Kosovo: Rebel AKSh members appear publicly at commemoration for UCK dead
BBC Monitoring / Koha Ditore - April 13, 2004

Text of report by Xheme Binaku and Blerim Xhemajli: "AKSh appears publicly at memorial in Rezistence village", published by Kosovo Albanian newspaper Koha Ditore on 13 April

Drenas Glogovac , 12 April: On Monday 12 April , at a memorial gathering at Rezistence Baice village near Drenas to mark the fifth anniversary of the fall of martyrs Rrahim Bajraktari and Elmi Lestrani, three uniformed, masked men came up and read out publicly messages from the Albanian National Army AKSh .

Appearing in the same manner the former UCK Kosovo Liberation Army did during the funeral of teacher Halit Geci in Llaushe near Skenderaj Srbica on 28 November 1997, the three AKSh members read a message from the Front for Albanian National Unification (FBKSh), which was greeted with applause by dozens of participants at the commemoration.

The three men - two in black, the third one in a camouflage uniform, and all of them wearing the AKSh insignia on their arms - took the stage after Fatmir Kicina, commander of the two late UCK martyrs, had finished his address to the audience.

The person in the camouflage uniform read out parts of the FBKSh and AKSh platforms. "After a longstanding activity in all the Albanian lands, the time has come to emerge publicly before the martyrs' graves as a political and military force that rose from the bosom of the people," he said.

"We came here after many efforts have been made for national liberation and unification. We will be with the aspirations and wishes of the people in expressing the accumulated anger and frustration over the fracturing of Albanian lands, and we will foil from the outset the modern occupation of Albanian lands. We came here to complete freedom. We came here to make sure that the mistakes of earlier freedom-loving generations are not repeated. We came here to issue a warning to all servants of the old and new occupiers. We came here to say that these lands are not without a landlord," the AKSh uniformed person said, and added that the AKSh operates in the zones of Kosova "not covered by the UNMIK UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo administration or the ShPK Kosovo Police Service ".

"We came here to say that we operate where the UNMIK administration and the ShPK have not been operating, because Shaban Polluzha World War II anti-communist rebel finished the job in Drenice central Kosovo on time. From Drenice, the heartland of our honorary commander Adem Jashari one of the first leaders of the former UCK , we want to send out a clear message that we will fight until full national liberation and unification, and we will work in line with the FBKSh political platform and the AKSh military platform," the message said among other things.

The AKSh members swore an oath in front of the two UCK martyrs to fight until the end for national liberation and unification. "We swear here before the graves of these martyrs that we will not stop our national liberation and unification drive until our nation is unified," they said, reading a message signed by the "FBKSh central presidency", which prompted applause from people attending the commemoration.

While the uniformed men spoke publicly at the commemoration ceremony in Kosova Kosovo , UNMIK people were not in a position to make any comments on the organization that was declared terrorist by former UNMIK chief Michael Steiner a year ago. Steiner reached that decision after an explosion at the Lozhishte Loziste railway bridge in northern Kosova, which killed a member of the Kosova Protection Corps TMK . The AKSh claimed later responsibility for the attack.

Kfor Kosovo Force officials also declined to comment on the event. Until the late afternoon they even denied having any information about the public appearance of the AKSh.

SOURCE: Koha Ditore, Pristina, in Albanian 13 Apr 04

Copyright 2004 British Broadcasting Corporation
BBC Monitoring Europe - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring

Posted for Fair Use only.