UCK VIDEOS KLA VIDEOS

Adrian Krasniqi

2008-01-05T18:45:00.000-08:00

Ushtria Qlirimtare e Kosoves

AKSH

2007-11-15T15:40:00.000-08:00

AKSH Armata Kombetare Shqiptare

2007-11-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

AKSH Has 12000 Souldiers redy on call

UCK Killed Rusian Silder

2007-05-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

UCK Kill Serbs and Russian

2007-05-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

KLA UCK Front Line fighting Against Serbia Army Paramilitary And Some Of the Rusian Comandos

UCK Killed Rusian Silder

2007-05-11T04:50:00.000-07:00

Komandant LLeshi UCPMB

2007-05-11T04:19:00.001-07:00

Ushtrija UCK

2007-04-18T15:48:00.001-07:00

Uck Kosharja

2007-04-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

Lufa Kosoves Uck

2007-04-18T15:39:00.000-07:00

Evidences about Serbian Crimes in Kosova

2007-04-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

A unique archive of destroyed of Albanian Villages by Serbian special police. Serbian Criminal Police have fired on Albanian Civilians fleeing their homes in the western region, including those attempting to cross the border into Albania. Helicopters marked with the red cross have shot at refugees near the Albanian border.
Attacks on civilians and the systematic destruction of villages have effectively cleansed Kosova's western region of ethnic Albanians.

Uck Video Pas Lufte Kosova Peja 1999

2007-04-07T15:22:00.001-07:00

Kosova Liberation Army - Black Tigres

2007-03-07T07:17:00.000-08:00

Uck

2007-03-07T07:14:00.000-08:00

Kosova: Serbians killed by Nato

2007-02-08T07:42:00.000-08:00

They were killed because they did not do what Nato Soulders Ask
filthy serbian paramlitaries getting what they deserve, dying. but this time not from UCK/KLA but from Nato.shkijet e flliqt po cofin, sa bukur. oh more

Thyerja E Kufirit Koshare Agim Ramadani

2007-02-08T07:41:00.001-08:00

War in Kosova

2007-02-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

During 1998 & 1999 The Srbian Govrnment carried out campaing's To Eliminate Ethnic Albanians population of Kosova; Destroying Homes, Ancient Albanian Monuments and massacring thousend of innocent Albanian civilians; Man, Women And Children

Kosova Evidence, The War In Kosova, portrays the horrors that occurred in Kosova during the recent war

Tags:
Serbia, Serbian,Kosovo war, Kosovo, Kosova, Albanian, Albania

Adem And Hamez Jashari Video

2006-11-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

Free Kosova Slideshow Picture Of UCK

2006-10-05T15:10:00.000-07:00

SOLIDARITE KOSOVA 1999

2006-08-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

Protesta Ne Franc Ne 1999

Uck Kla Ushtria Qlirimtare E Kosoves Video Photo Slideshow

2006-08-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

War In Kosovo

2006-07-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

Kosovo Liberation Army KLA.... Ushtria Qlirimtare e Kosoves UCK...

what happened at Kosova ??

do you remember ?

people have died...

a massacre has been occured...

and all world has watched it.

this video has dedicated to victims of the war..

Ramush Haradinaj Biography

2006-05-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

Ramush Haradinaj (born on July 3, 1968 in village Gllogjan near Deçan, Kosovo) is a former guerrilla leader and prime minister of Kosovo, currently awaiting trial for war crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

After the demonstrations of Kosovo Albanians in 1989, he emigrated to Switzerland, where he got recruited into the National Movement of Kosovo, from which originated Kosovo Liberation Army. While in Switzerland, he worked as a nightclub bouncer and studied martial arts. He finished training in Albania in 1996, and he took part in organizing camps in cities Kukës and Tropojë. He often went to Kosovo illegaly, and permanently returned in mid 1997, when he with brothers Daut and Shkëlzen organized attacks on Serbian police across Dukagjin. In April 1998, he became one of the regional leaders of UÇK (Kosovo Liberation Army).

After official dismissal and demilitarization of UÇK at the beginning of 2000, Kosovo Protection Corps was formed. In this new army, Haradinaj was a deputy commander, under Agim Ceku. He retired from this post in April 11, 2000, and announced entering politics. He founded a party named Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AFK), on April 29, 2000 and was elected as a president of the party.

After all that he has done in Kosovo, he is considered as a national hero by Kosovo Albanians, even though he has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, at The Hague, for his actions while regional commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army. On December 2004, he was elected as a Prime Minister of Kosovo, at the dismay of Serbian officials, where he won by a vote of 72 to 3. This was despite misgivings by the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, suggesting someone who may have to go to The Hague "may not be the most appropriate person". Eventually, Ramush chose to step down from his position as Prime Minister and turned himself into the Hague

In March 2006, although indicted by the ICTY for war crimes, he was granted the right to make public appearnances for his party as long as he receivs permission from UNMIK. His trial will likely begin in 2007.

