Albanian armed group active in Montenegro, ex-army spy chief says
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - October 12, 2007, Friday

Text of report by M.B entitled "ANA branches in Montenegro" published by Montenegrin newspaper Dan on 12 October

Momir Stojanovic, senior member of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and a former director of the Military Security Agency (VBA), says that the Albanian National Army (ANA) has branches in Kosovo, Montenegro, western Macedonia and Albania. He points out that these are security service reports and he also adds that "the ANA branches in Montenegro are illegal and located in Ulcinj [Montenegrin coastal town], Plav and Gusinje [towns in northern Montenegro]".

"The ANA in Montenegro is making lists of Albanians willing to join them and they have ties to branches in Kosovo and western Macedonia," Stojanovic has told Dan, explaining that the terrorist organization is active in all areas inhabited by Albanians.

Commenting about the ANA appearance in Kosovo media during the negotiations on the future status of the province, he says that this is a message showing what could happen if the solution failed to go in the direction of independence.

"The ANA appearance on the administrative line with Kosovo is a symbolical message that the Albanians could solve the Kosovo problem in another way if the outcome of the negotiations was not independence," Stojanovic pointed out, adding that he believes that the appearance of the terrorist organization is linked to Kosovo Albanian leaders and that they cannot attain their goals without their suggestions.

He believes that "at any given moment the militant Albanians can arm 30,000 men".

Serbian National Council (SNV) for Kosovo chairwoman Rada Trajkovic warns that the appearance of the ANA and protests by Albanian students in Pristina supported by Albanians from southern central Serbia and western Macedonia are not a coincidence.

"I hope that serious and responsible international institutions will not allow the current 'Albanian elite' to become the lords of the Kosovo-Metohija area," Trajkovic pointed out, convinced that the [NATO-led] Kfor [Kosovo Force] and UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] will not withdraw from the province, because they are the only ones who guarantee the supposed peace.

Targets

"I hope that, in this sensitive moment, the state will control the minor group that assumed the honourable name of the guard of Tsar Lazar and I hope that it will not allow them to appear in northern Kosovska Mitrovica," Trajkovic says, adding that Albanian extremists should not be given an excuse to attack the Serbs, who are targets for no reason anyway.

Source: Dan, Podgorica, in Serbian 12 Oct 07 p5
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