26 years have passed since 55 members of the Jashari family were killed by Serbian forces during the siege on Jashari family compound from March 5-7, 1998.

Known as ‘Epopeja e UÇK-së’ (the Epic of Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA,) the three day commemoration concluded on March 7 with the ‘Night of Fires’. Bonfires brightened the Adem Jashari Memorial Complex in Prekaz. Fires were lit in Prishtina square ‘Zahir Pajaziti’ as well.

‘The Epic of KLA,’ is the event memorialising the three-day attack on Prekaz in Drenica, often considered as the event that sparked the beginning of the Kosovo war.

On Wednesday, the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, together with the Speaker of the Assembly, Glauk Konjufca, and Prime Minister Albin Kurti, paid tribute at the “Adem Jashari” Memorial Complex, in Prekaz.

At the event, President Osmani spoke of the terrorist attack against the Kosovo police in Banjska, Zvecan on September 24, 2023.

“The lack of justice and impunity of Serbian war criminals has also emboldened the heirs, as was the case with Serbia’s aggression against Kosovo on September 24,” Osmani stated.

On Tuesday’s  session of the Kosovo Assembly began with a minute of silence for all those who fell for the freedom of Kosovo.

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, declared during Tuesday’s session that Commander Adem Jashari had played a very large role in Kosovo’s liberation and state building.

“If history is the progress of the people’s awareness of freedom, then Adem Jashari is the proper name of the man by which we can refer to our freedom,” Kurti stated.

At the me Government session, Kurti added that March was “an instructive example of a population who suffered and triumphed for freedom and independence”.

The Jashari home and graves are designated as monuments of cultural heritage. They commemorate the events of March 5-7 1998, when the forces of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime killed 20 members of Adem Jashari’s immediate family and more than 30 of his relatives.

Of the Jashari family members who were present during the three-day attack, only Bashkim Jashari, now the Commander of the Kosovo Security Forces, and Besarta Jashari are still alive.