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ARCHIVE: The KLA as an ArmyMarch 17, 1999 Contents:
Introduction This archive attempts to explore why, though many reporters assert the KLA is a professional and dangerous force, its results on the field indicate it is a very weak force, more capable at terror attacks than at a credible guerrilla against its target, the Yugoslav special police and army. Cohesion and training take time to build and the KLA does not demonstrate those vital aspects. Key commanders and strength estimates are included. Some of this analysis reflects internal correspondence with SIRIUS readers based on news reports from the beleaguered province. Benjamin Works The Articles: 1 Subj: List of UCK commanders Date: 99-03-09 18:33:43 EST From: AV Your trusty 'sirius' intern has complied the following list of UCK commanders, I think there are 7 regional commanders who are members of the "General Staff". So, now you have 6 or the 7 commanders. (The region names are my own) Overall Military Commander: Suleiman Selimi, 29 Decani Region: Shaban Shala (spokesman is Gani Koci) Ljap-Pristina Region (Lapastica, etc) : Commander Remi, 27 Area around Stitarica: Rahman Rama Pastrik Region: Commander Drini, 38, (" one of the most professional") Kacanik Region (162nd "Agim Bajrami"); Commander Bardhi., suspected of carrying out the January 25th murder of the Shaban Keljmendi father of Besim (12) and Hadziu (11) as well as Sanija Kurti and Hisen Kurti. Pec Region: Commander Ramush Hajredinaj, 30 ("one of the most militant", suspected of carrying out the Panda Cafe murders, when masked rebels opened fire in December on a restaurant the city of Pec, killing six Serbian youths and the "Slavica" cafe attack in early March where 6 people were wounded. His men also are suspected of shooting at U.S. diplomatic monitors. ) served one year as conscript in Yugoslav Army. Wife and 5 brothers serve in the UCK. One of his Battalion leaders is Arzen Bytyqi, 23 Subj: Partizan recruiting Date: 99-03-09 22:14:31 EST From: AV Speaking to my father about the UCK and he said it reminded him of how the Partizans operated. They also wanted to create an extremist climate, some techniques: ( some of these may be familiar to you from your ARVN experience) 1) Plant land mine on road in 'neutral' village, German truck hits mine, Germans attack village, neutrals flee to mountains 2) Gang Press 'unreliables' as fighters, shoot them in the back during an attack, then claim them as victims of the foreign occupiers. I think you get the picture, Milo may have more examples of such techniques. He was in a more neutralist area. Where my father was during the war was pretty much a pure Partizan zone. AV Subj: Remi in retreat Date: 99-03-09 18:41:42 EST From: AV This from Remi's Zone; CNN, Tues. Mar. 8, 1999 "We're fighting now, changing position," said 28-year-old Naim Bardiqi, a medical officer for the KLA, as he passed a point north of the village of Becic with members of his brigade. "We aren't exactly sure where their units are or ours either. The Serbs are attacking along the border between two of our (operational) zones. ... They want to come between these two zones. It's an important point for them, a strategic attack." Moments later two Serbian rockets slammed into the brigade headquarters, sending debris flying but causing no injuries. The sound of near continuous firing, including tank and machine-gun fire, was audible to the east. 2. Rearmed Kosovo Rebels Gear Up for Spring Influx of Donations Helps Build Arsenal By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, January 29, 1999; Page A22 POTEROV, Yugoslavia÷When Shukri Buja, a local commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, walks around this village, he carries in his right hand a menacing, short-barreled weapon filled with squat shells packed with enough explosive to stop an armored vehicle in its tracks. His trim guards wear fresh black uniforms and carry new rifles loaded with armor-piercing bullets. Other members of the separatist ethnic Albanian guerrilla force carry antitank missiles and submachine guns. Many wear lightweight, bulletproof jackets and vests filled with grenades and new ammunition. And most carry hand-held radios to stay in contact with their superiors. All these weapons are among the signs that the rebel group, which has been fighting for Kosovo's independence from Serbia, is no longer a citizen army garbed in thin, ill-fitting jackets but a more disciplined and much more potent force. On one side of the conflict are ethnic Albanians, who comprise 90 percent of the province's population, and on the other are the Serbs who govern it. Kosovo is a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, and ethnic Albanians almost universally support its independence. Since high-intensity warfare subsided into a lull here last autumn, the rebel group has been able to obtain more sophisticated arms and more of them, and it is training to use them more proficiently when the weather warms this spring, according to the insurgents and Western observers. The guerrilla group's resupply effort has been aided by an infusion of millions of dollars in contributions from wealthy sympathizers in Europe and the United States, by the establishment of a new pipeline for arms deliveries through Hungary and by a successful campaign to buy sophisticated weaponry from profiteers in the Yugoslav army, these sources say. "I think arms merchants all over the world are queuing up to sell to them now," said one Western diplomat, noting that a growing number of arms from developed countries are edging out the Chinese-made weapons that were smuggled into Kosovo from private stockpiles in Albania last year. The buildup has sparked concern among diplomats that it could feed a destructive new conflict this year and embolden the guerrillas to rebuff Western attempts to bring about a peace settlement. NATO is threatening to deploy troops in Albania to enforce a blockade of arms shipments to the Kosovo rebels if the guerrillas do not accept a U.S.