ANA Announces "Hot Spring"

SERBIAN PAPER OUTLINES ALLEGED ALBANIAN GUERRILLA PLAN TO DESTABILIZE REGION
BBC Monitoring International Reports - February 10, 2005

Excerpt from report by M. Mijailovic: "ANA announces hot spring" by Serbian newspaper Blic on 8 February

Belgrade: Fears of a new war were rekindled after the Macedonian secret service recently disclosed intelligence on the activation of a "radical scenario" by Albanian separatists in the Balkans. Where did the Macedonian intelligence obtain the information and how relevant is it? Our diplomatic sources say the intelligence disclosed in Skopje must be taken very seriously. The Macedonian secret service, we were told, receives intelligence from Western and regional secret services about plans by the Albanian National Army (ANA - AKSh in Albanian) and separatists.

Macedonians received intelligence "services" from the German BND (Federal Intelligence Service), then the Greek, Bulgarian, as well as Albanian, which monitors security risks in its own environment. It was the BND that divulged the design by Albanian extremists for 17 March 2004. Germany's interest is to monitor ethnic violence and terrorist processes which activate the Islamic threat to the Balkans and EU.

The Albanian plan, we were told, seeks to integrate into one system the Albanian political movement, factions, and para-formations. The objective is for ANA to represent a security interest for all Albanian territories in the Western Balkans, rallying more than 25,000 followers, and operating from one centre in safeguarding Albanian security interests in the Balkans.

ANA's political leader Idajet Beqiri, who was recently released from prison in Albania, calls for military options in achieving plans for a "greater Albania" and independent Kosovo. The plan is to start by destabilizing Macedonia in the first step, its western parts, then the border areas, moving towards Kosovo-Metohija and southern Serbia.

The second step is to activate all forms of political violence - protests, assassinations, assault groups with three to five ANA members, and action squads with 15 to 30 members, tasked with monitoring traffic corridors, particularly towards Serb villages.

The third step is following events in Kosovo and spreading towards southern Serbia, with two scenarios. The first is a political demand for demilitarization of southern Serbia, for control by EU and NATO with the local police, and the second is operations to be carried out by ANA.

The fourth step is insisting on Albanian autonomy in Montenegro, supporting plans for Montenegro's independence, with the possibility of selective violence, particularly parts of the Albanian narcotics cartel that operates in Montenegro.

The objective is an independent Kosovo, autonomy or international control of "Presevo valley", federalization of Macedonia, autonomy for the Albanian region in Montenegro and creating conditions for opening the status of the Albanian minority.

The plan implies a new administrative government in Albania to service the interests of global "greater Albanian interests", threatening thus the incumbent authorities in Albania.

Western and regional agencies, including intelligence obtained by the BIA (Security Information Agency), show that Kosovo is divided into seven operative zones, Montenegro into three, Macedonia into five and Greece into two. Each zone numbers 200-700 members (up to 1,000 in reserve) who form the nucleus of the ANA, with command centres in the vicinity of Tetovo and on Mount Sarplanina. In Kosovo, the ANA's headquarters are on Mount Bajgora and the vicinity of Kosovska Mitrovica as well as the suburbs of Pec and Djakovica. Mt Bajgora has been a training centre for months in Kosovo-Metohija, under the command of General Rahman Rama of the Kosovo Protection Corps, which controls the road between Kosovska Mitrovica and Leposavic.

Obviously, said our collocutor, there are different approaches to the crisis in the Balkans and Kosovo, on the part of the EU and US secret services. The EU and its intelligence system seeks to preclude the crisis from spilling over into the Balkans, particularly the Islamic channels, while the CIA continues to act "with benevolence" towards the separatist strategy and existence of ANA, which poses no major risk for US interests, though it is listed as a terrorist organization in US security catalogues. Estimates put the cost of one ANA member around 150 euros a day, which means that engaging 500 ANA members costs 75,000 euros. (Passage omitted)

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