NEWLY CREATED PAN-ALBANIAN MILITANT GROUP THREATENS WAR IF KOSOVO PARTITIONED
BBC Monitoring International Reports - November 15, 2007 Thursday

Text of report by Kosovo Albanian newspaper Express on 14 November

[Report by Nebih Maxhuni: "UCK of Albanian Lands"]

Decan [Decani], 13 November: Following the public emergence of the Albanian National Army [AKSh], now the so-called National Liberation Army of Albanian Lands [Ushtria Clirimtare Kombetare e Trojeve Shqiptare - UCKTSh] has also been formed. Avdyl Mushkolaj [leader of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) veterans organization for western Kosovo] is one of its co-founders.

Mushkolaj has announced that the UCKTSh's goal is to protect every square inch of Albanian territories. In addition, he said, the organization will not allow anyone to kill innocent (sic) Albanians, as was the case in the Tetove [Tetovo] uplands a week ago, when six Albanians were killed and others were wounded and/or arrested.

The security situation in Kosova [Kosovo] and Macedonia has become rather tense - in Kosova as result of the delays in the status solution and in Macedonia following the Macedonian police "Forest Storm" operation.

"Macedonia has also provoked tensions, because we are the people of the same blood and we have been striving for the state of Kosova. Macedonia has caused bitterness not only among fellow fighters, but also in the camp that emerged among the population during the wars. We feel extremely upset when people get killed by the Slav Macedonian police," Mushkolaj said.

He announced that the Albanians who were killed last week in the Tetove villages were not members of the AKSh or UCKTSh, but were simply former participants in the three wars in Kosova, Macedonia, and the Presheve [Presevo] Valley.

"I have information that they were not AKSh members. They were men of the war and were not intending to launch any action against the Macedonia forces, as the latter alleged. Their killing shows in the best way how fragile the situation in Macedonia is - people can be killed and bombed, which is simply a day of war," he said.

The UCKTSh has warned that, if Kosova's status is not resolved after 10 December, a new conflict will take place. Mushkolaj told Express that, if the Kosova leaders did not set a date for declaring independence, they should leave the posts that they occupied. In his view, the boys of the liberation armies would take over those posts.

"If those elected by the people do not declare it, then other obligations will arise - we (the UCKTSh) will take our fate into our own hands, declare independence, and defend it," said the leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans' Organization for the Dukagjin [western Kosovo] region.

In Mushkolaj's view, this should happen because the current leaders lack the courage to do it, while the UCKTSh "soldiers" are ready to "defend the declared independence."

"We will remove those people from the political scene and instead bring in our people, who have the guts and support to declare and defend it. There are many people from the previous wars, of the UCK [Kosovo Liberation Army], UCPMB [Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac] and UCK [National Liberation Army] in Macedonia and they can assume this responsibility," he said confidently.

The first step in forming this organization was taken in Decan at a meeting of war veterans' organizations from the Albanian territories. Mushkolaj announced that the UCKTSh enjoyed the support of veterans of the UCK (of Kosova), UCPMB, and UCK of Macedonia and that their number exceeded 50,000. He declined to say if they were armed and in which parts of the Albanian territories they operated and he also refused to give the exact number of the UCKTSh.

"If the need arises and if we are provoked again, as happened in the case of Tetove, then a new war is likely, a war against those who are trying to kill and massacre us, as happened recently in Macedonia," Mushkolaj said.

Mushkolaj said that no Albanian territory could be partitioned. In his view, the division of northern Kosova, at which some leaders have hinted, would never be allowed. The UCKTSh boys will not allow the surrender of northern Kosova in exchange for the Presheve Valley, he said.

"If that happens, I can guarantee to you that a new conflict will break out and, whatever the cost, the Albanians will defend every square inch of their land, because blood was shed for it and no political leader can be allowed to trample over it," Mushkolaj said.

He asked the ShPK [Kosovo Police Service] commander General Sheremet Ahmeti publicly to account for the killed Albanians in Macedonia and to explain in detail what he had discussed with Shkup [Skopje] Police Commissioner Ljubce Teodorski just a few days before the Macedonian police operation in the Tetove region.

Mushkolaj called on the country's leaders not to betray the people of Kosova and to keep the promise that they had given about independence; otherwise they "will be removed" from the posts that they occupied.

The last meeting of the UCKTSh leaders was held in Tirana. According to them, the next meeting will be held in Macedonia very soon.

Source: Express, Pristina, in Albanian 14 Nov 07, p10
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