Pristina media announces Walker's arrival in Kosovo and Metohija on Racak crime anniversary

Former head of an OSCE mission in Kosovo and Metohija William Walker will arrive in Kosovo next week on outgoing Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli's invitation, Pristina media are reporting.

Pacolli posted the message he sent to Walker on Facebook, saying that he was a hero for Albanians.

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"He remains a living hero of Kosovo who showed to the world the terrible atrocities of the Milosevic regime. His principled and just work is a concern for Serbia today. He helped Kosovo a lot after 1999. I was honored to work with him on the independence and recognition of Kosovo internationally, before and after independence.

Friends like him in Kosovo should always be respected and listened to," Pacolli wrote.

On January 15, 1999, the bodies of 45 Albanians were found in the village of Racak in Kosovo and Metohija. Serbian security forces were accused of killing them, with no evidence, and this later became the direct cause for the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The accusations made by then head of an OSCE mission in Kosovo William Walker - that government forces committed a massacre of innocent civilians in Racak - were crucial for NATO's decision to start bombing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia two months later.

The event - although it was never determined to have been a massacre of civilians - marked a turning point in relations between the international community and Serbia and Kosovo.

Western officials and press accepted Walker's version as the only, and official one.

(Telegraf.rs)