ADEM-JASHARI MEMORIAL COMPLEX

This memorial (Kompleksi Memorial Adem Jasharia, Memorijalni kompleks Adem Jashari) was founded in 2005 on the site of the massacre that marked the official start of the Kosovo war on 5-7 March 1998. After several attacks by the KLA, the Serbian police tried to arrest Adem Jashari (1955-1998), one of the founders of the organization, who was holed up here in his fortified family compound in Prekaz/Prekaze. After a day of negotiations and the death of two policemen, a deluge of fire rained down on the compound. Adem Jashari and 37 of his militants were killed, along with 28 women and children from his family. Responsibility for the massacre is shared. On the one hand, the Serbian police used completely disproportionate force. On the other hand, Adem Jashari refused to allow the women and children of his family to leave, using them as "human shields. This version of the story is of course not told here. The site, dominated by a large Albanian flag, is laid out around the former entrenched camp, two houses riddled with shrapnel protected by a scaffolding structure and guarded by soldiers. There are also 61 graves of KLA militants and members of the Jashari family, a bunker that served as Adem Jashari's command center and a small museum. Until recently, it was the main "tourist site" in Kosovo, visited mostly by Albanians. But the complex is now somewhat neglected.