14.06.2020.
The 21st anniversary of the end of the Battle of Košare marked
The delegation of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces headed by the Commander of the First Army Brigade, Brigadier General Zoran Nasković, laid a wreath at the monument to Tibor Cerna in Debeljača, the municipality of Kovačica, on the occasion of marking the 21st anniversary of the end of the Battle of Košare and paying tribute to all the participants.
Wreaths were also laid by the State Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Zoran Antić, who hosted the state ceremony, the Cerna family, the representatives of the South Banat district, the Municipality of Kovačica and the local community of Debeljača, as well as the representatives of the Association for Nurturing the Traditions of the Liberation Wars of Serbia.The organizer of the state ceremony is the Committee of the Government of the Republic of Serbia for Nurturing the Traditions of Liberation Wars of Serbia in cooperation with the Municipality of Kovačica.
The Battle of Košare was the battle between the members of the Yugoslav Armed Forces and the Shiptar terrorists of the so-called KLA. The battle was fought in the area of the Košare frontier post, on the border between Serbia (then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and Albania, from 9 April to 10 June 1999, during the NATO aggression over Serbia. The goal of the attack from the Albanian side was ground invasion of Kosovo and Metohija and cutting off communication lines between the units of the Yugoslav Armed Forces in Đakovica and Prizren. After fierce fights, the Yugoslav Armed Forces managed to defeat the attackers and prevent them from entering Kosovo and Metohija. The Battle of Košare officially ended on 14 June 1999 when the Yugoslav Armed Forces withdrew from Košare, in accordance with the Kumanovo Military-Technical Agreement.
Since 2017, marking the anniversary of the Battle of Košare has been an integral part of the National Program for Commemorating Anniversaries of Historical Events of the Liberation Wars of Serbia.
