President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga today addressed the “Sexual Violence in Conflict and beyond” Forum, organised by the Foundation for the Wellbeing of the Society of the President of Malta, Ms. Marie Louise Coleiro Preca. This Forum was organised on the occasion of President Jahjaga’s state visit to the Republic of Malta. During her remarks, Jahjaga said sexual violence was used as a tool of war in Kosovo against thousands of women and men with the purpose to incite fear and oppression upon innocent citizens. “Nearly twenty thousand innocent citizens carry the scars of the heinous acts of sexual abuse committed by the Serbian forces who turned their bodies into a battle field for political gains. While we moved on to rebuild our future upon the rubbles of destruction and immense human suffering, struggling with the many challenges of building a peaceful, stable and secure country, we left the victims of this horrendous crime to battle the shame, the isolation and the social exclusion without the proper institutional and social response. In the first days of my mandate as the President of Kosovo, I went to meet a group of women, survivors of sexual violence during the war. I witnessed that the war for them still had not ended. Their memories of the crime were fresh and the horrors of the suffering were weighting heavily on their shoulders,” Jahjaga said.  "I would like to express my gratitude from my heart for the President for organizing this event, and all of you who have come to offer your support in this quest for peace and justice for the survivors of wartime sexual violence in Kosovo and worldwide. We cannot change the past of the survivors of sexual violence in conflict, but we can make sure to offer them justice. Foremost we can make sure to end sexual violence in conflict once and for all. Let us all join this cause and protect our humanity," Jahjaga concluded.