President Commemorates Wartime Hero Adem Jashari

The President of the Republic Ilir Meta declared that the legendary commander Adem Jashari will remain in the memory of Albanian nation forever, as he remembered him on his 65th birthday.

Heroes have only birthdays, said the President.

"Today we honor the 65th anniversary of the birth of the Legendary Commander, Adem Jashari!

You were born on National Flag Day and you will forever remain in the memory of our nation, as the Legend with the flag. Heroes only have birthdays!,” President declared.

Adem Jashari was one of the founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a Kosovo Albanian irredentist organization which fought for the separation of Kosovo from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1990s.

Beginning in 1991, Jashari participated in attacks against the Serbian police before travelling to Albania to receive military training. Arrested in 1993, he was released at the behest of the Albanian Army and later returned to Kosovo, where he continued launching attacks against the Serbian establishment. In July 1997, he was convicted of terrorism in in absentia by a Yugoslav court.

After several unsuccessful attempts to capture or kill him, Serbian forces launched an attack against Jashari's home in Prekaz in March 1998. The battle that followed resulted in the deaths of fifty-eight Kosovo Albanians, including that of Jashari and his wife and son.

Seen as the "father of the KLA", Jashari is considered a symbol of Kosovan independence by ethnic Albanians. He was posthumously awarded with the title "Hero of Kosovo”.