In honor of friend Madeleine Albright, Friday is a day of mourning in Kosovo

“As a sign of state respect, Friday, March 25, 2022, is declared a day of mourning in the Republic of Kosovo to remember the great friend of Kosovo, Madeleine Albright who passed away yesterday. Mrs. Albright recognized the pain of our people because she herself had experienced persecution since childhood, so she stood firm against Milosevic until his genocide in Kosovo was stopped. I have always supported Kosovo to the last breath, therefore the people of Kosovo will remember it forever“, Says the President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani.

By decision of President Osmani, state flags are raised at half-mast in all state facilities of the Republic of Kosovo, inside and outside the country.

Appraisals have flooded in today for Madeleine Albright, the first female US Secretary of State in history still known today as the “champion of democracy”. The Czech immigrant, who became a veteran of US foreign policy and rose to the rank of chief diplomat in 1997 in the Clinton administration, has died at the age of 84 from cancer. The US remembers her as the politician who helped the then US administration outline a post-Soviet world, Albanians remember her as their friend, and as an instrumental figure in ending ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

In 1999 Albright strongly supported and insisted on the NATO operation against Serbia in the Kosovo conflict, even without a UN mandate, to end the massacre of Albanians. During this time she also met with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who later became her friend.

The US Ambassador to Pristina, Jeff Hovenier, wrote that “Madeleine Albright’s life was the personification of the American dream – the rise of refugees to our first Secretary of State. Her courageous leadership in the Balkans saved countless lives. “Kosovo’s progress is a constant honor for its heritage,” he said.

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