This page originates from:  

The articles collected by: Mr. Benjamin Crocker Works, Director
SIRIUS: The Strategic Issues Research Institute
www.siri-us.com
E-mail: BenWorks@aol.Com
The original page is at: Sirius Kosovo Archive ***

Archive: The KLA -- A Leadership Who's Who

April 10, 1999

Note: This archive, intended for research purposes, contains copyrighted material included "for fair use only."

"Albanians don't care how many people we lose."

Dr Pleurat Sejdiu, UCK representative based in London
[Why is it that civilians living far away from the battle zone always loudly proclaim fighting to the last drop of someone else's blood ?]

Introduction: (written on 10. April 1999 by APV)

Here is the briefest introduction to various commanders in the UCK/KLA. It is culled from wire service reports and then organized by name. This report focuses exclusively on military leaders, with an eventual eye to linking individual leaders with specific UCK/KLA actions.

Some preliminary observations are:

Through systematic torture and murder, the UCK seems to have been sending a stark message to all civilians who oppose them: Abandon Kosovo or die.

The names of some UCK death camps have been found at Klecka, Izbica, Lipovica, Glodjane, Junik. Eventually, research will show which UCK commanders were responsible for which specific camps.

A special place on this list should be reserved for the commander of Klecka as yet unknown, where the UCK parodied the macabre methods of Dachau, Mathuasen and other Nazi death camps. Twenty-two (22) civilians were tortured, killed and then burned in a crematorium there. Among the dead were at least two children under the age of 10.

In death camps, bombing attacks, assassinations, and extrajudicial killings the UCK has attempted to silence moderate voices in Kosovo. The UCK has tried to divide Kosovo along racial lines by killing Albanians who associate with non-Albanians.

For example, Aida Zejnulahu and her father were machine gunned last November 19^th by the UCK as she walked home. Aida's offense was that she attended a Yugoslav school. The UCK requires that Albanians attend segregated Albanian only schools. It is believed that UCK Commander Remi ordered the shooting of Aida Zejnulahu.

Roman Catholic Albanians seem to be a particular target of the UCK. The Keljmendi family of Kacanik has had 7 members attacked since October 12^th. The most vicious attack was the February 15^th planting of a Chinese made land mine at the front door of the Keljmendi family home. Agim (12), Valdet (12), and Valdrin (6) were grievously wounded as they stepped out to play. It is believed that UCK Commander Bardhi ordered this attack.

Finally, evidence of the UCK's desire to divide society into two racist camps is the frequent bombing of restaurants and cafes where Serbs, Albanians, Roma, and Gorani mix socially. The 'Panda Cafe' incident last December is typical of such UCK attacks. Six innocent teenagers were killed while they waited for their ice cream. UCK commander In another attack on the 'Slavica' cafe on March 5^th, seven people were wounded. UCK Commander Ramush Hajredinaj is believed to have ordered both of these attacks.

Who's Who in the UCK:

Overall Military Commander:

Suleiman Selmi

22 Feb (Reuters) Pristina: Suleiman Selimi, 29, has been named overall KLA commander, an Albanian-language newspaper reported. However, the structure of the KLA is still shrouded in mystery. [ sounds like the young UCK radicals won out and seasoned FARK professionals lost the leadership struggle]

Guerrilla Force Near Collapse, Kosovo Rebels Appeal to NATO for Airborne Supplies

By Peter Finn, Washington Post Foreign Service, Thursday, April 1, 1999; Page A01

KUKES, Albania, March 31-The ethnic Albanian rebel group whose year long battle to win independence for Kosovo brought world attention to the fate of the province is facing imminent military defeat unless NATO airdrops heavy weaponry to help the guerrillas survive a relentless assault by Serb-led Yugoslav forces, a leading figure in the group said today.

