In mid-1997, The New York Times published an interview with a member of the terrorist organization that calls itself “Kosovo Liberation Army”. Although there were previous “rumors” about a broadly organized terrorist organization in Kosovo and Metohija, operating according to the principles and standards of world-known terrorist organizations and groups, this was the first time that a member of the ethnic Albanian extremist-terrorist organization appeared in the media to “explain the program and the objectives his organization is ‘fighting’ for”.
Asked by the reporter to explain what is “Kosovo Liberation Army” doing in Kosovo and Metohija, the interviewed terrorist presented gross fabrications about the situation in the province, including the statement that “Kosovo was once part of Albania and after World War One it was given to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia”.
Trying to give his readers a closer profile of the “Kosovo Liberation Army”, the journalist openly stated that this “army” is “actually a shadow group that launched the campaign for armed struggle with the objective to make Kosovo free and independent of Serbian control”. The interviewed KLA “leader” stressed that the members of this “army” in spite of the accusations made against them “are nothing like the IRA”, or any other terrorist organizations in the world. “We are autochthonous, and above all Albanians. We have the support of practically entire Albanian population in Kosovo,” — the “KLA leader” using the name Alban said. “We carry out attacks against the representatives of the Serbian government and the regime imposed on us. Our targets are the secret police and those Albanians that are collaborating with the Serbian regime.”
The NYT reporter specified that the “Kosovo Liberation Army” has strong financial backing because it is being helped by some 700 000 Albanians living abroad, and that the “army” is to become one of the “leading Albanian players” in the near future. This is probably why the other secessionist leaders in Kosovo and Metohija have common stand about the “army”. Dr. Rugova “ignores the existence of such an organization”; Dematchy is appealing the “army” to stop its activities during the elections for “Republic of Kosova institutions”; Tchosya believes the “the organization is weak and being manipulated”; Bukoshy — the “prime minister” asserts that he is the one to finance the equipment, training and operations of the “army”...
The article revealed that the Albanian emigrants living in Germany and Switzerland are giving up to 3% of their earnings to finance the “army and government” in Pristina and that as the financing is concerned, Swiss authorities have “registered” that the Albanians are becoming more and more involved in arms smuggling and narcotics production and sale, let alone other forms of crime (counterfeiting money, financial malversations etc.) Part of the income from all these criminal activities is allocated to finance the existence of the self-proclaimed government, terrorists, “information centers”, foreign PR agencies such as Hill & Norton, Rudder Finn (recently renamed Global Agency), individual lobbyists in the US Congress and others. Finally, the cost of the “elections” held in March 22 1998, the election campaign, the propaganda material used abroad, mass demonstrations by “pupils and students” and other secessionist activities must be covered and requires strong financial backing, this being the reason for increasing the shakedown of the “supporting members”. Those that are not prepared to make such sacrifices for the “Republic of Kosova” usually have to face the “duties collectors” and sometimes even executioners.
Interviewed by The Washington Post reporter a group of American Albanians living in Bronx, revealed that one way or the other most of them are “helping the movement in Kosovo”. Obviously, the money and other aid is collected through branches and sent by couriers to Kosovo and Metohija or paid in on various bank accounts or individual accounts in Albania. The same article revealed that in December 1997 some 3-4 million dollars were collected and money transfers through banks more than 500.000 dollars were paid in the accounts of the “army “ representatives in America or Europe. Does all that money arrive on destination?
Interestingly enough, US legislation does not prohibit the collection of donations for rebel organizations, groups or “armies”, nor is it a crime for an individual or group to join these organizations — except when such an organization, group or “army” is on the list of terrorist groups and organizations prepared by the State Department.
State Department officials stress that every American caught smuggling arms to Kosovo will be legally prosecuted for the breach of the international embargo on purchase and sale of arms imposed on Yugoslavia with a UN Security Council Resolution.
Terrorist in Kosovo and Metohija have received important reinforcements in arms and manpower, after the Albanian government collapsed in the spring of 1997. Therefore “rebels” or “guerrilla” as the journalist Chris Hedges likes to call Albanian terrorists, are enlarging their “military formations”. Groups that counted four or five men until a few days ago now doubled their strength with the arrival of new guerrillas and arms smuggled across the Yugoslav-Albanian border. Without any negative remark about it, Mr. Hedges also reveals that “guerrillas” have been joined by foreign mercenaries. “Those mercenaries speak Albanian with a strong foreign accent, but otherwise they are good in everything else” — concludes Mr. Hedges. However he does remark that the behavior and the stories told by the mercenaries reveal their experience “from having taken part in various other wars”, and some of them can not hide obvious racial characteristics of their land of origin. Along with the mercenaries, Albanians working in Switzerland and Germany have also arrived in Kosovo and Metohija. Most of them infiltrated Kosovo and Metohija from Albania “where they quickly purchased arms and equipment in magazines camouflaged along the border”. They were guided across the border to Kosovo and Metohija by local guides and smugglers, often underage shepherds.
