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UÇKHistory and Memory

28 November 1997 · 1996–1997

The UÇK's first public appearance in Llaushë

On 28 November 1997, at the funeral of the teacher Halit Geci in Llaushë (Skenderaj), three masked, uniformed UÇK fighters appeared before the mourners and addressed them. HRW calls this the group's first public appearance.
Evidence status: Documented. Supported by contemporaneous documents, institutional reports or independent studies that corroborate one another.Before the warPolitics

Editorial status: Awaiting verificationDrafted from the cited sources; not yet fully reviewed by the editors.

Key facts

Date
28 November 1997
Place
Llaushë (Skenderaj)
Coordinates
Approximate location
Sources
4
Evidence status
Evidence status: Documented. Supported by contemporaneous documents, institutional reports or independent studies that corroborate one another.

According to HRW, citing Tim Judah, Rexhep Selimi, Mujë Krasniqi and Daut Haradinaj appeared before some 20,000 mourners [1] [2]. Accounts of the teacher's death differ in detail: “killed by a stray bullet during fighting with Serb police” (HRW) or “killed two days before by Serbian forces” (a witness at the ICTY) [3].

Sources

  1. [1]Fred Abrahams, Benjamin Ward. Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo. 2001-10-26. https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/. Accessed 2026-09-16.
  2. [2]Tim Judah. Kosovo: War and Revenge. Yale University Press, 2000. https://books.google.com/books/about/Kosovo.html?id=TDmwQgAACAAJ. Accessed 2026-09-16.
  3. [3]Tribunali Penal Ndërkombëtar për ish-Jugosllavinë (ICTY). Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milošević, Transcript, 28 February 2002. 2002-02-28. IT-02-54. https://www.icty.org/x/cases/slobodan_milosevic/trans/en/020228IT.htm. Accessed 2026-09-16. — T. 1232
  4. [4]James Pettifer. The Kosova Liberation Army: Underground War to Balkan Insurgency, 1948–2001. Hurst Publishers, Londër, 2014-01. https://hurstpublishers.com/book/the-kosova-liberation-army-2/. Accessed 2026-09-16.

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