Azen Syla, a founder of the Kosovo Liberation Army and a member of its central council, said in an interview that Yugoslav army troops and Serbian special police units have cut off the guerrillas' supply lines from Albania since NATO began its bombing campaign against Yugoslav military targets on March 24. He said the rebels were retreating across broad areas of Kosovo. [ it is unclear if Syla is on political or military central command if he part of central military command then he may report to Slemi or he may be a heretofor unknown Zone commander]

Northern ( Llap ) Region:

Commander Remi

The Times (London), February 17 1999 EUROPE,

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 ]

Tuesday March 16 12:31 PM ET ; Yugoslav Army Advances: By Sean Maguire

MIJALIC, Serbia (Reuters) -".......While Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) separatist guerrillas were unable to stop the heavy armor and artillery deployed in strength against them, one commander signaled defiance and opposition to a peace deal agreed by his seniors at Paris talks.

......a statement from the KLA's Llap operational zone denounced the deal as a betrayal of the struggle for independence.

``We find it necessary to disassociate ourselves from this wrong anti-national policy,'' read the statement, which appeared in the Koha Ditore newspaper. [ Koha Ditore was the most pro-UCK paper published in Pristina ]

``We hope all those who have been devoted to the Kosova issue and actively taken part in its resolution will disassociate themselves from this (Paris) bargain.''

Referring to those who made the deal as ``business patriots,'' the statement criticized the ``fraud'' and ''manipulation'' that went into the accord's approval.

The commander of the Llap zone, known as ``Remi,'' is notoriously hard-line.....The Llap region, which lies north of Kosovo, is the home of Adem Demaci,

Demaci resigned as the KLA's designated political representative three weeks ago rather than support autonomy. Analysts saw Demaci's influence in the Llap zone statement.

``Remi is an important commander and his opposition to the agreement is significant. The important thing to watch now is whether any other zone commanders sign on with him,'' said an international monitor who asked not to be named.

``Pessimists will see this as the predictable start of a splintering of the KLA, with one faction supporting the peace process and another opposing it. Some will say this is part of the KLA strategy, a planned splintering if you will.''

Vecernji List (Zagreb) 9 March 1999; Some 300 Former HV Members Fighting in Kosovo ;

by Sonja Hodak

"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.

"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.

[ Report between 20.Feb and 27. Feb ] ``The shelling started today at 7:45 this morning and it's still continuing,'' said Skender Brahimi, a local KLA commander in the village of Lubovec. [Reports to Remi]

22 .Feb (Reuters) On a high plateau west of Stitarica, the KLA regrouped from their clashes under the auspices of their zone commander, Rahman Rama. [ is this Remi's real name ?]

The Independent 16 March 1999 : Five villages ablaze in new shelling: By Emma Daly in Ljubovac

Serb security forces poured rocket and mortar fire on to suspected rebel positions in northern Kosovo yesterday, as the two sides sat down to peace talks in Paris.

Smoke rose from burning houses in at least five villages in the eastern foothills of Cicavica mountain, west of the main road between Pristina, Kosovo's capital, and the town of Mitrovica. Exhausted rebels gathered in the village of Ljubovac { Skender Brahimin's command area prior to 27. Feb ] to rest and re-group as the fire boomed around them.

The crash of incoming shells rang out, and puffs of black smoke marked the impacts - mercifully short of the village, at least until late afternoon, when one house was hit and began to burn, sending a column of thick smoke wafting above the ridge line.

"We still have a unit in Osljan, doing shifts," said Enver, the local KLA brigade commander, who was nursing a bandaged left hand - a shrapnel wound. "They tried to attack this way, but they took a lot of victims on their side."

However, the KLA has also suffered losses, including Bislime. As the sun set, the local hoxha said a few short prayers over the body of Bislime and his closest friends set the coffin to rest in the thick, cloying earth of Drenica, the KLA stronghold that could be threatened if the Yugoslav army succeeds in pushing the KLA off the Cicavica mountains. "I hope this is going to be the last dead soldier," said Gani, a military policeman standing by the freshly-dug grave. "All the fighters are our friends, even if we don't know them," he said. But Ramadan, another soldier, was sceptical. "How can he be the last one buried when they are shelling over there?"