-drafted peace accord, which will is to be made public in London today. But given how much new weaponry the rebels already have, a blockade seems unlikely to have much immediate impact on the group's ability to continue to fight. Under a new strategy adopted in recent months, the group has been undertaking largely guerrilla-style hit-and-run attacks against garrisons and convoys of Serbian Interior Ministry paramilitary forces and Yugoslav army troops, instead of trying to defend vast areas against assaults by government mechanized units. More than 15 government troops have been killed in such ambushes since last October. The risk for the Kosovo Liberation Army is that ambushing and killing government troops will provoke security forces to continue taking their revenge on unarmed civilians, as they apparently did in a Jan. 15 attack on the southern village of Racak, where 45 ethnic Albanian civilians were gunned down. But Buja and other guerrilla leaders say they will not be deflected by such attacks. "I'm very sorry to know that this is the only road we have to take," said Buja, 33. "My army and my people will suffer, but I am afraid this is the only way. . . . We will never live under the Serbs again." A rebel commander in northern Kosovo, known as Remi, said "we are ready to sacrifice . . . no matter what the consequences are." Remi boasted that the rebel group is armed with advanced antitank weapons made in Italy and South Africa, and he confirmed reports by several diplomats that the guerrilla force recently bought a sizable quantity of arms from a Yugoslav military officer. "Our biggest supply of weapons now comes from Serbia," Buja said. "Money can buy everything," he added while showing off a shiny new, large-caliber, U.S.-produced, Smith & Wesson revolver at his waist. He said the rebels also had captured a tank from the Yugoslav army, as well as a Praga armored vehicle equipped with an antiaircraft gun for use this spring. The principal source of funding for rebel arms purchases continues to be its "Motherland Calling" revenue drives, which are organized around monthly meetings of ethnic Albanians in cities around the world. Galvanized by periodic government assaults on civilians and by intense pressure from guerrilla officials, individual businessmen have donated as much as $600,000 to the effort, according to rebel sources. The guerrillas also have had their sights set for months on buying arms with money placed in foreign bank accounts -- said to hold millions of dollars in diaspora contributions -- that are controlled by Bujar Bukoshi, a leader of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo government in exile in Switzerland. Bukoshi has withheld some of the funds in an effort to bargain for a position of influence within the Kosovo Liberation Army. Several diplomats said they expect the arms purchases to accelerate if Bukoshi releases these funds to the rebels. The organization's growing wealth has helped fund an expansion of its ranks and a reconstruction of the regional headquarters system that was dismantled in last year's fighting. At one such headquarters in southern Kosovo, the rebel group has established its own radio station and news agency. But some electronic equipment also has been allocated to a special unit said to be capable of eavesdropping on electronic transmissions by government forces. "We will attack Serb forces wherever they are," said Remi, who declared that he and other rebel leaders are organizing cells inside Kosovo's larger cities to prepare for attacks on Serbian police and Yugoslav troops stationed in such urban settings. "We're going to convince them that they don't belong here . . . [by attacking] everybody who wears a uniform." © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company 3. AP(?): Serbs, Kosovo Rebels Free Hostages On Both Sides 4.01 p.m. ET (2102 GMT) January 23, 1999 PRISTINA, Serbia ÷ Serbian authorities were reported to have freed nine ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Kosovo Saturday, making good on an exchange deal for the release of eight Yugoslav soldiers two weeks ago. At virtually the same time, their rebel colleagues released five elderly Serbs who were taken hostage Thursday. A source close to Serbian authorities insisted the two developments were not linked. Ethnic Albanian sources said the nine guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who were imprisoned in the southern Serbian city of Nis after a border clash last month which left 36 rebels dead, were released in western Kosovo Saturday afternoon. