Chronology of KLA's Terrorism and Aggression, Apr. '96 - Feb. '98

In an act of aggression against Serbia and its citizens, the Albanian terrorist organization calling itself the Kosovo Liberation Army has carried out dozens of attacks against Serb civilians and police officers in Kosovo and Metohija in the two years preceeding the NATO attack on Yugoslavia.

Many of the KLA's terrorist acts were also carried out against moderate Albanians loyal to Serbia, who were labeled "collaborators" by the KLA because they accepted and worked toward preserving the multiethnic structure of Kosovo. The KLA's goal is to "ethnically cleanse" Kosovo and Metohija of all Serbs so that an ethnically pure Kosovo could be swallowed by Albania to form a "Greater Albania".

Chronology of KLA's Terrorism and Aggression, Apr. '96 - Feb. '98

1996

April 22: Blagoje Okulic, a Serb refugee from Croatia, was sitting with a friend in a cafe when a masked member of the KLA opened fire on the customers with an automatic weapon. Okulic died in hospital. He was the first victim of the KLA.

Armand Daci (20), an ethnic Albanian student in dentistry school, was shot and killed by a sniper.

June 16: In an attack against a police patrol near Podujevo, police officer Goran Mitrovic was heavily wounded.

June 17: Around 11:55 p.m. a police patrol in the village of Siplje near Kosovska Mitrovica was attacked, resulting in the killing of Predrag Djordjevic (28) from Krusevac, and the wounding of Zoran Vukocic (30) from Nis.

The same day a bomb was hurled at the police station in Luzani, and the police officers on duty in the station were fired on by automatic weapons. No one was injured.

July 11: One hour after midnight in the center of Podujevo terrorists carried out an armed attack against police officers, resulting in a heavy wounding of police officer Sredoje Radojevic.

Aug. 2: Armed attack on three police stations (in Pristina, Podujevo, and the village of Krpimej) around 10 p.m.

Aug. 28: Three bombs were hurled in the village of Celopek (border of the towns Pec-Klina-Decani), around 3 a.m. No one was injured.

In the village of Donje Ljupce police inspector Ejup Bajgora (44), an ethnic Albanian who worked at the Pristina Precinct, was shot and killed.

Aug. 31: In the night hours two bombs were hurled into the courtyard of the Yugoslav Army's barracks in Vucitrn.

In the village of Rudnik (Srbica municipality) an armed attack was carried out on the police station.

In Podujevo, police officers at the juncture of the road Pristina-Podujevo-Kursumlija were fired on. No one was hit.

The police station in Glogovac was fired on with automatic weapons.

Oct. 25: Two police officers were killed by automatic weapons near the village of Surkis in the Podujevo municipality -- Milos Nikolic, a police inspector of the Pristina Precinct, and Dragan Rakic from the village of Velika Reka, who was a police officer in the reserves and a manager of a company in Podujevo.

Nov. 16: In the village of Rznic, in Decan municipality, around 10:30 p.m. a terrorist attack was carried out on the police station. No one was killed.

Dec. 26: Faik Belopolja, an ethnic Albanian from Podujevo who was a forest worker in the Serbia Forest Service, was shot and killed.

1997
            
Jan. 9: In the center of Podujevo at 5:30 p.m. Malic Saholi (52), an ethnic Albanian who was the manager of the superamarket "Vocar" and a deputy in the municipal council of Podujevo as a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia, was shot and killed.

Jan. 11: In the Vucitrn village of Mijalic, around 7 p.m. more than   26 bullets were fired at the house of Ljubisa Mitrovic. No one was killed.

Jan. 13: Shooting Fazil Hasani, an ethnic Albanian forest worker from the village of Brabonic (Srbica municipality) in the neck, KLA terrorists killed him and issued a statement denouncing  Mr. Hasani as a "traitor".

Jan. 16: Using remote-controlled explosives, the KLA attempted to assassinate the Dean of Pristina University, Mr. Papovic, at 8 a.m. as he was driving to the University. Both he and his driver Nikola Lalic were heavily wounded. The explosives   were set off when their car was some 50 meters from Dean Papovic's apartment in Pristina.

Jan. 17: In the village of Reketnica (Srbica municipality), at 1 a.m., ethnic Albanian Zen Durmisi (52) was shot and killed and his son Nazmi Durmisi was heavily wounded. The Durmisi family was labeled "pro-Yugoslav" by the terrorist KLA.

Feb. 1: KLA terrorists from a moving vehicle fired on police officers. The officers fired back and killed all three terrorists.