“Immediate sources” are quoted by the same reporter in stating that in 1997 rebels have carried out numerous attacks on “Serbian Police, officials and ethnic Albanians” he calls collaborationists. This clearly reveals his intention to distort the true state of things and bend the facts to make them fit the needs of the party that commissioned the interview.
A similar journalistic style can be observed in articles authored by Stacey Sullivan. In them, no attempt is made to conceal the partiality so that “rebels” and “guerrilla” are fighting for the right thing for national goals — against the “oppressors”.
Mr. Hedges, unlike his colleague Sullivan confesses that the “Kosovo Liberation Army” still has no “political wing” and ranges ideologically from left-wingers — followers of Enver Hodxa the former Stalinist leader of Albania, to monarchist that are still mourning the monarchy they would like to reinstate in Kosovo and Metohija and finally Moslems that blindly follow their religious leaders and strictly apply the rules given in the Koran. The alleged presence of the monarchist faction among the Albanian terrorists is used to promote the thesis that the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija once had a state — a kingdom, destroyed by Serbia. Interestingly enough a host of “unspecified diplomats” surfaced immediately to explain that the ideological diversity is the actual obstacle for forming the political wing of the “liberation movement”. This is supposed to promote the stand on the need to help the Albanian terrorist organization become a military-political organization representing a national-liberation movement.
However, Mr. Hedges could not omit the statement — typical of all terrorists and “unspecified” diplomats he interviewed — that “Serbs are to be driven out from Kosovo and Metohija”.
The most interesting thing is that all these “freedom fighters” think or say very little about freedom. The experience a group of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo had in Albania in 1997 has become anecdotal: “A group of Albanians from Kosovo went to visit the mother country craving ‘freedom’, but there they were stopped, arrested, and harassed by some armed gang in Tirana. When they were released thanks to the intervention of the Yugoslav embassy, they hightailed to Yugoslavia ‘the dungeon of all Albanians’. “
Terrorism in Kosovo and Metohija, especially in the zone of Drenica, has roots in the remote past and a long evolution. The term most frequently used in those parts to designate terrorism and terrorist activities is Kacastvo. The basic meaning of the word kacak (which has Turkish etymology) is brigand, rebel to the authorities, deserter, robber. The term kacastvo derives from it and means banditry, brigandage, pillaging, terrorism... The Turks used this term to designate the Albanian outlaws that hid in the mountain or in the house of an accomplice and robbed caravans, lonely travelers or isolated farms. They operated in Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and sometimes the ventured on expeditions north along the Adriatic coast as far as the coastal towns of Dubrovnik and Ston. The word kacak was also used for anything transported, bought or sold without the knowledge of the authorities — tobacco for example. Kacaci were particularly active at the end of 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. In certain periods, groups or individuals that fought against the Turks were called kacaci. After the Balkan wars and the First World War, western Macedonia, Kosovo and Metohija and southeast Montenegro were frequently raided by kacaci from Albania. This went on until 1919 and locals and Serbian Army units suffered significant losses. They were defeated and eliminated in a determined operation carried out by the Gendarmerie and the Royal Yugoslav Army. Individually o in smaller groups, kacaci remained active as far as 1926. The most famous kacaci from the period around 1914 when their raiding was fiercest were: Hassan Prishtina, Bayram Tzuri, and Issa Bolyetintzi, that lead a rebellion against the Serbian authorities with the sponsorship of the Austrian-Hungarian government. In fact, throughout World War One, kacaci inflicted great losses and caused enormous damages by terrorizing the local population wherever they operated.
During and after World War Two, Drenica was the stronghold of the ethnic Albanian Ballist formations that were Nazi allies throughout the war. The town is still a specific lair of outlaws and terrorists, that still live on crime and violence like in ancient times.
The intensification of terrorism in the zone of Drenica since 1991, is merely the revitalization of old political ideas and programs, their essence being unchanged — secession of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia and its annexation to Albania. One of the leaders and founders of the criminal-terrorist group that operated in the territory around the village of Donji Prekaz, was Adem Yashari.
He was a rather primitive man without any education who came to Serbia in 1991 after going through commando-terrorist training in Albania the year before. Having completed his terrorist training, Adem Yashari came to Yugoslavia with the rank of major in the Albanian Army, and started organizing illegal shipments of arms from Albania and other countries. He then created a terrorist group recruiting his relatives, friends and sympathizers. The group set up its base in Donji Prekaz, Adem Yashari's native village. At the end of 1991, when they were discovered by the police, Adem Yashari and other two terrorist opened fire on the police officers that were about to arrest them. Two policemen were wounded and the terrorist managed to escape.