Ramush Haradinaj has five brothers. Two of them, Luan and Shkelzen, were killed as officers of the Kosovo Liberation Army during the fights with the Serbian security forces. His brother Daut Haradinaj is serving a five year sentence in Kosovo for unlawful killings of fellow Albanians during the Kosovo war of 1999. His brother Enver has been killed in what appears to be a mafia style assassination in April of 2005. The youngest brother Frasher was still a secondary school student as of 2005.

Ramush Haradinaj

2006-05-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

Ramush Haradinaj

There is a large gap in the middle of the curriculum vitae of Ramush Haradinaj, the Prime Minister of Kosovo who resigned today after being charged with war crimes.

He was born on July 3 1968 in the tiny village of Gllogjan, in the Decan municipality of western Kosovo, readers of his official website will find under biographical notes. He finished high school in Gjakova and graduated in law from Kosovo's Pristina University.

He was commander of the Dukagjini operative zone of the Kosovo Liberation Army - which, loosely translated, means he was a guerrilla commander in the struggle of the Kosovo Albanians against their Serb overlords in 1998 and 1999. His base was in his home village.

What the website does not mention is that after leaving high school and doing his national service in the Yugoslav Army, Mr Haradinaj went abroad to Switzerland in 1989 for nearly a decade, ostensibly to study. He explains to interviewers that his sprawling, ethnic Albanian family was marked down as troublemakers by the Serb authorities, and that his efforts to study astronomy in Kosovo were effectively blocked.

While in Switzerland, he did a number of jobs to make ends meet, including acting as a security guard at rock concerts and as a nightclub bouncer.

He also stayed in touch with the resistance movement in Kosovo, and in 1998 he returned to his native land for good when his ethnic compatriots were engaged in their struggle against the Serbs. Two of his brothers were killed in the guerrilla warfare, which died down after Nato launched airstrikes on Serbia in June 1999.

Mr Haradinaj served with the Kosovo Protection Corps, then laid down his weapons and founded a political party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, in May 2000. His Kosovo law degree was obtained after his time as a guerrilla leader.

Charming, efficient and energetic, with a good command of English and French, his chance arrived when his party came third in last October's national elections in Kosovo, and was invited to form a coalition government with the party of the Kosovo President, Ibrahim Rugova.

He has won praise from western leaders during his brief time in power. But he is also a colourful character who has seemed unable to steer clear of trouble. He got into a brawl with a Russian peacekeeper. Four years ago, he and his brother were injured in a dispute that involved several of his friends and family members and a rival Albanian clan, the Musaj family. Mr Haradinaj needed treatment in an American army hospital in Germany.

The allegations of involvement in war crimes have dogged him throughout his political career. The bodies of 39 people were found near Gllogjan in September 1998, some of them bearing evidence of having been tied up and tortured. Some were Serbs, the only non-Albanians in the neighbouring village of Dubrava. No details of the charges against him have yet been published.