March 5: At 10:47 a.m., in front of the Pristina University School of Languages, a bomb in a container exploded. Four people were wounded, two ethnic Albanians -- Adrijana Dremka and Lindita Maksuti -- and two ethnic Serbs, Borivoje Popovic and Ivan Maksimovic.

A second explosives device weighing 4.2 kilograms, which had been placed at the base of the Vuk Karadzic monument in front of the School of Languages, was found and deactivated by  members of the Anti-Ballistics Unit of the Pristina Precinct.

March 21: Around 8 p.m., in the center of Podujevo, KLA terrorists fired five shots at police officer Branislav Milovanovic, wounding  him heavily. In a statement, the KLA claimed responsibility denouncing officer Milovanovic as a "Serbian policeman, well known blood-sucker and anti-Albanian".

March 25: Near the village Sicevo, Klin municipality, a group of attackers killed ethnic Albanians Jusuf Haljiljaj and Fehmi Haziraj (who were well known as loyal citizens of Serbia) and wounded ethnic Albanian Mehmet Gasi.

April 10: In the village of Banjica near Glogovac, using automatic firearms, KLA terrorists killed ethnic Albanian Ramiz Ljeka, who worked at the Glogovac Municipal Council.

May 6: Around 10:30 p.m. in the village of Lozica near Klina, ethnic Albanian Hetem Dobruna (30), a farmer from the village, was shot and killed.

May 16: In Srbica near Kosovska Mitrovica police officers Miomir Kicovic and Radisav Blanic were shot and heavily wounded.

June 19: On the Pristina-Podujevo-Nis road near the village of Donje Ljupce in the Podujevo municipality, terrorists fired 12 bullets from automatic weapons at a police patrol. No one was injured.

July 3: In the village of Trstenik, Glogovac municipality, in the early morning hours the KLA shot and killed ethnic Albanian Ali Calapek, a farmer who was a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia and a member of the local Election Commission in the 1996 elections.

July 21: The Assistant District Attorney in Pec, Miroljub Petrovic, was shot and killed.

Aug. 3: A police vehicle was fired on at 7 p.m., in the village of Bradis which is 10 kilometers from Podujevo.

Aug. 4: At 9:30 a.m., on the road from the village of Rudnik to Srbica, KLA terrorists from Drenica fired on a police vehicle using automatic weapons. Police officers Milomir Dodic and Zoran Boskovic were heavily wounded, and a civilian who was in the car was lightly wounded.

Aug. 23: Forest worker Sadi Morina, an ethnic Albanian, was killed in Srbica. Mr. Morina had already been receiving threats from KLA terrorists for a long time because he remained to work "in the service of Serbia".

Aug. 24: In the village of Zub near Djakovica an ethnic Albanian,   Kcira Ndue (32), was shot and killed, while his brother Bekim Ndue was wounded.

The police station in the village of Rznic near Decani was sprayed with gunfire.

Sept. 2: At 10:55 p.m. Ljimon Krasnici, an ethnic Albanian denounced by the KLA terrorists as a "traitor", was killed in his home.

Sept. 12: A dozen attacks were carried out on police stations in the municipalities of Pec, Glogovac, Decani, and Djakovica around 11 p.m. No one was injured.

Sept. 13: Around 10 p.m. a hand grenade was hurled at the police station in Luzano, near Podujevo.

Sept. 14: A hand grenade was hurled at the police station in Kijevo, near Klina.

Sept. 23: Around 11 a.m. in the vicinity of the village of Kijevo, the KLA opened fire on a motorized police patrol. Milan Stanojevic, the commander of the Djakovica Precinct, was in the vehicle. No one was injured.

Oct. 13: The police station in Calopek near Pec was attacked.

Oct. 16: Around 1:30 a.m. there was a terrorist attack on the police station in the village of Klincina, which lies on the road Pec-Pristina. Adrijan Krasnici (25) from Vranovci near Pec died in the ensuing gun battle.

Oct. 17: Around 1 a.m. the residential community Babaloc, located between Decani and Djakovica, where 120 Serbian refugee families who fled from Albania several years ago are situtated, was attacked.

Oct. 20: The OVK claimed responsibility for attacks on police stations in Babaloc, Calopek, and Klincina, as well as police patrols in Gerlica near Urosevac and Balinac near Klina, about which the public had not been informed earlier.

Nov. 18: Around 7 p.m. in the village of Komoran near Glogovac, Camil Gasi, an ethnic Albanian deputy in the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the chairman of the Municipal Board of the Socialist Party of Serbia for Glogovac, was wounded heavily. His driver was wounded as well.