Using standard channels, and relying on the logistic support of the Albanian civil and army intelligence, Adem Yashari continued his terrorist activities. Between 1992 and 1997, six indictments were raised against him and his associates. In July 1997 he was tried in absence by the County Court in Pristina, and sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment for terrorist activities punishable by the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
During the trial, it had been found that Adem Yashari — acting as the leader of the terrorist group from the village of Donji Prekaz — directly participated in a number of terrorist attacks the most important being: attack on a police patrol at the railroad crossing near Glogovac (1993) and attack on a police unit in the village of Sipolje (near Kosovska Mitrovica) (1996). In these two attacks, three policemen were killed and five were seriously wounded.
Policemen and Ministry of Interior officers were not the only targets and victims of this terrorist gang. They also attacked fellow Albanians that opposed terrorism or expressed loyalty to the state authorities and Serbs — just because they were Serbs. There was also a growing number of complaints against Yashari and his group because of his arrogance in confront of local Albanians in the Drenica area.
Over the time the activities of Adem Yashari's terrorist group based in the village of Donji Prekaz, became a serious threat to public security in the Drenica zone and even in Kosovo and Metohija. Due to the support from Albanian emigrants, condescending attitude of various countries and major logistic support from Albania, the Donji Prekaz terrorist group — before it was liquidated on March 6th 1998 — managed to smuggle into the country a large shipment of arms, ammunition, explosive and other equipment needed to continue the terrorist operations.
State bodies had discovered that final preparations were being made by the group to intensify the incidents and spread armed conflicts with the police and Yugoslav Army units, in order to de-stabilize the situation in this part of Serbia, and influence the events in Yugoslavia and the Balkans.
The anti-terrorist operation carried out in the village of Donji Prekaz by the Ministry of Interior unveiled the determination of the terrorists to escalate their operations, just as it revealed the determination of the authorities to impede this.
During the anti-terrorist operation, Adem Yashari and his group showed their fanatical character. Having brutally ordered his relatives to fight, Yashari personally killed his nephew for “cowardice”, and then created a live shield using women and children hoping to gain time until reinforcements arrive and expecting that the entire Albanian population from the Drenica zone will run to his aid. This did not happen.
Dogs of war come to Kosovo and Metohija from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Turkey, Pakistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and western Europe. They all converge to the Albanian town of Tropoya — hometown of former Albanian president Sali Berisha.
From Tropoya, foreign mercenaries cross over to FR Yugoslavia lead by terrorists that go to Albania for training or to get shipments of arms for their co-fighters. More often than not, “dogs of war” like to be distinguished and therefore wear black uniforms. This is the conclusion investigators reached after examining the remains of dozens of mercenaries liquidated within Yugoslav territory. Besides the uniform, modern automatic weapons and large quantities of ammunition, most of them were also armed with pocket editions of Koran and prayer beads. This was characteristic for the terrorist group eliminated at the beginning of July 1998 in the Djakovica border zone.
Albanian emigrants' clubs and the branch offices of the Democratic League of Kosovo, and Parliamentary Party of Kosovo are the main centers for the recruitment of mercenaries in Islamic and western countries.
As domestic and foreign reporters have found out, monthly pay of a mercenary ranges between five and fifteen thousand German marks, together with the right to a share in loot. For example before being razed to the ground, all 37 Serbian homes in the villages of Dubocak and Krusevac (near the town of Pec) were systematically searched and stripped of all worth taking. However, according to the confession of the captured mercenaries, and in view of numerous reports by foreign media, very few mercenaries received their pay, because the funds managed by Buyar Bukoshi — “prime minister” of the phantom republic and would-be head financier of the KLA terrorists — takes good care not to spend the “war budget”. In fact, most of the legionnaires — having carried out their assignment — are liquidated by special groups of “enforcers”. The benefit is double no money is spent on mercenaries, and unpleasant witnesses are disposed of.
The presence of foreign mercenaries, especially Islam-oriented extremists, has been confirmed by the US State Secretary representative Robert Gelbard. At the end of June 1998, he stated in Washington that “according to US sources, Moslem fundamentalist groups, including Iranian and Chechen, are offering their aid to the Albanians in Kosovo. In fact, “commandant Hattab” an Islamic legionnaire from Jordan, having fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya, came to Kosovo and Metohija as a mercenary paid by the so-called Islamic International. Just like him, many others that learned their “trade” in Lebanon, came to Kosovo and Metohija. This was made evident by the change in technique and tactics of the terrorist attacks: time bombs were placed in public areas in Pristina, Pec and Kosovska Mitrovica, drive-by assassinations, car-bombs set off etc.
