Macedonian Albanian veterans prepared to fight for Kosovo - daily
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 10, 2007, Tuesday

Text of report by Macedonian newspaper Dnevnik on 10 July

[Report by Mariela Trajkovska: "Veliu To Fight for Kosovo With 10,000 Fighters"]

I am prepared to lead 10,000 former ONA [National Liberation Army, NLA - UCK in Albanian] members from Macedonia to demonstrate solidarity by joining their brothers of the UCK [Kosovo Liberation Army] and, if necessary, using arms to gain Kosovo's independence, Fazli Veliu has told Dnevnik. He is the chairman of the ONA Veterans' Association and a DUI [Democratic Union for Integration - BDI in Albanian] deputy in the Macedonian Assembly.

Veliu's message follows the UCK veterans' demand that the negotiating team should not accept any postponement of the Kosovo status resolution, or else they would act as UCK soldiers. They also asked the international organizations not to obstruct the resolution.

We maintain constant contact with the Kosovo Veterans' Association. We are going to hold a joint meeting and everything will be clearer in two days. If the Kosovo status resolution continues to be delayed, it will be in the all-Albanian interest that we should help them. We are going to wait for their initiative, after which we would protest together to raise the issue to an international level. We would then wait and see how the internationals are going to react, because they are the ones who guarantee equal rights for all. If necessary, we are prepared to fight with weapons for Kosovo's independence, Veliu says.

According to him, he could organize some 10,000 former ONA members, which is as many as those who fought in Macedonia in 2001.

Besides Veliu, the ONA Veterans' Union, too, has said that they would offer military help to the former UCK fighters in the event of a conflict over the status of Kosovo.

The Union has over 1,500 former ONA fighters. Kosovo is an Albanian cause and each of our members will individually decide whether he would take up arms to help Kosovo to become independent. We are waiting for the Kosovo Association's official position before we have our say. Yet, I do not believe that Kfor [Kosovo Force] would allow any commotion or war in Kosovo, ONA Veterans' Union representative Besim Hoda says.

Source: Dnevnik, Skopje, in Macedonian 10 Jul 07

Copyright 2007 British Broadcasting Corporation
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