Nov. 25: KLA terrorists held the police station in Srbica surrounded for 15 hours.

Around 7 p.m. in Decani, and after midnight in the village of Rznic, two terrorist attacks were carried out in which police officer Dragic Davidovic (32) from Berane was killed, and Ljubisa Ilic from Srbica, also a policeman, was heavily wounded. Bojan Trboljevac from Leposavic, Srdjan Pavlovic (26) from Zubin Potok, and Nedeljko Aksentijevic (30) from Kragujevac all subsequently died from mortal wounds.

Dec. 4: The KLA claimed responsibility for an attack on Pristina Airport, claiming that it shot down a "Cessna 310" on Nov. 26 killing all five people on-board.

Dec. 15: Around 1 a.m. on the road Srbica-Klina three masked KLA terrorists stopped a convoy of three cars with 16 Serbian civilian passangers. According to the civilians' testimonies, the terrorists -- who were armed with machine-guns and hand grenades -- threatened them with death.

Dec. 19: Around 6 p.m. on the road Klina-Srbica, near the village of Josanica, eight masked and heavily armed KLA terrorists stopped the car of the civilian Milan Sapic from Lazarevac threatening, insulting, and searching his family and him.

Dec. 25: Two terrorist attacks were carried out shortly after 3 p.m. against police officers in the Podujevo municipality: In the village of Zakut a police vehicle was fired on, and in the center of Podujevo explosives devices were hurled at the residential building where police officers live. There were no victims.

1998

Jan. 4: The KLA claimed responsibility for a series of terrorist   activities in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: planting a bomb in front of the police station in Prilep, which caused no injuries but demolished five cars; attacking the police station in Kumanovo; and attacking the Municipal Court in Gostivar on Dec. 16, '97.

Jan. 9: Shortly after 8 p.m., Djordje Belic (57) was shot and killed with an automatic weapon at the doorstep of his house in the village of Stepanica near Kijevo. Belic was the head of one of the three remaining Serbian households in that village.

Jan. 12: In the town of Stimlje near Urosevac, shortly after midnight on the night of Jan. 11/12, there was an armed attack on the building in which seven families of police officers reside. The shots ended up in the bedrooms of some of their apartments. Miraculously, there were no victims.

Around 8 a.m., in the vicinity of the village Gradac near Glogovac in Drenica, forest worker Sejdi Muja, an ethnic Albanian, was shot and killed. He and another Albanian had been stopped by a masked and armed three-member group of KLA terrorists, and after checking his ID card established that Muja was on their list of "traitors". They dragged him out of the car and shot him, leaving his body by the road. He was a "traitor" just because he worked in the Serbia Forest Service.

Jan. 13: The KLA issued a statement stating that its headquarters was in Pristina. It also claimed responsibility for a series of terrorist actions carried out in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: an attack on the Municipal Court in Gostovar and the police stations in Prilep and Kumanovo. It announced that it would expand its actions into Montenegro.

Jan. 14: The headquarters of the Socialist Party of Serbia for Djakovica were stoned overnight, Jan. 13/14. All windows were broken. These were greetings for the "Serbian New Year" which is marked on Jan. 14.

Jan. 19: In Srbica all graves at the Serbian Orthodox Cemetary were desecrated and vandalized. The monuments at the graves were completely destroyed.

Jan. 22: After a KLA patrol had been stopping, harassing, and threatening citizens with death in the Srbica municipality the previous night, there was a confrontation between that patrol and a patrol of police officers. While chasing the KLA terrorists, who barricaded themselves in the house of Saban Jasari in the village of Donji Prekaz near Srbica, police officers killed the terrorist Hasan Mandzol and lightly wounded two Jasari brothers.

A three-member KLA group kidnapped the taxi driver Metus Skodru, an ethnic Albanian, and then took his cab, an Audi 90. They told him he could buy his cab back if he showed up at a designated place at a designated time, under the threat that he would be liquidated if he called the police.

Jan. 23: On the night of Jan. 22/23, on the road Srbica-Klina near the village of Josanica, Desimir Vasic, a deputy in the Municipal Assembly of Zvecan was shot and killed.

On the same road, the same night, near the village Lausa Blagoje Nikolivc from the village of Drsnik near Klina was severely beaten until he became unconscious.

During the same night, KLA terrorists stopped, harassed, and threatened with death a group of Serbian women heading to Monastery Devic.

Jan. 25: On the night of Jan. 24/25, in the town of Malisevo, in the very center KLA terrorists heavily wounded two police officers.

