Arbana Xharra’s editorial is one of the many covering the 15th anniversary of the NATO bombing in 1999. She says that she still remembers the tears of happiness in the eyes of people who were hugging each other: “We knew that those attacks meant our freedom,” she wrote, and continues to describe the difficult situation that ruled in Kosovo at that time.
She wrote, contrary to Thaçi’s and Jahjaga’s speeches about “the consolidated democratic state, progressing towards EU and NATO integration”, that citizens will wonder: How many murders happened since 1999? How many properties have been usurped? Who became a millionaire overnight? Where did some find the money to privatize thousands of hectares of publicly owned properties? Who has the monopoly over the most significant assets of the territory? Where are the prosecutors and police investigators? On the other hand, hundreds of Kosovars do not see a future in Kosovo. They pay smugglers and gangs to cross the Schengen borders, even though they are often left at some Danube riverside and on the mercy of fate.
“Today, 15 years after NATO’s intervention, each of us has a story to tell, but one thing is for certain, no one fought for this kind of Kosovo,” concludes Xharra.