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which organizes a team of international observers to verify a shaky cease-fire brokered last October, confirmed the release of the Serbs, but not of the KLA rebels. The Serbs were taken from their homes in the village of Nevoljane at gunpoint by masked men wearing the insignia of the KLA, fighting for an independent Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs by nine to one. After their release they were driven to safety in vehicles of the Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM), the mission's press office said. There was no immediate word on their condition. The releases were expected to go some way to easing tension in the volatile Serbian province, which rose to boiling point earlier this month with the alleged massacre of 45 ethnic Albanian villagers, raising the threat of NATO military intervention to prevent further bloodshed. Earlier Saturday, William Walker, the American head of the Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM), had condemned the taking of the Serb hostages, saying it seriously disrupted efforts by the international community to restore order in Kosovo. "People say I never say anything bad about the KLA but I think it was a very unwise and uncivilized thing for them to do to kidnap civilians and I want to condemn it,'' Walker said. The KLA had been demanding the release of the KLA prisoners as in reciprocation for its freeing of the eight Yugoslav army soldiers seized earlier this month after taking a wrong turn as they attempted to recover a damaged vehicle. The Albanian sources told Reuters that the nine KLA members were released at about 4:30 p.m. (1530 GMT) under an agreement reached by the KLA, the OSCE and the Yugoslav army. The freed rebels were driven away in vehicles of the U.S. Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission and were taken to Likovac, west of Pristina, where they were turned over to the KLA. The independent Belgrade-based news agency Beta earlier quoted the KLA's news agency as saying the five Serbs had been ''arrested'' because they were armed with two machine guns, three automatic weapons and 1,500 rounds of ammunition and had been harassing ethnic Albanians. In the village of Vaganica, in northern Kosovo, some 10,000 ethnic Albanians gathered Saturday for the funeral of two separatist guerrillas killed earlier in the week by police. A unit of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas fired a volley over the coffins of Sami Gashi, a 35-year-old father of two, and Afrim Hajrizi, 33, who had three children, after they were brought by truck from the nearby town of Mitrovica. A local KLA commander said: "After five hours of heroic fighting between Brigade 142 and a unit of paramilitary police, we managed to evacuate most of the people. Two warriors were killed, but they didn't die because heroes don't die. "They are an example of how the fatherland should be defended. May they rest in peace,'' he added. The father of one of the dead said: "Even if I had 20 sons, I would give them all for the country.'' The KLA fighters died in what the rebels said was an attempt to secure the release of seven men detained by police in a sweep of several villages for KLA suspects. 4. Albania Calls for All-Albanian Collective Defense Xinhua 10-FEB-99 TIRANA (Feb. 10) XINHUA - Albanian Prime Minister Pandeli Majko suggested that all Albanians in the Balkan region are entitled to organize themselves for collective defense. Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Majko said the peace talks being held in Rambouillet, near Paris, is only the first step in solving the Kosovo problem, not a final formula. He said withdrawal of Serbian troops from Kosovo province should top any recipe for the issue. If the talks fail to bring about peace, or there continue to be killings in Kosovo, all Albanians living in Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo and Herzegovina, as well as other Balkan regions, can get organized to conduct collective defense, the prime minister suggested. Urging the United States to be involved in Kosovo not only diplomatically, but also militarily, he pledged that Albania will provide all necessary assistance if NATO or parties at the Rambouillet talks decide to send troops to the Balkans. Serbian and ethnic Albanian representatives began talks for Kosovo peace at Rambouillet Saturday sponsored by the six-nation Contact Group. 