The daughter of the martyr Lec Gradica: We do not ask for privilege, we want justice for the liberators
tidings
Express Newspaper
01/10/2026 16:55
In the protest held in the square with the motto “Not in my name”, against the verdict of the Special Court against the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Lavdie Gradica, the daughter of the doctor who fell in the war, also gave a speech. Lec Gradica, Ekonomia Online reports.
In her speech, Gradica spoke about her father, who during the war served as a doctor and was engaged in treating the wounded. She confessed about the commitment of her parents in 1998 and the establishment of the Gradica Military Hospital, where, according to her, the wounded during the war were treated.
“As proud as I feel to speak before you about the most glorious part of our history, I feel as much pain that, so many years after the glorious war of the KLA, as a people we are still trying to prove to the world that the sons and daughters of this land, who took up arms to protect our lands, to protect our lives and to bring us freedom, are innocent. Freedom is the basic right of every person in the world, while we Albanians had to pay dearly, with blood and sweat, generation after generation.”
Gradica said her father, Lec Gradica, answered the call to serve during the war and that his mission was humanitarian and patriotic.
She remembered the spring of 1998, when her parents, according to her confession, stayed in Gradica and served the KLA soldiers and the local population. According to her, her father focused on saving lives and treating the wounded, despite the dangers and difficulties.
“My father was a doctor in the war. He was there to save the lives of the wounded, to help people and to serve his people. Even my father, as a lover of freedom and as a white man, responded to the dedication of the homeland as early as illegality, without flinching. Father, seeing that the needs were increasing day by day, took over and founded the Gradica Military Hospital, a hospital in which many people recovered wounds of freedom.”
She said that Lec Gradica continued to serve in the mountains of Qyqavica until his fall on September 24, 1998.
Gradica also spoke about her mother, describing her as an inspirational figure for the family. According to her, her mother lost her husband and father, both martyrs, in the last war.
“I grew up with the absence and pain of a family that lost a father figure. But I also grew up with the pride that he chose to be where Kosovo needed him the most. That’s why today I can’t keep silent. Because my father didn’t give his life for us to be silent. He gave his life for a Kosovo where the truth is not afraid, where justice does not have double standards and where the sacrifice of those who fought for freedom is not equal to the crime of genocide.”
Referring to the judgment against the former leaders of the KLA in The Hague, she said that the families of the martyrs and their supporters will not allow, according to her, the history of the war to be rewritten or distorted.
She emphasized that she respects justice, but asked that it be fair.
“Seeing that people who are part of the history of our KLA war have been sentenced today in The Hague, we will not allow this judgment to be validated and this history to be rewritten or distorted. We respect justice. But justice must be fair. Today, from this square, I want to say to those who are in The Hague: you are not alone. Behind you are the families of those who were sacrificed, behind you are the children who were grew up without their parents, behind you are thousands of people and all the freedom-loving people who remember the KLA war and the sacrifice over the centuries.”
At the end of the speech, Lavdia Gradica said that the request of the families of the martyrs and the protesters is not for privilege or revenge, but for justice.
“We do not ask for privilege. We do not ask for revenge. We ask for justice. In the name of the martyrs, for our families and for you who are waiting for justice in The Hague today. We want justice for the liberators! Glory to all those who gave their lives for the homeland!”/EO/
