Hoti massacre commemorated; Albanian-American prosecutor Gjon Junçaj: End of 100 years of Silence

 

 Hoti in Malesia e Madhe (Great Highland) commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Hoti massacre in which at least 72 Albanians have been killed by the Serbian army in 1919. One of the family members of one of those killed in this massacre was Albanian American prosecutor Gjon Junçaj, who was in Albania as a US envoy in the justice reform process. Prosecutor Juncaj told Hoti of the massacre that the time of silence has ended and that after 100 years it is time to pay the last respects to those who were unjustly killed by the Montenegrin-Serbian army.

"I am a descendant of one of those for whom we are here today to honor. 100 years ago dozens of Hoti men were executed on a mountain here near Kusha. These men were not wizards in wartime but were simply sons of mothers, fathers of children, Albanian highlanders. There was no legal process or justice before they took their last breath. As it was for my grandfather, his brothers and sisters had no last hug for their children. There was not even the burial they deserved. For 100 years on a row, there was only silence. Silence and suffering for their families. Today the silence is over, my great-grandfather and these men of the Highland receive they deserved respect. Even though they were physically disappeared, their names and their memory will live on forever,” said the prosecutor Junçaj.

Also, present at the ceremony as the representative of the Albanian municipality in Montenegro was also Nikole Camaj, who said it was time for Serbia to apologize for the Hoti massacre and many other unjust acts of Serbs against Albanians. A commemoration of those killed in the massacre of Hoti was inaugurated on this 100th anniversary, while the Holy Mass in the Church of Hoti was celebrated by the parish priest Ardjan Arra.