5. KLA only needs time, training -- Western observers By Kurt Schork PRISTINA, Serbia, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Kosovo are not yet an effective army but need only time and training to make life hard for Serbian security forces, a Western counter-insurgency specialist said on Wednesday. ``I rate the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) about the way they rate themselves, which is that they have no tactical knowledge whatsoever,'' said an international monitor with vast experience of guerrilla forces around the globe. ``They bounce around like they have seen in films but in a proper military confrontation with the Serbs they must lose because they have no sense of how to use ground.'' ``Having said that, the KLA has money and weapons and high morale. It's just a matter of a bit of time and training.'' The monitor, who asked not to be named, is a retired senior officer in a European army now serving with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's 1,200-strong Kosovo Verification Mission. The KLA's military capability and potential bears directly on peace talks on Kosovo under way in Rambouillet, outside Paris, between Serbian and ethnic Albanian delegations. The six-nation Contact Group sponsoring the talks insists that neither side could hope to prevail in a military conflict. But Yugoslav army and Serbian special police units reckon they could eradicate the lightly-armed KLA if Western diplomats and human rights officials would quit harassing them about collateral civilian casualties, which they say are inevitable. An estimated 2,000 people, among them women and children, were killed in the past 11 months of the insurgency, which during the peak of fighting last summer forced an estimated 250,000 people from their homes. The fledgling KLA, which has been fighting for independence for only one year, thinks it can now hold its own against government forces and bleed them dry in the Serbian province, where 90 percent of the people are ethnic Albanian. Both sides have indicated they would prefer to take their chances on the battlefield rather than agree a peace deal that leaves them disadvantaged in Kosovo. With the Contact Group offering a compromise of autonomy for Kosovo, to be secured by the deployment of up to 30,000 NATO troops, both parties to the talks are nervous that their battlefield ambitions are about to be foreclosed. Each seems to be manoeuvring to ensure that the other is held responsible for a breakdown in the talks, if one occurs. The KVM monitor who spoke to Reuters said the KLA has more men and weapons than it can properly utilise without proper training. He illustrated this by citing their use of a new sniper rifle that can accurately fire an armour-piercing bullet over a distance of one mile (1.6 km). ``I see lots of these Barrett 50-calibre sniper rifles in the hands of the KLA but they are using them to cover a piece of ground that's only 50 metres (yards) wide,'' he said. ``That's a complete waste of a sophisticated weapon. They can do a lot better with a bit of basic training.'' Last year the KLA smuggled most of its arms and ammunition into Kosovo across the border from neighbouring Albania over routes that are now mined and regularly patrolled by Yugoslav army border troops. In response, the KLA says it is now getting arms and ammunition on the black market inside Yugoslavia. A top KLA zone commander said on Tuesday that 80 percent of his troops' weapons had been captured or purchased from Serbian forces. 08:22 02-17-99 The photogenic Commander Remi seems to be the UCK officer responsible for the Pristina. Does this mean Remi is responsible for directing the current bombing campaign against civilian targets in Pristina ?............ The Times (London), February 17 1999 EUROPE, 6. Nothing short of independence will do, a defiant Kosovo guerrilla commander tells Anthony Loyd in Lapastica , Serbs must go or we fight on, says rebel chief
"............"Zone commanders such as myself are members of the General Staff," said the fighter, known as Commander Remi, one of the most senior KLA officers remaining in Kosovo. "We obey our orders, but the General Staff is fighting for the freedom of Kosovo, so we don't expect orders to disarm or disband. We'll put our weapons in warehouses only when we have liberated Kosovo." Commander Remi is in charge of the most vital of the seven KLA operational zones which divide Kosovo. Included in his area of responsibility is the municipality of the provincial capital, Pristina, as well as the vital highway running north which connects Kosovo to Serbia. Though only 27, the former law student, who interrupted his studies to fight, has previous combat experience gained in the Yugoslav Special Forces during the Croatian war in 1991. [ Commander Remi appears to be responsible for the UCK bombing campaign against Albanian restaurants in Pristina ] 7 SIRIUS Estimates of KLA Strength: A. Subj: Re: SIT-REP 2-23; After Rambouillet Date: 99-02-24 10:55:58 EST From: AV Ben, One trifling point to pick, you say 10,000 UCK with 2,000 active. I'd guess way less. A. Guesstimated Order of Battle: Commander Remi up north with 2 understrength companies; say 300 Another elite "battalion" in the Southwest with same number: say 300 150 "battalions" ( from NZZ) throughout area each at platoon strength: say 1,500 Northern Albanian Training Camps guess 3 camps at 300 each: say 1,000 Plus 2,000 captured UCK held by Yugoslav criminal courts: say 1,500 This back of the envelope guesstimate adds up to 4,600, call it 5,000 total, with about 1,200 active. This jives with the number of Yugo forces in-country. they have about 15,000 active, this seems to fit the rule-of-thumb 10 - 1 ratio required to stop UCK style gang fighters. Of course, this is all rife amatuer speculation, I'd love to see some serious expert presentation on this. AV
