Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) joins local and international voices by strongly condemning the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2019 to Austrian laureate Peter Handke.

Handke, infamous as a supporter of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime, has openly denied the massacres that took place in the Balkans and opposed the NATO intervention in Kosovo. He participated in the funeral of war criminal Milosevic and publicly suggested that Sarajevo Muslims massacred themselves.

KWN seeks to remind the world that 20,000 people were sexually assaulted during the Milosevic regime in Kosovo. Today, 20 years after the end of the war, over 1,600 people are still missing.

KWN has worked towards equality, freedom and democratic values for more than two decades and believes that by awarding Handke the prestige of the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy has shown disrespect to the victims of Serbian aggression and chauvinism.

Criticism towards the Swedish Academy’s decision is especially strong following a recent sexual harassment scandal and the selection of only 15  female laureate in 120 years.

As a sign of solidarity with those who fight for freedom and equality as core democratic values, KWN joins the call for revocation of this decision by the Swedish Academy.