Albanian extremist groups renew threats
The passions amongst Albanian hardliners in and around Kosovo have been running high amid ongoing negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, as underground armed groups renewed their threats against the Serbian population if talks result with anything short of independence.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, October 29, 2007
In the latest media appearance, representatives of the outlawed Albanian National Army (ANA or AKSh in Albanian) told the British Sunday Times that the group assembled the army in a face of alleged threats imposed by Serbs in the northern part of province.
"We are concentrated in north Kosovo since the population there is threatened by Serbian bands and regular military forces", an alleged representative of AKSh told the London paper.
The Albanian National Army has been hidden deep in the shadows of Balkan organized crime and smuggling networks for the most of its 10-years-long history, but it has claimed the responsibility for several hit-and-run attacks, mainly aimed against Macedonian security forces.
Even though the group has been branded a terrorist organization following the 2003 bomb attack on a railroad in northern Kosovo, UNMIK has never launched a serious inquiry into its activities.
The Sunday Times said the latest appearance of armed groups could be explained by Albanian "deep frustration with the West's stalled bid to grant the province full autonomy in the face of Serbian and Russian opposition, which threatens to embroil the region in another round of bloodletting".
"The situation in Kosovo lately has obliged us to take up our weapons again because we have seen the failure of the international community," said one of the men, who identified himself with the nickname Astriti.
He also claimed the militia already carried out road patrols and erected night checkpoints close to the administrative line with Serbia, near the municipality of Podujevo where it made its inaugural appearance in Kosovo-Albanian media, in a short report aired by the Kosovo Television, RTK.
Tensions seem to be spilling over Kosovo boundary into neighboring Macedonia, as groups of armed men appeared in remote mountainous region in the western and northwestern part of that tiny country.
One Macedonian police fell victim of the still uncleared incident near Kosovo border last week, which triggered a series of accusations between Macedonia majority and ethnic Albanian majority in still fragile country.
Macedonian president Branko Crvenkovski urged the country's intelligence services to draft a special report on the security situation ahead of the final round of negotiations on Kosovo's status.
However, associations composed by former Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) veterans also seemed eager to steer the new tide of tensions, saying "they are prepared to dust off their guns and renounce the
ceasefire if provoked by Serbia".
"The delay of the Kosovo status decision has raised dissatisfaction among the population, especially among the former liberators," Avdyl Mushkolaj, a former local UCK commander in the region of Dukagjini told the Sunday Times.
"This is the real end, we won't allow any further playing with our destiny. If the status decision is delayed there is a big danger that the situation will run out of control. It will most probably start with protests that will turn to violence. None of our politicians have enough support to calm any riots", he said.
Indeed, the uncontrollable riots, as seen in March of 2004, seem to be much larger danger to the stability of the province than any of the shadowy militias, Western security officials in Kosovo told
KosovoCompromise.com.