B. Subj: UCK Date: 99-02-10 10:09:04 EST From: AV In Jane Perlez's NYT's misinformation piece today there was a good tidbit: "........ [Jakup] Krasniqi..... seems to have concluded that the fighting should stop. "He knows the rank and file don't want more fighting," an American who knows him said......." Krasniqi is a member of the UCK 'directorate' and part of the negotiating group. This jives with other info on the UCK: 1) They seem unable to organize beyond platoon sized units. 2) Their recruitment efforts have failed dramatically 3) Except for the most limited areas, the population does not appear to give them safe harbour. 4) They have experienced numerous spectacular failures all through 1998. 5) The Yugoslavs have been sucessful in getting the UCK to concentrate their handful of serious forces in the senseless defense of a few besieged garrisions. T Of course, reality is all irrelevant. Since Tet, PR is all that counts. 8. Subj: Yugoslavia's Military 'Secret Plan" discovered Date: 99-02-24 12:31:11 EST This can be found at http://www.alb-net.com/index.htm AV Exclusive - Kosova National Informative Agency "Kosovapress" Prishtina (Kosovapress), February 20, 1999 According to the latest information, it seems that a new offensive taken from military Yugoslav forces is about to happen very soon in Kosova. Strong artillery attacks have already started against some fixed Albanians dwellings where KLA forces are located. Recent reports show that victims are civillians and in some instances, KLA soldiers. The KLA Informative Service headquarters has in its hands a secret plan of the Yugoslav forces that shows the details of this new wave of Serbian army operations in the area. As it seems, this secret plan of the enemy is going on so fast in order to become an obstacle for the negotiations that are taking place in Ramboillet, France, apparently because the Serbs are not willing to end this conference with any kind of agreement. This plan has got some very interesting details. Few of them are listed below. Acquaintance for the preparations of Serb armed forces for attacking operations in Kosova. For executing of the operation they are planning: ð42 000 soldiers and some units of 12 Army Corps of Novi Sad, 37 Army Corps of Uzhice, 21 Army Corps of Nish, 2 Army Corps of Podgorica and units of the 52 Army Corps of Prishtina. ð17 000 members of police forces and special military units. Objectives of the operation: 1. Military-operative objectives: ðelimination of KLA, particularly in the northern and central part of Kosova. ðentirely purification of the wide region over the road ax Prishtina-Peja. ðentirely purification of the plan in the east the river Sitnica. 2. Politico-operative objectives: ðPlacing complete security and political control over the parts of Kosova which is presently controlled by KLA and the preparation of this space as operative support in case of the possible division of Kosova and in case the international community interfeers to stop further combating. ðNext step may be the achievement of political and military control over all Kosova after the elimination of KLA. ðReorganization of military and police and the positions of the forces in the direction of new coming attacking duties. ðChanges in the commander carde of Yugoslav army in all levels and the nomination of obedient officers. ðWith limited attacking operations to cause defeat of KLA and to prevent its organization. This tactic is called by Serbian military annalists "Mouse bite", similar to the attacks in Llap, Dashinoc, Ratish, Maznik, Recak and Mitrovica. Fresh troops already in their positions: ðIn the village of Pardusha near Kurshumlia the 36 blinted Brigade coming from Vojvodina has been placed (12 Army Corps) ðBrigade 80 motorized from Kragujevc is placed in Mitrovica. ðSpecial police forces are placed in Drenica. ðOne battalion of special police forces is placed in quarters of Gjakova Tactics: ðFor the prospection of the KLA positions they are using cars in orange color that looks like the cars or the verifications of OSCE. ðArrest of soldiers of KLA and other persons who can provide them with information. Serbs forces are planning an attacking operation because: ðThe insecurity of Yugoslav troops is increasing day after day in Kosova. ðReports that the KLA is organizing in the bases of military structures and their armament is becoming modernized very fast. ðTheir believe that they will be able to surprise the KLA and that this is their last chance to destroy them. ðTheir determination in the military solution, elimination of KLA, knowing that the KLA is the only force that stands them in their way for colonization of Kosova, and other areas in the near future. 