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[[Image:Uck-prishtin18-99.jpg|thumb|right|305px|KLA troops march on the streets of Priština on September 18, 1999 during a last parade organized by the KLA before the deadline for the army's demilitarization as agreed with the NATO-led KFOR force.]]
[[Image:Uck-prishtin18-99.jpg|thumb|right|305px|KLA troops march on the streets of Prishtina on September 18, 1999 during a last parade organized by the KLA before the deadline for the army's demilitarization as agreed with the NATO-led KFOR force.]]
The '''Kosovo Liberation Army''' or '''KLA''' ([[Albanian language|Albanian]]: ''Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës'' or ''UÇK'') was a Kosovar [[Albanians|Albanian]] guerilla group which sought the independence of Kosovo from [[Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] in the late 1990s.
The '''Kosovo Liberation Army''' or '''KLA''' ([[Albanian language|Albanian]]: ''Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës'' or ''UÇK'') was a Kosovar [[Albanians|Albanian]] guerilla group which sought the independence of Kosovo from [[Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] in the late 1990s.


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==Reported abuses==
==Reported abuses==

There have been reports of war crimes committed by the KLA both during and after the conflict. These have been directed against both Serbs, other ethnic minorities (principally [[Romani people|Roma]]) and against ethnic Albanians accused of collaborating with the Serb authorities. <ref>[[Human Rights Watch]], [http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/ UNDER ORDERS:War Crimes in Kosovo]</ref> According to a 2001 report by '''[[Human Rights Watch]]''' (HRW):
There have been reports of war crimes committed by the KLA both during and after the conflict. These have been directed against both Serbs, other ethnic minorities (principally [[Romani people|Roma]]) and against ethnic Albanians accused of collaborating with the Serb authorities. <ref>[[Human Rights Watch]], [http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/ UNDER ORDERS:War Crimes in Kosovo]</ref> According to a 2001 report by '''[[Human Rights Watch]]''' (HRW):


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The [[Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] authorities regarded the KLA a [[terrorist]] group<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20070402053051/http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=3517 MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base] using a web.archive.org copy of 2 April 2007</ref>, though many European governments did not. The Serbian government also reported that the KLA had killed and kidnapped no fewer than 3,276 civilians of various ethnic descriptions including some Albanians.<ref name=ZAT>.[http://www.arhiva.serbia.sr.gov.yu/news/2002-07/08/325076.html Victims of the Albanian terrorism in Kosovo-Metohija (Killed, kidnapped, and missing persons, January 1998 - November 2001)]<br>[http://www.arhiva.srbija.sr.gov.yu/vesti/2002-05/25/326656.html Žrtve albanskog terorizma na Kosovu i Metohiji (Ubijena, oteta i nestala lica, januar 1998 - novembar 2001)]</ref>
The [[Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] authorities regarded the KLA a [[terrorist]] group<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20070402053051/http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=3517 MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base] using a web.archive.org copy of 2 April 2007</ref>, though many European governments did not. The Serbian government also reported that the KLA had killed and kidnapped no fewer than 3,276 civilians of various ethnic descriptions including some Albanians.<ref name=ZAT>.[http://www.arhiva.serbia.sr.gov.yu/news/2002-07/08/325076.html Victims of the Albanian terrorism in Kosovo-Metohija (Killed, kidnapped, and missing persons, January 1998 - November 2001)]<br>[http://www.arhiva.srbija.sr.gov.yu/vesti/2002-05/25/326656.html Žrtve albanskog terorizma na Kosovu i Metohiji (Ubijena, oteta i nestala lica, januar 1998 - novembar 2001)]</ref>