During the same night, KLA terrorists attacked the house of the Djuricic family in the village of Grabanica, near Klina in Drenica.

Terrorists hurled a bomb at the house of a police officer in Urosevac.

Jan. 26: In the vicinity of the village of Turicevac, which is located between Klina and Srbica, KLA terrorists opened fire using automatic weapons on a helicopter belonging to Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Jan. 27: Again in the vicinity of Turicevac, an armed terrorist group stopped Veroslav Vukojcic from Leposavic and his neighbors Radmila and Zvezdana Vukajlovic. They beat them severely. The victimis paid the terrorists to let them go -- Vukojvcic paid 500 German marks, and Vukajlovic paid 850 marks.

Jan. 28: A police patrol which was on its way to Decani to confiscate illegal weapons from the family Tahirsuljaja fell into a trap and was greeted with heavy gunfire from several houses. Nevertheless, the officers managed to arrest seven members of the Tahirsuljaja clan.

That evening, KLA terrorists fired at the house of Dragoljub Spasic in the village of Sibovac near Obilic.

Feb. 10: A group of KLA terrorists appeared at a fundraising event for the KLA in New York City. They received funding from over 150 Albanians attending the event. On that occasion, the KLA terrorists proclaimed that they had killed 50 Serbian police officers and "corrupt" Albanians in 1997.

Feb. 12: In Gornji Obrinj, in front of the village convenience store, Mustafa Kurtaj, an ethnic Albanian who worked at the post office in Glogovac, was shot and killed. He was shot in broad daylight, in front of twenty onlookers, as a warning to others. Prior to this, he had been repeatedly warned by KLA terrorists that they would kill him unless he quit his job at the state-run post office.

Feb. 15: Nik Abdulahu, an ethnic Albanian employee of the Serbia Electric Utility, was shot and killed while at work, at the electricity substation in the village of Staro Cikatovo near Glogovac.

Feb. 18: In the night between Feb. 17/18, KLA terrorists collected firearms from ethnic Albanians in Drenica, for whom they suspected that they did not support their cause. Those who did not turn over their weapons were given a deadline to do so, "othewise," they were told, "you will be shot".

The police checkpoint near the village Dobre Vode in the Klina municipality was attacked with automatic weapons.

Feb. 19: While returning from work, an employee of the state security service of Pristina Nebojsa Cvejic was shot and killed near the village of Luzani.

In Podujevo, KLA terrorists hurled bombs at a refugee center housing Serbian civilians who were "ethnically cleansed" from Croatia.

Feb. 20: On the road Srbica-Klina, near the village of Lausi, KLA terrorists shot and killed Milorad Ristic, a private entrepreneur from Djakovica, and heavily wounded truck driver Zdravko Djuricic from Orahovac.

On the same day, on the same road, near the village of Josanica KLA terrorists opened fire on another truck, which was being driven by an ethnic Serb. However, an ethnic Albanian hitchhiker from the village of Lausi, who was sitting in the passenger seat and whom the driver had picked up in Klina, was killed by the KLA terrorists' gunfire.

That evening, on the road Klina-Djakovica, KLA terrorists set up a roadblock where they beat up police officer Milenko Kandic.

Feb. 22: Ali Raci, an ethnic Albanian working at a Serbian-owned agriculture company, was shot and killed in the village of Dobre Vode at the entrance of the agriculture company. He had refused to give in to the KLA's earlier warnings and blackmail that he quit his job.

Feb. 26: Using hand grenades and automatic weapons, terrorists attacked Serbian refugees from Albania housed in the refugee camp Babaloc (located on the road Decani-Djakovica) for the third time.

Feb. 27: KLA terrorists attacked the houses in Srbica where Serbian refugees from Croatia are temporarily housed.

At Monastery Devic, KLA terrorists harassed the head nun for 30 minutes. They ordered her to tell the police that they will all be killed.

A KLA warehouse containing 12 kilograms of explosives with clocks, several trunks of shells, and over 120 rocket launchers was discovered in Prizren. Several terrorists were arrested.

Feb. 28: The house of the Culafic family in the village of Donji Ratis (Decani municipality) was bombed.

Separately, in a confrontation between police officers and KLA terrorists in Drenica (Glogovac municipality), four police officers were killed: Miroslav Vujkovic, Goran Radojcic, Milan Jovanovic, and Radojica Ivanovic. Police officers Pavle Damjanovic and Slavisa Matejevic were heavily wounded. The exact number of terrorists who were killed is still unknown.