9. HUMAN EVENTS The National Conservative Weekly Vol.55 No.9 March 5, 1999 Jane's Says Muslim Guerrillas Wage War of Terror Against Serbs NO GO ON KOSOVO If, like most Americans, you know absolutely nothing about the Balkan backwater of Kosovo, you will learn all of you need to know in the next few paragraphs to understand that President Clinton's policy there is violently at odds with all good sense and U.S. national interests. Last July along the Serbian-Albanian frontier, the Yugoslavian Army encountered a group of Muslim guerrillas trying to sneak across the mountains into the Serbian province of Kosovo. The Yugoslavians killed a guerrilla named Alija Rabie. He was a citizen of Albania, but also a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army that is fighting to wrest control of Kosovo from Serbia. Documents found on Rabie's body showed he was escorting into Serbia a 50-man contingent of foreign fighters intent on waging jihad against Kosovo's minority population of Orthodox Christians, usually referred to in the press as "Serbs." "The group included one Yemeni and 16 Saudis, six of whom bore passports with Macedonian Albanian names," reported Jane's International Defense Review. Jane's is no partisan pro-Serbian publisher. It is the highly reputable, pro-NATO, century-old, British-based firm that over the years has developed a remarkable reputation for scooping the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency on important news about rogue regimes and insurgencies around the world. Ethnic Cleansing of Christians The clash last July between Yugoslavian Army troops guarding the Serbian-Albanian border and Muslim insurgents trying to sneak weapons and foreign mujahideen into the Serbian province of Kosovo was not a unique incident. It was routine. Indeed, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, but known in their native tongue as the Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves, or UCK) is suffering a large portion of its casualties in exactly these sort of clashes. "This total of UCK loses incurred during frontier crossings (136 dead since January 1998)," reports Jane's, "is quite significant when compared to the 180 UCK soldiers who were killed during the fighting in mid-1998. (During this period 112 Serb police and 51 Serb army personnel were killed with 395 police officers wounded." "The UCK's tactical mistake," says Jane's, "has been to concentrate its horse-borne arms trains on two frontier crossing areas... instead of dispersing its arms caravans the length of the frontier." "The UCK has compounded this tactical errors," adds Jane's, "by trying to push ever larger guerrilla groups along these same infiltration routes in the mistaken belief that they can smash their way through Belgrade's border defense." "The UCK favors these extremely dangerous routes," explains Jane's, "because topographically they are the easiest and shortest conduits for the pack horse arms caravans to guerrilla- controlled areas of Kosovo. Furthermore, the UCK is in a hurry to get arms to its host of ready recruits and proceed with its third winter objective, expansion of guerrilla control in Kosovo." "UCK expansion on the ground in Kosovo is gradual, insidious process containing three elements," says Jane's. What are those three elements? 1) Assassination of Muslims who don't cooperate. "First is the elimination of opposition to their authority among the Kosovo Albanians," says Jane's. "This usually means targeting those few Albanians with connections to the Serb police." 2) Assassination of Serbian police. "Secondly," says Jane's, "there are occasional attacks on the Serb police patrols and the few remaining Serb police checkpoints. In one case a single RPG was fired at a Serb police car by a group that escaped in a car via the network of country lanes which the UCK has prepared as a parallel transport system in case Serb police return to their tactics of saturating main roads with checkpoints to prevent UCK vehicle movement." 3) A reign of terror against Orthodox Christians of Kosovo. "The third and most important element this winter has so far been the harassment and assassination of Serb officials and civilians from Kosovo's Serb minority," reports Jane's. "This has included sniper attacks, Serbs dragged from their vehicles and beaten, together with pressure on them to leave their homes.... This UCK tactic has the double benefit of forcing Serbs to quit the province and provoking police into retaliation and subsequent censure by OSCE [NATO-backed Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe] observers." When Serbian Christian forces do this to Albanian Muslims, the Western press usually, and rightly,, refers to it as "ethnic cleansing." So, what is President Clinton's policy toward this war of national secession being waged by acts of terror by Arab- backed Muslim guerrillas within the historical boundaries of a European nation? It is, first, to threaten Serbia with bombing raids if the Serbs don't agree to remove their troops from their own national territory and, second, to grant "autonomy" to a region that would then be run by the KLA, with U.S. troops standing guard on the ground, protecting the KLA guerrillas from Serbian Christian forces. This policy hit a snag last week when the KLA itself refused to sign off on the deal when it was offered them by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. KLA forces believe they can win their independence outright from the Serbs without the aid of bombing raids delivered courtesy of Uncle Sam. They fear that American troops will needlessly yoke them to the historically Christian nation they believe they can defeat on their way to establishing an Islamic republic in what Winston Churchill once called the soft underbelly of Europe. The Serbs for their part say they will never let go of Kosovo because it is the cradle of their indigenous Orthodox religious tradition. It is for them what Mecca is to the Muslims. As has been much reported in the liberal press, the Serbs, too, have committed outrageous acts of terror to keep Kosovo in Christian hands. But the United States has no business intervening in this religious civil war - on either side. It is high time the Republicans in Congress raised their voice to tell President Clinton clearly and unequivocally, No Go on Kosovo. [Plese send all editorial correspondence to 1 Massachusetts Avenue, WW Washington, D.C. 20001 Tel.: (202) 216-0600.] 