During the 1998-1999 war, Kosovo became a “closed-door theater” where the Serbian state directly staged the Albanian tragedy, distributed the actors’ roles, and during the combat operations it undertook all necessary action with the intention to completely or partially destroy ethnic Albanians as well as to ultimately destroy the crime scene where genocide was committed.

However, the horrendous crimes of genocide and the tragedy of Kosovo Albanians cannot be overlooked. The eventual intervention of Western democratic states ended Serbian barbarism and exposed the truth: the killing of over ten thousand ethnic Albanians, the sexual abuse and rape of over twenty thousand ethnic Albanian women, the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo’s entire ethnic Albanian population, the deportation of the devastating majority of ethnic Albanians and the destruction of identification documents, demolition of 100,589 houses, 88,101 supplemental facilities, 358 schools, 30 cultural houses, countless historical monuments, 93 libraries, 123 health institutions and 220 religious sanctuaries (mosques, tekkes, turbes and Catholic churches)…

20 years after the end of the war in Kosovo there is no information about the fate of over 1,600 people, whose traces where wiped out by the systematic effort of Serbian forces.

The genocide in Kosovo is an open and bleeding wound that requires constant treatment!

The denial of genocide is a serious crime to the victims, their families and the nation against which genocide was committed.

Western Balkans countries need peace, but no peaceful future can be built on lies and the denial of past crimes. The denial of genocide provides the perpetrators with the chance to escape justice and undermines the construction of eternal peace!

In order to stop the bleeding wound of the Kosovo genocide, the recognition, acceptance, and punishment of the crimes committed by Serbia is a step forward in healing this open wound and make possible that one day the motto “GENOCIDE – NEVER AGAIN” becomes reality!

The Center “Genocide in Kosovo-An Open Wound” aims to become an organized network of intellectuals and activists who volunteer to provide accurate information, entirely elucidate the genocide in Kosovo as well as insist on the indispensable triumph of justice.

We are committed that the full illumination of this human tragedy contributes the best in the prevention of genocide elsewhere around the world.

Bern, June 30, 2019