RECAK, Kosovo (AP) 鈥 Hundreds of Kosovars gathered in a southern village on Monday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a mass killing of 45 ethnic Albanians by Serb forces, an event that helped spark international intervention to end a 1998-99 war in Kosovo.
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Parliament Speaker Glauk Konjufca joined citizens at a cemetery in Recak, 32 kilometers (20 miles) south of the capital, Pristina, for the commemoration ceremony.
Former U.S. diplomat William Walker, 88, who led an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe mission tasked with overseeing a cease-fire agreement, also was present. Walker's use of the term 鈥渕assacre鈥 to describe the killings in Recak paved the way for a 78-day NATO bombing campaign of Serb forces that ultimately ended the war. He is revered as a hero in Kosovo.
The government of Serbia鈥檚 then-president, , claimed that the dead were members of the rebel who were killed in combat with state security forces.
鈥淭his was one of the most horrendous massacres committed by the Milosevic regime at that time, showcasing once again that their intention was to commit crimes against humanity and genocide against the people of Kosovo,鈥 Osmani said.
At the time of the war, Kosovo was a province of Serbia. A Serb government crackdown on Kosovo鈥檚 separatist ethnic Albanians , most of them ethnic Albanians. The United Nations governed the province until 2008, when Kosovo declared independence, an act that the government in Belgrade still hasn鈥檛 recognized.
Kurti denounced for not recognizing and apologizing for the Recak massacre, either as Milosevic鈥檚 minister of information or Serbia's current leader.
The mass killings in Recak were the first confirmed through evidence collected by international monitors and made known to the world through international news coverage, Kurti said.
"The Recak massacre has been proved as a crime against humanity in front of the world and of history,鈥 the prime minister said.
U.S. Ambassador to Pristina Jeffrey Hovenier affirmed Washington鈥檚 stance on the massacre, repeating what then-President Bill Clinton said, that 鈥淭his was a deliberate and indiscriminate act of murder designed to sow fear among the people of Kosovo.鈥
鈥淧eace and justice come from a clear-eyed acknowledgement of past crimes. This is vital to ensure these heinous crimes never happen again. But recognizing the truth of the past is just the first step towards justice,鈥 he said at a ceremony in Recak.
The European Union office in Pristina was also part of the commemoration, saying that, 鈥淛ustice for this heinous crime must be served and perpetrators held accountable.鈥
Relations between the two neighboring countries remain tense and flare from time to time. In September, a gunbattle between about 30 Serb men and police in northern Kosovo left an officer and three gunmen dead.
on normalizing Kosovo-Serbia ties are at a stalemate.
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Associated Press writer Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania, contributed to this report.
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