10 . Subj: Some 300 Former HV Members Fighting in Kosovo Date: 99-03-15 18:26:01 EST Vecernji List (Zagreb) 9 March 1999 Some 300 Former HV Members Fighting in Kosovo by Sonja Hodak Several dozen Croats have been fighting shoulder to shoulder with the members of the Kosovo Liberation Army [UCK] in Kosovo in the fiercest combats against the Serbs! Of course, all of them arrived there through private channels and without the knowledge of the Croatian Government, and all of them, according to the claims of our collocutors from the UCK, are well-trained soldiers who have been fighting there since last year and who are taking part in the hardest clashes along the border now! Albanians close to the peace agreement negotiators have also confirmed the participation of combatants from Croatia, that is, of Croats and Albanians with Croatian citizenship, and they have also informed us about the reasons why our people went to Kosovo. "The Croats who went to fight shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers of the Kosovo Liberation Army did so for two reasons: either they are risking their lives because of their friendship and solidarity with the Albanians who defended Croatia for years in the Liberation War, or they went there for money. Among the Croats in the UCK there are also high-ranking officers who have left the HV [Croatian Army], like, for instance, a colonel from the Split area," our collocutors tell us. Two Factions With the Same Idea The most sought after are commandos, who train the new arrivals at centers in Albania, and the second most-wanted are experts in minesweeping. They earn some 15,000 German marks [DM] a month, while unspecialized, but experienced soldiers earn about DM10,000. The Albanians from Croatia, on the other hand, are not in Kosovo as mercenaries, but arey defending their relatives from Serb attacks in bloody clashes in Kosovo. According to our source, who is well informed about the very beginnings of the Kosovo conflict, before the UCK there were two factions with the same idea that Kosovo should be helped with both money and soldiers. Dr. Bujar Bukoshi, prime minister of the Kosovo government in exile, headed the first faction. In Croatia, he organized a group of Albanian officers who had previously been officers of the JNA [Yugoslav People's Army] and then of the HV. Bukoshi provided for their salaries and appointed Ahmed Krasniqi to the office of the minister of defense of Kosovo. Ahmed Krasniqi was killed in Tirana last fall under still-unclear circumstances. The other faction was the Kosovo National Movement, which was very active in the West. Through the Albanian community in Croatia, they established a fund called "Homeland Calls." Even though, at the start, those two factions were politically opposed to each other, they united within the UCK several months ago. It is presumed, our source says, that the other faction [as published] provoked the war in Kosovo, and the majority of soldiers from Croatia arrived in Kosovo precisely thanks to them. From Split and Ljubljana to Albania They generally travelled from Split or Ljubljana to Albania. There, they were trained at centers, and then they left for Kosovo. The soldiers who already had combat experience (our source claims that many Albanians fought in the Liberation War in order to acquire experience for the inevitable conflict in Kosovo) immediately went to the battlefield across the Prokletije mountain range. However, it is not so well known that the warriors go to the battlefields directly through Macedonia, Montenegro, and Sandzak. "Almost all the soldiers who left for Kosovo are still there, because the scale of the war is growing. Two months ago, some of them were still visiting their families in Croatia, but now that is almost impossible to do," our collocutors claim. Our source claims that the so-called returnees [preceding word published in italics] are either deserters or soldiers who were not accepted by the UCK, so that they were returned from Albania without smelling the smoke of war in Kosovo. Some of the fighters from Croatia are, unfortunately, no longer among the living. For instance, Pekim Berisha-Zica, the bugbear of the Chetniks, was killed in action. A legendary fighter from Croatia, Fehmi Ladrovci, was also killed. According to some estimates, there are approximately 300 fighters from Croatia in Kosovo -- of course, more Albanians and fewer Croats -- but one cannot give a precise number. One of them is Kadri Kastrati, a citizen of Pula, who has been in Kosovo for almost a year. "They Cannot Close the Roads" "Last night, the Serbs showered us heavily with shells, but there were no victims on our side -- there were victims on their side," Kadri Kastrati told us by cellular phone during a lull in the fighting early in the morning last weekend from the surroundings of Podujevo. Kadri is an