The exact number of victims of the KLA is not known. According to a Serbian government report, from [[January 1]] [[1998]] to [[June 10]] [[1999]] the KLA killed 988 people and kidnapped 287; in the period from [[June 10]] [[1999]] to [[November 11]] [[2001]], when NATO took control in Kosovo, 847 were reported to have been killed and 1,154 kidnapped. This comprised both civilians and security force personnel: of those killed in the first period, 335 were civilians, 351 soldiers, 230 police and 72 were unidentified; by nationality, 87 of killed civilians were Serbs, 230 Albanians, and 18 of other nationalities. Following the withdrawal of Serbian and Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo in June 1999, all casualties were civilians, the vast majority being Serbs.<ref name=ZAT/> According to Human Rights Watch, as “''many as one thousand Serbs and Roma have been murdered or have gone missing since [[June 12]] [[1999]]''.” [http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/undword.htm]
The exact number of victims of the KLA is not known. According to a Serbian government report, from [[January 1]] [[1998]] to [[June 10]] [[1999]] the KLA killed 988 people and kidnapped 287; in the period from [[June 10]] [[1999]] to [[November 11]] [[2001]], when NATO took control in Kosovo, 847 were reported to have been killed and 1,154 kidnapped. This comprised both civilians and security force personnel: of those killed in the first period, 335 were civilians, 351 soldiers, 230 police and 72 were unidentified; by nationality, 87 of killed civilians were Serbs, 230 Albanians, and 18 of other nationalities. Following the withdrawal of Serbian and Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo in June 1999, all casualties were civilians, the vast majority being Serbs.<ref name=ZAT/> According to Human Rights Watch, as “''many as one thousand Serbs and Roma have been murdered or have gone missing since [[June 12]] [[1999]]''.” [http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/undword.htm]


[[Carla Del Ponte]], a long-time [[ICTY]] chief prosecutor claimed in her book [[The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals]] that there were instances of organ trafficking in 1999 after the end of the [[Kosovo War]]. These allegations were dismissed by [[Kosovan]] and [[Albania]]n authorities.<ref name=telegraph>[[The Daily Telegraph]], [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/11/wserb111.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox Serb prisoners 'were stripped of their organs in Kosovo war'], 14.04.2008</ref> The allegations have been rejected by Kosovar authorities as fabrications while the ICTY has said "no reliable evidence had been obtained to substantiate the allegations" <ref>http://www.un.org/icty/briefing/2008/pb080416.htm</ref>
[[Carla Del Ponte]], a long-time [[ICTY]] chief prosecutor claimed in her book [[The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals]] that there were instances of organ trafficking in 1999 after the end of the [[Kosovo War]]. These allegations were dismissed by [[Kosovan]] and [[Albania]]n authorities.<ref name=telegraph>[[The Daily Telegraph]], [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/11/wserb111.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox Serb prisoners 'were stripped of their organs in Kosovo war'], 14.04.2008</ref> The allegations have been rejected by Kosovar authorities as fabrications while the ICTY has said "no reliable evidence had been obtained to substantiate the allegations" <ref>http://www.un.org/icty/briefing/2008/pb080416.htm</ref>

A Serbian newspaper, [[Večernje Novosti]], published photos in 2003 of men in Kosovo Liberation Army uniforms holding decapitated heads. According to the paper, the men commited the crime in [[April 1999]], during the [[Kosovo War]].<ref>http://www.kosovo.net/kla_decapit.jpg</ref><ref>http://www.ex-yupress.com/evnovosti/evnovosti13.html</ref>


==Gallery==
==Gallery==

Revision as of 17:13, 26 September 2008

Kosovo Liberation Army
(Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës)
LeadersHashim Thaçi, Agim Çeku, Ramush Haradinaj
Dates of operation1981 - 1999
Active regionsKosovo
AlliesAlbania, NATO
OpponentsYugoslavia
File:Uck-prishtin18-99.jpg
KLA troops march on the streets of Prishtina on September 18, 1999 during a last parade organized by the KLA before the deadline for the army's demilitarization as agreed with the NATO-led KFOR force.

The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA (Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) was a Kosovar Albanian guerilla group which sought the independence of Kosovo from Yugoslavia in the late 1990s.

Its campaign against Serbian security forces precipitated a major Yugoslav military crackdown which led to the Kosovo War of 1998-1999. Military intervention by Yugoslav security forces and Serb militias within Kosovo prompted an exodus of Kosovar Albanians and a refugee crisis that eventually caused NATO to intervene militarily in order to stop what was widely identified (by NATO nations, human rights organizations, the EU, and western media) as an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing.[1] [2]

The conflict was ended by a negotiated agreement that requested UN to take over the administration and political process, including local institutional building and determine the final status of the region.

