Kosovars to hold annual thanking of Albanian population

KUKES, April 15 – Thousands of ethnic Albanians from neighboring Kosovo were expected to land Thursday in the northeastern districts of Kukes and Tropoja, an annual trip they make to commemorate the anniversary of the deportation they suffered from the Serb authorities in 1999.
It is expected that up to 20,000 Kosovars will come to Kukes where they are to hold many activities. It already started with a group of Albanians from Kukes invited to Kosovo earlier in the week.
Local Albanian authorities in the Kukes district have gotten ready to cope with the ‘happy’ influx of their brethren.
Up to one million Kosovars were deported by the Serb authorities in 1999 taking them out of the country to Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro.
It was the personal human assistance during the first three weeks given from the Albanians in these northeastern districts, considered to be the poorest in the country that saved the lives of thousands of them until the intervention from the international humanitarian organizations started.