experienced soldier, he participated in the Liberation War and has the memorial certificate for the year of 1991 and 1992. For two and a half years he was a member of the Pula "Vangas" and defended Croatia along its Adriatic coast, from Zadar to Dubrovnik. From Pula, where he lived with his family, he arrived in Kosovo in April last year. Four months ago, he saw his closest relatives for the last time, when he had a short vacation from the increasingly fierce clashes with the Serb military and police. "Like most of the people, I arrived in Kosovo through Albania, but when I returned from my vacation in Pula, I entered Kosovo through Macedonia," Kadri Kastrati tells us, derisively commenting on the amassing of Yugoslav forces along the border with Macedonia. "The roads can never be closed, because they were opened by the will to help one's own people." Before his participation in the Liberation War, this 39-year-old soldier had spent 11 years in the JNA, and, today, he is the deputy commander of the region in which he fights. We Have Repelled Eight Serbian Offensives! "I went to fight in Croatia, because we had a common enemy, and that was also an opportunity for me to prepare for the war in Kosovo. It became clear a long time ago that this conflict was inevitable. Everything I learned in the Liberation War is more than helpful to me now, and has been so particularly in the last two and a half months. The attacks never cease, we have repelled eight Serbian offensives so far, and they attacked us with more than 100 tanks and armored vehicles. They will have to give up soon, because they are losing equipment, and their soldiers are deserting every day," Kadri proudly says about their successes so far. According to his knowledge, about 100 soldiers from Croatia are in Kosovo, and, when asked whether they are still coming in, Kadri answers: "Not so many of them are arriving now, because, at the moment, we need only well-trained people. After all, the time to come is already past: those who wanted to come to Kosovo have already come. Those who stroll all over Croatia and Europe and brag that they were in the UCK have been watching too much television! All the UCK combatants are here!" New Fighters Are Arriving Constantly According to what Kadri knows, the UCK has 20,000 people in Kosovo, and they turn away new people every day because there is no need for them. "Sometimes we turn away as many as 150 people. We recently received a petition with 3,000 signatures from Pristina students who want to join us, but there is no need for them to come. There are also many women who want to join us," Kadri says, and explains that the UCK fighters are no longer trained in Albania, but on the liberated territory in Kosovo. For his unselfish sacrifice, Kadri receives no reward, because he, as he says, does not need it. "The families of the fighters receive their salaries, according to the needs and standards of the countries they live in. Thus my family receives about DM1,000 a month," concludes Kadri Kastrati, who was interrupted in our interview by new troubles in the Podujevo region. We Have Collected More Than DM4 Million So Far "Our model was the Croatian Diaspora during the Liberation War. In a very similar way, the Albanians from Croatia help their people in Kosovo. We have organized committees in all counties, and their task is to collect financial and any other assistance for those displaced from Kosovo and the UCK," says Ton Marku, president of the Union of Albanian Community in Croatia. He continues to say that, apart from significant quantities of aid, many soldiers left for Kosovo from Croatia. "More than 1,000 Albanians volunteered in the Liberation War. Most of them are already in Kosovo, and those who have not left yet will go soon! Apart from the Albanians from Croatia, fighters from Bosnia-Herzegovina also joined the UCK. More than 5,000 Albanians fought against the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Also, the Albanians who are still officers in the Croatian Army will leave their active duty and go to Kosovo. It is their duty to teach their people in Kosovo all they know about military matters," Mr. Marku says. There is a fund called "Homeland Calls" in the Union, and it is based in Zadar. Ton Marku points out that, so far, more than DM4 million has been collected in money, food, clothes, and medicines. Pliva [pharmaceutical industry] and Varteks [textile industry] are among the many Croatian companies that have helped. Black Hand Has Also Infiltrated Into Kosovo "Not long ago, the terrorists of the secret Serbian "Black Hand" organization got involved in this war, which is reaching its culmination with heavier and heavier clashes. Approximately 150 of their members got into towns, trying to provoke clashes in the urban centers. Everybody knows that many Albanians will fall victims if they succeed in implementing their plans, but we have our urban guerillas, who will soon put a stop to their actions," Kadri Kastrati announces.
BACK TO: Where am I? PATH:
(Who controlled the country.) (How was Yugoslavia dismantled and why.) 
Proxies at work(Muslims, Croats, Albanians were only proxies of the big powers) The truth belongs to us all.Feel free to download, copy and redistribute.Last revised: February 27, 2003 |
