US Ambassador Hovenier: As President Clinton said, Recak massacre was a deliberate and indiscriminate act of murder

English

Gazeta Express

15/01/2022 17:57

US Ambassador to Kosovo, Jeff Hovenier, attended Saturday the ceremony commemorating massacre of 45 Kosovo Albanian civilians who were killed by Serbian police forces  in the village Recak on 15 January 1999.

Ambassador Hovenier in his addressing said the Recak Massacre was a deliberate and indiscriminate act of murder and the reason the United States, together with other NATO Allies, acted to protect defenseless civilians in the name of peace, freedom, and stability.

“Let no one forget or deny what happened here, or why the United States and our allies came to the defense of the people of Kosovo. I remember that day well. As the officer at the U.S. Mission to the OSCE responsible for Kosovo at that time, I received a call from then-Kosovo Verification Mission Head Ambassador William Walker just after he departed the scene of horror, already focused on his recommendations for the OSCE in response to the brutal murder of defenseless civilians,” Hovenier said.

US Ambassador said that they are aware of attempts to rewrite the well-documented history of this massacre and to downplay or misrepresent the facts about these atrocities. Hovenier quoted former US President Bill Clinton who commenting the Recak Massacre in 1999 said: “This was a deliberate and indiscriminate act of murder designed to sow fear among the people of Kosovo.”