KOSOVO: A Belief in Guns, Not Words , Newsweek, March 22, 1999

KLA fighters on the rebels' front lines say they don't think a peace deal with the Serbs is likely to stop the war

By Mark Dennis

Wars just about always heat up when peace talks near, and last week Kosovo was no exception. Yugoslav army tanks spent Thursday morning fitfully lobbing shells toward the northern Kosovo village of Oshlan.

Inside the Kosovo Liberation Army's regional headquarters, the ethnic-Albanian separatists ignored the thunder as best they could. Around noon, though, the gunners began shaking the village's windows every few seconds. The KLA's area commander, a 29-year-old with the nom de guerre Rahman, flinched as small-arms fire broke out nearby. Bracing for a tank assault, a team of KLA military police sprinted up a nearby hillside and dived for cover among the trees. Zagi, a lanky 21-year-old rebel, hoisted his grenade launcher into firing position. He grinned and waited for a target.

The tanks didn't come. Instead, the Yugoslavs hit a KLA post outside Oshlan. In a three-hour fire fight, the village fighters rescued their besieged comrades. It was an exhausting day--and Rahman expected no rest. He said the fighting probably would continue no matter what peace terms may be signed in France this week with the Serbs who rule what's left of Yugoslavia. "We don't believe in their words," he told NEWSWEEK. "We believe in our guns." His remarks were almost drowned by the boom of an incoming shell.

Badly outgunned, the KLA still can boast at least one advantage: a sense of total commitment. "That's the difference between the Serbs and us," said Enver Rusteni, a former construction worker fighting east of Oshlan. "We're willing to die."

Many of them may have to. As the army moved closer to Oshlan last Saturday, Rahman's deputy, Enver Orucaj, was reached on his mobile phone. "We'll fight to the last bullet," he said as shells exploded in the background. Later, journalists traveling the main road to the north passed jubilant Serbian troops high-fiving each other by the roadside.

Behind them, smoke rose from Oshlan and two neighboring villages. That evening another call was made to Orucaj's phone. It was answered by a Serb.

North West ( Mitrovica ) Region: Commander Shala

Gani Koci, spokesman for Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander Shaban Shala in the Decani region [is it possible that Shaban is related to Enver Shala Pristina shopkeepr murdered by UCK on 7. Feb or the 3 Shala men executed by UCK for betraying their positions at Rugova ?]

PRISTINA, Serbia, March 17 (Reuters) - The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has lost one of its key zone headquarters to Serbian security forces in fighting west of Vucitrn in the north of this Serbian province, an international monitor said on Wednesday.

``The KLA informed us that they had lost their Shala zone headquarters in the village of Becuk in fighting on Tuesday,'' a monitor for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) told Reuters.

``They told us that they had been forced to withdraw further west onto the (Cicavica) mountain.''

Shala is one of seven KLA operational zones in Kosovo. It covers the strategically important north-south highway connecting Pristina with Mitrovica, and the rail line that runs parallel to it.

Yugoslav army and Serbian police forces, backed by armour and artillery, have been pounding suspected KLA positions along a front at least 15 km (10 miles) long in the foothills west of Vucitrn for the past three weeks.

Relatively lightly armed, the KLA is being pushed west onto the heights of Cicavica mountain by superior Serb firepower.

If Serbian forces reach the Cicavica ridge-line the KLA stronghold of Drenica to the west will be highly vulnerable to attack, monitors said.

The Times, March 15 1999 EUROPE; Market bombs and Serb artillery set tone for peace negotiations,

Anthony Loyd writes from Mitrovica

"....... Just west of Mitrovica, villages burnt across a seven-mile front. Serb tanks, mortars and heavy artillery had pounded suspected KLA positions here throughout the morning and afternoon in the heaviest day of the past three days' fighting in the area. On Thursday, as the Serb offensive began there, the KLA had seemed in confident mood.