History

File:1 komandant-selimi.jpg
KLA Commander Selimi

In February 1996 the KLA undertook a series of attacks against targets that included police stations and Serb government offices in Western Kosovo.[3] The Serbian authorities denounced it as a terrorist organization and increased the number of security forces in the region. This had the counter-productive effect of boosting the credibility of the embryonic KLA among the Kosovo Albanian population.

Foreign volunteers

The KLA included in its ranks foreign volunteers from Sweden, Belgium, the UK, Germany, the US [4], and France [5]. 30-40 Volunteers from the Croatian Forces International Volunteers Association also participated in training KLA troops [6].

The KLA usually rewarded after service its international volunteers with a passage home, as a gesture of thanks. [7]

Aftermath (post-1999)

The KLA legacy remains powerful within Kosovo. Its former members still play a major role in Kosovar politics.

Its former political head Hashim Thaçi is now the leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Prime Minister of Kosovo since January 2008.

The KLA's former military head, Agim Çeku, after the war became Prime Minister of Kosovo. The move caused some controversy in Serbia, as Belgrade regarded him as a war criminal, though he was never indicted by the Hague tribunal [2].

Ramush Haradinaj, a former KLA commander, served briefly as Prime Minister of Kosovo before he willfully turned himself up to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague to stand trial on accusations against him for war crimes [3] and was aqquited of all charges.

Fatmir Limaj, one of the senior commanders of the KLA to also went through a trial process in The Hague, and was acquitted of all charges in November 2005 [4]. He is now minister of transport and telecommunication.

Hajredin Bala, an ex-KLA prison guard, was sentenced on 30 November 2005 to 13 years’ imprisonment for the mistreatment of three prisoners at the Llapushnik prison camp, his personal role in the "maintenance and enforcement of the inhumane conditions" of the camp, aiding the torture of one prisoner, and of participating in the murder of nine prisoners from the camp who were marched to the Berisha Mountains on 25 or 26 July 1998 and killed. Bala appealed the sentence and the appeal is still pending. [8]

Foreign support

In 1996 a British weekly newspaper, The European, carried an article by a French expert stating that "German civil and military intelligence services have been involved in training and equipping the rebels with the aim of cementing German influence in the Balkan area. (...) The birth of the KLA in 1996 coincided with the appointment of Hansjoerg Geiger as the new head of the BND (German secret Service). (...) The BND men were in charge of selecting recruits for the KLA command structure from the 500,000 Kosovars in Albania." [9] Former senior adviser to the German parliament Matthias Küntzel treid to prove later on that German secret diplomacy had been instrumental in helping the KLA since its creation.[10]

James Bissett, Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania in 1990, recalled in 1992 and retired from Foreign Service to eventually take a job as the head of an International organization in Moscow, helping the Russian Government establish a new immigration agency, writes that "...as early as 1998, the Central Intelligence Agency assisted by the British Special Armed Services were arming and training Kosovo Liberation Army members in Albania to foment armed rebellion in Kosovo. (...) The hope was that with Kosovo in flames NATO could intervene ..." [11] According to Tim Judah, KLA representatives had already met with American, British, and Swiss intelligence agencies in 1996, and possibly "several years earlier" [12] and according to The Sunday Times, "American intelligence agents have admitted they helped to train the Kosovo Liberation Army before NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia" [5].


Reported abuses

There have been reports of war crimes committed by the KLA both during and after the conflict. These have been directed against both Serbs, other ethnic minorities (principally Roma) and against ethnic Albanians accused of collaborating with the Serb authorities. [13] According to a 2001 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW):

The KLA was responsible for serious abuses… including abductions and murders of Serbs and ethnic Albanians considered collaborators with the state. Elements of the KLA are also responsible for post-conflict attacks on Serbs, Roma, and other non-Albanians, as well as ethnic Albanian political rivals... widespread and systematic burning and looting of homes belonging to Serbs, Roma, and other minorities and the destruction of Orthodox churches and monasteries... combined with harassment and intimidation designed to force people from their homes and communities... elements of the KLA are clearly responsible for many of these crimes. [14]

