| Kosovo Liberation Army/ National Army (Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës) |
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|---|---|
| Participant in Kosovo War | |
| Active | 1996[1] - 1999[2] (formed in 1990[3] but relatively passive until 1996) |
| Leaders | LKCK Zahir Pajaziti † Adem Jashari † Hashim Thaçi Agim Çeku Fatmir Limaj Ramush Haradinaj Sami Lushtaku |
| Area of operations |
Kosovo |
| Strength | 2-3,000 to max 20,000[4] |
| Became | Kosovo Protection Corps |
| Allies | Albania, NATO |
| Opponents | Yugoslavia |
| Battles/wars | Kosovo War : *Battle of Junik *Attack on Prekaz *Battle of Belacevac Mine *Battle of Lodja *Battle of Glodjane *Battle of Košare |
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The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA (Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) was a Kosovar Albanian nationalist liberation organization[5] which sought the separation of Kosovo from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Its campaign against Yugoslav security forces precipitated a major Yugoslav military crackdown which led to the Kosovo War of 1998–1999. Military intervention by Yugoslav security forces led by Slobodan Milošević 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.[6][7] Later the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY legally found that Serbia "use[d] violence and terror to force a significant number of Kosovo Albanians from their homes and across the borders, in order for the state authorities to maintain control over Kosovo" by means of "The commission of murder, sexual assault" and other war crimes.[8]
The conflict was ended by a negotiated agreement that requested the UN to take over the administration and political process, including local institutional building and determine the final status of the region.
The KLA was regarded by the US as a terrorist group until 1998 when it was de-listed for classified reasons,[9][10] and then the UK and the US lobbied France to do the same.[11] The US then cultivated diplomatic relationships with the KLA leaders.[10][12] In 1999 the KLA was officially disbanded and their members entered other armed groups such as various Albanian Macedonian rebels,[13] the UCPMB in the Preševo Valley region[2] and UNMIK instituted NGOs within Kosovo such as the Kosovo Protection Corps (in accordance with UNSC resolution 1244 which required the establishment of a civilian emergency protection body to replace the former KLA) and Kosovo Police Force.[14] Some of the Kosovo Liberation Army leadership opted to enter politics, and by taking advantage of the 1999 confusion they still lead the Albanian faction of the partially recognized Kosovar government.[14]
The KLA used child soldiers, 10% of their fighters being under the age of 18, and some being as young as 13.[15]
In early 2011 the Council of Europe has viewed a report on the alleged criminal activities and the alleged organ harvesting controversy by Dick Marty.
Contents |
In February 1996 the KLA undertook a series of attacks against targets which included police stations and Yugoslav government officers, alleging that they had killed Albanian civilians as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign.[16] Serbian authorities denounced the KLA 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.
According to Roland Keith, a field office director of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission[17]:
| “ | Upon my arrival the war increasingly evolved into a mid intensity conflict as ambushes, the encroachment of critical lines of communication and the [KLA] kidnapping of security forces resulted in a significant increase in government casualties which in turn led to major Yugoslavian reprisal security operations... By the beginning of March these terror and counter-terror operations led to the inhabitants of numerous villages fleeing, or being dispersed to either other villages, cities or the hills to seek refuge... The situation was clearly that KLA provocations, as personally witnessed in ambushes of security patrols which inflicted fatal and other casualties, were clear violations of the previous October's agreement [and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1199]. | ” |
According to the report of the U.S. Committee for Refugees[18]:
| “ | Kosovo Liberation Army...attacks aimed at trying to 'cleanse' Kosovo of its ethnic Serb population. | ” |
The Yugoslav Red Cross had estimated a total of 30,000 refugees and IDPs from Kosovo, most of whom were Serb. The UNHCR estimated the figure at 55,000 refugees who had fled to Montenegro and Central Serbia, most of whom were Kosovo Serbs:
| “ | Over 90 mixed villages in Kosovo have now been emptied of Serb inhabitants and other Serbs continue leaving, either to be displaced in other parts of Kosovo or fleeing into central Serbia. | ” |
The NATO North Atlantic Council had stressed that KLA was "the main initiator of the violence" and that it had "launched what appears to be a deliberate campaign of provocation".[18]
The KLA included in its ranks foreign volunteers from Sweden, Belgium, the UK, Germany, Albania, and the US,[19] and France.[20] 30-40 Volunteers from the Croatian Forces International Volunteers Association also participated in training KLA troops.[21]
The KLA usually rewarded after service its international volunteers with a passage home, as a gesture of thanks.[22]
After the war, the KLA was transformed into the Kosovo Protection Corps, which worked alongside NATO forces patrolling the province.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag; see the help page
Ramush Haradinaj, a former KLA commander, served briefly as Prime Minister of Kosovo before he turned himself in to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague to stand trial on war crimes charges,[23] and was later acquitted.