"We know exactly what the Serbs are trying to do," said Naim Bardiqi, a KLA officer with the Fehmi Lladrovci Brigade. "They are attempting to drive a wedge between two of our operational zones, but we are much better equipped than we were last year to deal with them." However, by yesterday the atmosphere had changed. Presented with a smoking vista of lost villages and advancing Serb tanks, the KLA was tense and nervous. Unable to respond to or withstand such an onslaught, they had been pushed farther back into the Cicavica mountains.......'

THE NATIONAL POST, Friday, March 19, 1999, Friday, March 19, 1999, Serbs, KLA vow fight to last soldier

NATO gives deadline, Juliette Terzieff, National Post, with files from Stewart Bell in Skopje

[ ]........"The Serbs have a far stronger military than we do, but their soldiers are fighting under pressure from commanders. Our soldiers fight for freedom," said Gani Goci, a KLA commander in the Drenica region.

KLA operatives have laid mines in several northern parts of Kosovo in anticipation of routes advancing Serbs might use. They claim to have anti-tank missiles and other unspecified weaponry capable of

immobilizing military machinery.

For the most part, the KLA is an untrained, poorly armed guerrilla force that has yet to win a battle in Kosovo. During last summer's offensives, they were run out of every battlefield, often leaving behind countless

civilians.

"We have changed and are stronger now. There are ways to fight them and we will, until the last soldier is dead if that is what our price must be," said commander Goci.....[ ]

Western ( Pastrik ) Region:

Commander Drini

4.March Drini, the 38-year old commander of the Pastrik operational zone in western Kosovo, is respected among the guerrillas and is considered to be one of the more influential and professional rebel fighters, an international monitor said.

Southern ( Pec ) Region:

Commander Ramush Hajredinaj

Kosovo Rebels Won't Give Up Guns, By ANNE THOMPSON, .c The Associated Press

JABLANICA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Sitting in his headquarters along the snow-capped mountains of the Albanian border, hard-line rebel commander Ramush Hajredinaj remains adamant that the Kosovo Liberation Army will never give up its guns.

Disarmament is the biggest barrier to getting the KLA to sign a U.S.-backed peace agreement, and a second day of ethnic Albanian rebel meetings Monday produced no firm results despite the entreaties of U.S. envoy Christopher

Hill.

The deal envisions the KLA becoming a political party, with some rebels joining an ethnic Albanian-run police force. But after years of covert planning, of training in the woods and smuggling guns into Kosovo for the fight for independence, the KLA is unwilling to forsake the army it worked so hard to build up.

They also fear not having a defensive force against the Serbs.

``Not to have an army would be a big mistake,'' said Hajredinaj, one of five KLA commanders invited to visit Washington in another diplomatic move to persuade rebels to adopt the deal for Kosovo self-rule.

Without the rebels, Kosovo Albanian politicians will not sign. And without full cooperation from all Albanian factions, NATO cannot follow through on military threats aimed at getting Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to also agree.

The negotiations come after a year of bitter ethnic war in Kosovo, a southern province in the Serb republic that dominates Yugoslavia, where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs nine to one.

Hajredinaj (pronounced high-re-DEE-nai) is one of the most militant commanders in the rebel army, and some observers worry hard-liners might continue to fight even if politicians and other rebel leaders accept peace.

His men already are 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. His men also are suspected of shooting at U.S. diplomatic monitors. And Hajredinaj himself is wanted by the Serb regime as a terrorist.

His territory, along the western flank of Kosovo, hums with a military spark and efficiency, with a tight chain of command and a fierce loyalty to a leader almost worshipped for his fighting skill and strategic prowess.

