the war in Kosovo and the crisis in the Balkans, we hoped we would no longer see war in Europe. You will hear people on every continent speak with admiration for our Royal Family and our Parliament, our heritage and culture, our armed forces and universities, literature, music, film and sports that we have given to the world, the British inventions that have changed history. But more than that, they will tell you that our flag represents justice, honesty, tolerance and dignity”, she said.

“at this conference, thirty years after the terrible use of rape and sexual violence during the war in Kosovo, we also need to make sure that there is a much stronger protection for women and girls in Sudan, Myanmar and other conflicts taking place today”, she said at the Labus conference being held in Liverpool,

Therefore, she said she warns all those responsible for orchestrating sexual violence that one day they will face justice, no matter how long it will take, “while we require an end to the use of rape as a war weapon”, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said.

Yvette Cooper was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth and Development on September 5, 2025. She was formerly Secretary of State for Internal Affairs from July 5th 2024 to September 5, 2025. She was elected MP for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley in July 2024. / RTK/ Periscopi/