The Yugoslav authorities regarded the KLA a terrorist group[15], though many European governments did not. The Serbian government also reported that the KLA had killed and kidnapped no fewer than 3,276 civilians of various ethnic descriptions including some Albanians.[16]

The exact number of victims of the KLA is not known. According to a Serbian government report, from January 1 1998 to June 10 1999 the KLA killed 988 people and kidnapped 287; in the period from June 10 1999 to November 11 2001, when NATO took control in Kosovo, 847 were reported to have been killed and 1,154 kidnapped. This comprised both civilians and security force personnel: of those killed in the first period, 335 were civilians, 351 soldiers, 230 police and 72 were unidentified; by nationality, 87 of killed civilians were Serbs, 230 Albanians, and 18 of other nationalities. Following the withdrawal of Serbian and Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo in June 1999, all casualties were civilians, the vast majority being Serbs.[16] According to Human Rights Watch, as “many as one thousand Serbs and Roma have been murdered or have gone missing since June 12 1999.” [6]

Carla Del Ponte, a long-time ICTY chief prosecutor claimed in her book The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals that there were instances of organ trafficking in 1999 after the end of the Kosovo War. These allegations were dismissed by Kosovan and Albanian authorities.[17] The allegations have been rejected by Kosovar authorities as fabrications while the ICTY has said "no reliable evidence had been obtained to substantiate the allegations" [18]

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ UNDER ORDERS: War Crimes in Kosovo - 4. March-June 1999: An Overview
  2. ^ Conflict In The Balkans: The Overview; Nato Authorizes Bomb Strikes; Primakov, In Air, Skips U.S. Visit - New York Times
  3. ^ "Unknown Albanian 'liberation army' claims attacks", Agence France Presse, February 17, 1996
  4. ^ http://www.iwpr.net/?p=bcr&s=f&o=248236&apc_state=henibcr5b891da66b3662d9a16bf0d86e537b3b
  5. ^ http://www.aimpress.ch/dyn/trae/archive/data/199904/90420-001-trae-tir.htm
  6. ^ http://www.cfiva.org/cfiva/history/index.cfm
  7. ^ http://www.cfiva.org/cfiva/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=showItem&newsID=13
  8. ^ [1] The Hague, 21 April 2006 - Appeals Chamber
  9. ^ FALLGOT, Roger (1998): "How Germany Backed KLA", in The European, 21 September-27 September. pp 21-27.
  10. ^ KUNTZEL, Matthias (2002): Der Weg in den Krieg. Deutschland, die Nato und das Kosovo (The Road to War. Germany, Nato and Kosovo). Elefanten Press. Berlin, Germany. pp. 59-64.
  11. ^ James Bissett
  12. ^ JUDAH, Tim (2002): Kosovo: War and Revenge. Yale University Press. New Haven, USA. Page 120
  13. ^ Human Rights Watch, UNDER ORDERS:War Crimes in Kosovo
  14. ^ UNDER ORDERS:War Crimes in Kosovo, executive summary
  15. ^ MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base using a web.archive.org copy of 2 April 2007
  16. ^ a b .Victims of the Albanian terrorism in Kosovo-Metohija (Killed, kidnapped, and missing persons, January 1998 - November 2001)
    Žrtve albanskog terorizma na Kosovu i Metohiji (Ubijena, oteta i nestala lica, januar 1998 - novembar 2001)
  17. ^ The Daily Telegraph, Serb prisoners 'were stripped of their organs in Kosovo war', 14.04.2008
  18. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/briefing/2008/pb080416.htm

General references

  • "KLA Action Fuelled NATO Victory", Jane's Defence Weekly, 16 June 1999
  • "The KLA: Braced to Defend and Control", Jane's Intelligence Review, 1 April 1999
  • "Kosovo's Ceasefire Crumbles As Serb Military Retaliates", Jane's Intelligence Review, 1 February 1999
  • "Another Balkan Bloodbath? Part Two", Jane's Intelligence Review, 1 March 1998
  • "Albanians Attack Serb Targets", Jane's Defence Weekly, 4 September 1996
  • "The Kosovo Liberation Army and the Future of Kosovo", James H. Anderson and James Phillips, 05/13/1999, Heritage Foundation, Heritage Foundation (Washington, USA)

External links

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