THREAT OF TERRORISM FROM KOSOVO STILL PRESENT
Glas Javnosti - January 18, 2004

Belgrade: The latest threats made against Nebojsa Covic, chairman of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija, behind which is a certain Jashari, otherwise known as Tiger, point to the fact that terrorism has not yet been eradicated in this region and that it may easily spill over the province's administrative boundary line.

Let us remember that members of the officially disbanded OVK (Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA - UCK in Albanian), most of whom have transferred to the Kosovo Protection Corps, organized a series of terrorist operations in Kosovo-Metohija last year, starting with the dynamiting of the railroad bridge at Zvecan and going on to murder Serbs in Gorazdevac, Obilic, Kosovsko Pomoravlje... (ellipsis as published)

Nor must one ignore major operations mounted by Al-Qa'idah in the region. This has recently been pointed out also by Steven Norton, adviser at the Washington Western Policy Centre, who said that extremist Islamic organizations have a strong influence in the Balkans and that there is a chance of Al-Qa'idah's using the region for further recruitment and for spreading its influence and the influence of other extremist and terrorist organizations. (passage omitted)

Glas javnosti has written about this several times in the past, pointing out that several thousand mujahidin were sent to Bosnia-Hercegovina (during the war) to fight on the side of the Bosnian Muslims. Many of them have never left that country and a large number are in Kosovo-Metohija today. One cannot therefore rule out the possibility of Al-Qa'idah's using this region, which is an important cross roads between Europe and Asia and on to Africa, for further recruitment and for spreading its organization and other extremist organizations, such as the ANA (Albanian National Army - AKSh in Albanian), which has been put on the list of terrorist organizations; the OVPBM (Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja - UCPBM in Albanian); and the most recent addition, the Albanian National Army of Montenegro (UKM). All these organizations are offshoots of the ANA.

Forces of occupation

A very interesting thing at the moment is that in Kosovo, which aspires to independence, there is growing intolerance towards the international authorities, whom the local Albanians increasingly regard as forces of occupation, so that one cannot rule out the possibility of attacks against them. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the new NATO secretary general has chosen to make his first foreign trip out of Brussels to Pristina and Sarajevo.
 

Source: Glas javnosti, Belgrade, in Serbian 18 Jan 04 p 2

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