``When I mention his name, I feeling like bowing. That's how much I respect him,'' said battalion leader Arzen Bytyqi, 23, wearing a red beret and a greencamouflage uniform with KLA patches emblazoned with their emblem: the two-headed black eagle.

Now 30, Hajredinaj served one year in the Yugoslav army, during which he says he was learning to be a soldier to fight for Kosovo independence. Like many ethnic Albanians, he also lived in Switzerland and France, earning money for the cause before coming home in the early 1990s to take up arms.

``I've been thinking of independence since I was a child. It was my training from my parents,'' said the commander.

His wife also serves in the KLA, as do his sister and five brothers.

``We can accept everything that doesn't destroy the way to independence,'' Hajredinaj said Monday, suggesting that he, like other commanders, are ready to accept autonony as a first step. ``If NATO comes, we won't have to be a liberation army anymore. We'll change and become a regular army,'' the commander said.

``Washington knows what we want,'' he added with a smile. ``We've been clear from the very beginning.''

AP-NY-03-08-99 1527EST

http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/4_3_99_5.htm

Command of the UÇK 162nd Brigade "Agim Bajrami" appeals

Kaçanik, 4th of March 99 (Kosovapress)

Command of the UÇK 162nd Brigade "Agim Bajrami" is appealing to all people of Kaçanik, who are subject of occupation forces attack in last few days, not to leave their land and go to Maqedoni and further. There

is no need for fear and panic, as UÇK is the one who will not allow any more massacres to be repeated by Serb forces in these areas. Command is seeking responsibility from displaced people, to return to their homes and their land in the villages they left. Leaving our homes will only help Serb barbarians to achieve their goal, so we should not allow this to happened. Kosova is ours and it will remain ours. Our weapons, our determined struggle and blood spilled for freedom all over Kosovë, are our guarantee, continues in the appeal of the command, signed by

Commander Bardhi.

Foreign Mercs fighting in KosMet

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.

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, moreAlbanians 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.

"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. [ reality is that Kadri and Remi are under siege and these UCK fighters are essentially irrelevant to the fighting in KosMet, by mid-March they were surrounded in a tiny area.]

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. [ this is 2-3 times what Kadri would earn if he worked in Croatia.]

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.

Gang Pressing of Unwilling Albanians into UCK

The Independent, 1 April 1999

War in The Balkans - KLA's ragged army imposes draft

Emma Daly in Kukes, Albania, and Marcus Tanner

A curious guard of honour - 10 soldiers in red berets and mis-matching uniforms - stood around the gate of the electricity sub-station in Kukes, amid flat ground packed with hundreds of tractors and thousands of refugees.

The soldiers were not there to protect the Kosovo Albanians fleeing the Serbian army's savage assault; they were seeking new blood for the fight that goes on.

Along the border road, and in the main street of Kukes, and south of Kukes on the main road to the Albanian capital, Tirana, uniformed soldiers of the Kosovo Liberation Army set up roadblocks and started searching for young men fleeing the Serbs.

"I want to go with my family - if they let me go," said 23-year-old Binak Likaj, who was leaning against the plastic sheet covering a tractor-trailer parked in a roadside camp. "The KLA is recruiting soldiers for the army to go back to fight." He looked nervous, as 10 guerrillas were standing around at the gate to the camp. "I want to go with my family," he repeated.

Fatmir Krasniqi, 21, was forcibly recruited to the struggle by the KLA at the Kosovo-Albania border crossing at Morini, where he was waiting for news of his older brother, Flamur. Hours before, their mother, Mihirie, had died

in Kukes hospital. Mihirie's heart problem had proved too much for the terrifying 21-hour walk out from Kosovo.

"They took Fatmir last night, but I went and showed them the death certificate for my wife, so they released him for one or two days," said his father, Muharrem Krasniqi.

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The truth belongs to us all. Feel free to download, copy and redistribute. First posted: February 27, 2003 Last revised: May 31, 2004