Ethnic Albanian guerrillas warn UN to leave Kosovo

Ethnic Albanian guerrillas warn UN to leave Kosovo
Agence France Presse (English) - March 1, 2006 Wednesday 1:20 PM GMT

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro, March 1, 2006 - A guerrilla group on Wednesday warned the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to leave the province, saying it was ready to fight for a "Greater Albania".

The group calling itself the Albanian National Army (ANA), which is active in Kosovo, southern Serbia and Macedonia, "demands from the UN, if they are really a peace organisation, to leave Kosovo gradually," it said in a statement received by AFP.

"This organisation has no democracy within itself and still governs with (the power of) veto as in the Middle Ages. It cannot build democracy anywhere," the ANA said.

"We will fight ... against whatever enemy and traitor until full victory -- the unification of the Albanian nation under the motto 'one nation, one state'," added the group.

The ANA, which the UN mission in Kosovo regards as a terrorist organisation, has in recent years claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks in Kosovo, southern Serbia and Macedonia.

The statement was issued ahead of a scheduled visit to the province on Wednesday by the chief UN mediator in talks on Kosovo's future status, Martti Ahtisaari.

The ANA also vowed to overturn all peace plans brokered by the West in the region.

"Albanians cannot be treated as terrorists and warmongers because they fight for national unification. ... It is their legitimate right, as it was for all nations in the world," the group said.

"The region will not find peace if the Albanian question is not finally resolved."

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations and NATO since mid-1999, when the alliance's bombing campaign ended a crackdown by Serbian forces against separatist Albanian rebels.