Fatmir Limaj, one of the senior commanders of the KLA, was also tried at The Hague, and was acquitted of all charges in November 2005.[24] He has since been arrested by the EU police in Kosovo on war crimes charges.
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.[25]
In 1996 the British weekly 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." [26] Former senior adviser to the German parliament Matthias Küntzel tried to prove later on that German secret diplomacy had been instrumental in helping the KLA since its creation.[27]
James Bissett, Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania, wrote in 1990 that media reports indicate that "as early as 1998, the Central Intelligence Agency assisted by the British Special Air Service 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 ..." [28] According to Tim Judah, KLA representatives had already met with American, British, and Swiss intelligence agencies in 1996, and possibly "several years earlier" [29] 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".[30] Intelligence agents denied, however, that they were involved in arming the KLA.
American Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, while opposed to American ground troops in Kosovo, advocated for America providing support to the Kosovo Liberation to help them gain their freedom.[31] He was honored by the Albanian American Civic League at a New Jersey located fundraising event on July 23rd, 2001. President of the League, Joseph J. DioGuardi, praised Rohrabacher for his support to the Kosovo Liberation Army, saying "He was the first member of Congress to insist that the United States arm the Kosova Liberation Army, and one of the few members who to this day publicly supports the independence of Kosova."[32] Rohrabacher gave a speech in support of American equipping the KLA with weaponry, comparing it to French support of America in the Revolutionary War, saying "Based on our own experience, the Kosova Liberation Army should have been armed." "If the U.S. had armed the KLA in 1998, we would not be where we are today. The 'freedom fighters' would have secured their freedom and Kosova would be independent." [33][34]
There have been reports of war crimes committed by the KLA both during and after the conflict. These have been directed against Serbs, other ethnic minorities (primarily the Roma) and against ethnic Albanians accused of collaborating with Serb authorities.[35] 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. [36]
The KLA engaged in tit-for-tat attacks against Serbian nationalists in Kosovo, reprisals against ethnic Albanians who "collaborated" with the Serbian government, and bombed police stations and cafes known to be frequented by Serb officials, killing innocent civilians in the process. Most of its activities were funded by drug running, though its ties to community groups and Albanian exiles gave it local popularity.[37]
The Yugoslav authorities regarded the KLA as a terrorist group,[38] 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.[39] President Bill Clinton's special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, described the KLA as, "without any questions, a terrorist group."Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag; see the help page
The Podujevo bus bombing was a terrorist attack on a civilian bus in a Serb-populated area near the town of Podujevo, Kosovo on 16 February 2001 by Kosovar Albanian extremists.
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 Kosovar and Albanian authorities.[40] 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".[41]
Kosovo Liberation Army members were sentenced for murdering 32 non-Albanian civilians.[42] In the same case, another 35 civilians are missing while 153 were tortured and released.
The Yugoslav authorities, under Slobodan Milosevic, regarded the KLA a terrorist group.[38] In February 1998, President Bill Clinton's special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, condemned both the actions of Serb government and of the KLA, and described the KLA as, "without any questions, a terrorist group".[12][43][44] UN resolution 1160 took a similar stance.[45][46] These statements made Milosevic believe that he could attack the KLA without any repercussion, precipitating the March 1999 war.[44]
But the 1997 US Department's terrorist list hadn't included the KLA.[47] In March 1998, just one month later Gerbald had to modify his statements to say that KLA had not been classified legally by the U.S. government as a terrorist group,[46] and the US government approached the KLA leaders to make them interlocutors with the Serbs.[10][48] A Wall Street Journal article claimed later that the US government had removed in February 1998 the KLA from the list of terrorist organizations,[49][9][10], a removal that has never been confirmed.[46] France didn't delist the KLA until late 1998, after strong US and UK lobbying.[11] KLA is still present in the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base list of terrorist groups,Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag; see the help page
During the war, the KLA troops collaborated with the NATO troops, and they were qualified by the NATO as "freedom fighters".[10] In late 1999 the KLA was disbanded and its members entered the Kosovo Protection Corps.[10]
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