Mr. Richard Holbrooke — UN ambassador to the UN, stated in an interview for the German weekly Der Vohe that Albanian terrorists are receiving — from their supporters in Germany, Denmark and Switzerland — large sums and men to form units that are to fight against Serbia and FR Yugoslavia. “I have realized during my stay in Kosovo and Metohija how important are countries like Germany, Switzerland and Denmark for collecting funds and recruiting men for the ‘Kosovo Liberation Army’” — he said.
What Mr. Holbrooke finally revealed at the beginning of July '98, people that surf the Internet have known a long time ago. Terrorist from Kosovo and Metohija have published a list of countries and numbers of bank accounts that the “war tax” is to be paid in. The proper use of these funds is “warranted by the Government of the Republic of Kosovo”.
The “Kosovo Liberation Army” financing and training system is based on the functioning of the “Fatherland Calls” Foundation with offices in Dusseldorf and Bonn in Germany, Stockholm and Malmö in Sweden, Bern and Geneva in Switzerland, Brussels in Belgium, Graz and Vienna in Austria, Trieste, Bari and Rome in Italy, Ismir in Turkey, Khartoum in Sudan etc. In fact, terrorists and secessionists from Kosovo and Metohija are not hiding the fact that they are collecting “war taxes and levies” needed to intensify the violence in Kosovo and Metohija.
In exchange for money thus collected, and for other motives, certain Islamic countries are shipping large quantities of arms to the Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija. It is a known fact that the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini strongly advocated the Islamization of Kosovo and Metohija at any cost. The objective was to link Kosovo and Metohija to Bosnia and Herzegovina via the region of Sandzak and thus create what he called “the green crosscut”. Furthermore, the “Albanian Islamic International” an informal association of all Moslems Albanian organizations, calls for a more radical approach. In this, it has the backing of the “Islamic International” ever since 1995, when this organization held its congress in Khartoum. Both “internationals” take care to provide “Kosovo Liberation Army” all the men and arms it needs.
The terrorist activity in Kosovo and Metohija has been particularly intensified after the civil war broke out in former Yugoslavia and Islamic extremist organizations and movements became increasingly involved in the conflict between Moslems, Serbs and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Amongst other “volunteers”, members of Hesbollah, Hammas, various Palestinian fractions etc. appeared in the Balkans for the first time. Iran even sent the complete 7th brigade of the Revolutionary Guard to help the Bosnian Moslems directly, and Turkey selected men for its contingent in the international forces: practically all were of Yugoslav descent — from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Metohija and Macedonia. When the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended, a large number of those “Islamic fighters” stayed back and then secretly went to Albania or to Kosovo and Metohija. As the secessionist tendencies grew stronger and the number of potential terrorists expanded, the terrorist activities in Kosovo and Metohija progressively grew in 1996, 1997 and especially in 1998. In this domain, certain terrorists' tendencies can be observed. The first is that the attacks against the Serbian population, state bodies and representatives were expanded to include all those that do not support terrorists and their objectives. Analyses have shown that the number of individuals killed — regardless of their nationality — rose steeply compared to the previous period. The second is that attacks are directed on areas where ethnic cleansing has not been completed, and the third is to conquer as much territory as possible to ensure a sufficient area for the movement, preparation and recruitment of men. All this is obviously part of the preparation for secession which will start as soon as domestic and foreign political conditions allow it. Statistics corroborate these observations. Between January 1991 and July 9th 1998, 797 terrorist attacks have been staged in Kosovo and Metohija. The growth index in the first semester of 1998 was 10 times greater than in the whole of 1997, and four times greater than in the 1991-1997 period. Between January 1st and July 9th 1998, 663 terrorist attacks have been made. Out of this number, 37.3% involved attacks on police installations and personnel. Along with this 401 terrorist attack was directed against citizens and private property causing the death of 48 people — 28 Albanians, 18 Serbs and 2 members of the Romany community.
Kidnappings, a specialty imported with the near-east terrorists, are used to obtain political concessions, intimidation, ransom or exchange for captured terrorists. 72 individuals have been kidnapped: 48 Serbs and Montenegrins, 18 Albanians, 4 Gypsies, 1 Moslem and 1 citizen of FYRO Macedonia. After being abducted, 13 individuals were killed.
Automatic weapons were used 256 times, bazookas and armor-piercing weaponry 63 times, sniper rifles 36 times, hand grenades and various explosive devices 19 times, pistols 2 times, arson and destruction of buildings in other ways (usually entire villages of village quarters) 4 times. In the remaining incidents, the action was also performed under the threat of firearms. Furthermore, there were 29 cases of farmhouses being raided with subsequent theft of property and livestock.
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