Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac

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The Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Preshevës, Medvegjës dhe Bujanocit, UCPMB) was a guerrilla group fighting for independence from Yugoslavia (present day Serbia) for the three municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac, and Medveđa, home to most of the Albanians of Central Serbia, adjacent to Kosovo^[a]. UCPMBs uniforms, procedures and tactics mirrored those of the disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The UCPMB operated from 1999 to 2001. The goal of the UCPMB was to secede these municipalities from Yugoslavia and join them to a future independent Kosovo.

After the end of the Kosovo War in 1999, a three-mile "Ground Safety Zone" (GSZ) was established between Kosovo governed by United Nations) - and the rest of Yugoslavia. Yugoslav army units were not permitted to patrol the area, only lightly-armed police forces.^[1] The exclusion zone included the predominantly Albanian village of Dobrosin, but not Preševo.

Former KLA members quickly established bases in the demilitarized zone, and Serbian police had to stop patrolling the area to avoid being ambushed. Attacks were also made on Albanian politicians opposed to the KLA, including the murder of Zemail Mustafi, the Albanian vice-president of the Bujanovac branch of Slobodan Milošević's Socialist Party.

Between 21 June 1999 and 12 November 2000, 294 attacks were recorded, most of them (246) in Bujanovac, 44 in Medveđa and six in Preševo. The attacks resulted in fourteen people killed (of which six were civilians and eight were policemen), 37 people wounded (two UN observers, three civilians and 34 policemen) and five civilians kidnapped. In the attacks, the UCPMB used mostly assault rifles, machineguns, mortars and snipers, but also RPGs, handgrenades, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines.^[2]

Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, NATO allowed the Yugoslav army to reclaim the demilitarized zone on 24 May 2001, at the same time giving the UCPMB the opportunity to turn themselves over to KFOR. KFOR promised to just take their weapons and note their names before releasing them.

More than 45^[3] UCPMB members took advantage of KFOR's screen and release policy, among them Shefket Musliu, the commander of the UCPMB, who turned himself over to KFOR at a checkpoint along the GSZ just after midnight on 26 May 2001.

[edit] See also

• Preševo Valley conflict

[edit] Notes and references

Notes:

a.

^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between Serbia and the local Albanian majority. The Assembly of Kosovo declared its independence on 17 February 2008, a move that is recognised by 61 UN member states and the Republic of China (Taiwan), but not by Serbia, which claims it as part of its sovereign territory.

References:

[edit] External links

• www.UN.org - Map of the area
• [1] 1/3/2001, El Pais, "Una nueva guerrilla reta a Serbia." In Spanish.