2006-04-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

Fatmir Lima Uck Video

2006-03-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

Fatmir Limaj

Kontributi i Flirim Krasniqit Per UCK Ushtrin qlirimtare Te Kosoves

2006-02-08T16:07:00.000-08:00

Uck Video In English

2006-02-07T16:46:00.000-08:00

Uck Training video

2006-02-07T16:43:00.002-08:00

Knife Training

Uck Training video

2006-02-07T16:43:00.001-08:00

Knife Training

Uck Video

2006-01-20T04:49:00.000-08:00

STATUS OF KOSOVO

2006-01-18T04:02:00.000-08:00

STATUS OF KOSOVO
After the NATO bombing campaign in 1999, the UN Mission (UNMIK) took control over the region of Kosovo. Today Kosovo remains an autonomous province within greater Serbia and Montenegro.
UNMIK established many governmental departments and built infrastructure, such as a police agency, courts, a parliament and local councils. However, in 2004, an annual report released on human rights in Kosovo by a branch of the UN Mission stated that the UN has failed to protect the rights of its citizens, primarily those of the Serbian minority in Kosovo. Furthermore, many human rights organizations and international agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) have found the conditions in refugee camps to be severe.
In December 2004, Ibrahim Rugova, who has long advocated independence but was a past opponent of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), was re-elected as president of Kosovo by the parliament. Ramush Haradinaj, a former KLA commander whom Albanians consider a war hero but whom Serbs insist is a war criminal, was elected as the prime minister of Kosovo. Both the political leadership and virtually the entire Albanian population favor independence.
In February 2005, Serbian President Boris Tadic repeated his long-standing declaration of Serbia's right to retain the Kosovo province. Tadic also declared that he would not consent to its independence on any account, and would in fact protect the rights of the Serbs in the region.
In March 2005, Kosovo Prime Minister Haradinaj was indicted by a UN tribunal for war crimes and resigned from his position to face trial in The Hague. He was charged with acts committed against Serbian civilians as a senior commander fighting against Serbian forces during the war. The indictment infuriated Kosovo Albanians, and the region remained tense after his resignation. Though he has since pleaded not guilty to 37 counts of war crimes, he could face life in prison if found guilty of any of the charges.
The day after Prime Minister Haradinaj's plea, President Rugova narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb exploded beside his convoy as he made his way to a meeting with European Union (EU) representatives in Pristina, Kosovo's capital. This was the second attack on Rugova in two years.
The EU plans to keep up its humanitarian and economic aid program, but only if a final status for Kosovo can be reached among political leaders. Discussions on Kosovo's final status will occur later this summer.
In January 2005, the US denied $10 million in aid to Serbia because of its lack of cooperation in the arrest of Serbian war criminals. But since then, Serbia has helped in the capture and extradition of a number of suspects, and in June 2005, the US lifted the ban on aid.
US foreign policy experts believe that Kosovo's precarious standing could potentially lead to more political and economic problems. Its status as a Serbian province under UN supervision impedes its participation in the international banking system and prohibits it from creating independent banks.
Furthermore, experts are wary of ongoing tensions between the Serbs and ethnic Albanians within Kosovo and the potential for another full-fledged conflict, especially due to the delay in finalizing its status. Some experts believe that independence may be the only way to quell violence and establish peace.
US GUN LAWS
In the aftermath of September 11, gun legislation continues to be contested and remains an intensely debated topic.
In September 2004, ten years after the assault weapons ban was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, it expired when Congress failed to renew. The ban had been placed on 19 military-style semiautomatic weapons.
That same month, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new law banning the .50 caliber BMG rifle. California is the first state to ban this class of long-range rifles, and it is now illegal to produce, sell, deal or import these guns within the state. Those who already own BMG rifles will have to register their firearms by April 30, 2006 if they wish to avoid facing misdemeanor charges.
On May 25, 2005, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a Firearms Act (SB 1333) which addresses the gun show loophole. The legislation mandates that background checks must be conducted on all gun buyers before the purchase of a weapon at private gun shows. Governor Rod Blagojevich has announced his intention to sign SB 1333 into law.
The issue of how long to preserve records of gun purchases has fueled a debate at the federal level. FBI officials and some lawmakers claim that restricting gun purchase records may hinder police efforts to track down and capture terrorists. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft argued that using records for these purposes would violate the federal law regarding the instant background check system and could lead to privacy and Second Amendment violations. In March of 2005, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) proposed a bill called the "Terrorist Apprehension and Record Retention Act" that would keeping all records of any firearms purchased by a suspected terrorist for at least ten years. It has since been submitted to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Be Not Afraid, For You Have Sons in America:

2006-01-16T15:51:00.000-08:00

It was not the most efficient way to build an army — hand delivering walkie-talkies, flying halfway around the world with a few thousand dollars in cash to buy some AK-47s, while at the same time running a roofing business and battling Bajram Curri's thugs — but somehow it worked. With Florin's efforts, and those of the Homeland Calling Fund's European fundraisers, the KLA continued to function. In spite of the increased Serb border patrols, a communication network bought at RadioShack, and a limited arms supply interrupted by fellow Albanians in both official and unofficial capacities, the weapons-smuggling convoys continued to penetrate into Kosovo. Night after night, the KLA grew bigger as Albanians across Kosovo took up arms and declared themselves loyal to the KLA.
Before long, uniformed KLA soldiers were visible in the outskirts of most towns across the province, building bunkers and setting up roadblocks. They didn't look very elegant. The men were dressed in a mishmash of camouflage that reflected the countries that had significant Albanian communities. Their guns were mostly AK-47s and hunting rifles. Their bunkers were made out of tree branches, rocks, tablecloths, and whatever else they could find rummaging through their houses. They made roadblocks out of old tractors, trucks, farm tools, tires, bales of hay, and bulldozers. But they were the most welcome presence on the ground that Kosovo Albanians had ever seen.
Suddenly what had always seemed impossible now seemed possible. The Albanians outnumbered the Serbs nine to one, and virtually every one of them was supporting the KLA. Their fear of the police seemed to diminish by the day. The guerrillas seemed to grow bolder and bolder in challenging the police. Soon, they were moving to within a few hundred yards of sandbagged police checkpoints and firing regularly on police convoys. They dug trenches on ridgetops and manned them with machine guns overlooking Serb positions. In one village, they even sent a note to the police station daring the officers to come and get them. By the end of April, the attacks and counterattacks had grown so frequent that the rap-rap-rap of automatic weapons was constant in the countryside. Kosovo was at war.

Kosovo Liberation Army disarms to meet midnight deadline

2006-01-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

PRISTINA, Kosovo (CNN) -- NATO's peacekeeping force in Kosovo said Wednesday it was satisfied that the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army would meet a midnight deadline to hand in its heavy arms.
The KLA and NATO's Kosovo implementation force, KFOR, signed an agreement June 21 stipulating that all heavy weapons must be placed in designated storage sites by July 22.
Additionally, KLA soldiers must hand over 30 percent of their small machine guns and vacate their military positions.
KLA soldiers paraded Wednesday behind the fences of a base in Komorane, one of a handful of NATO-approved "assembly areas" where KLA members can keep their smaller weapons. Anything larger than a hand-held machine gun must be stored at weapons collection sites guarded by KFOR troops.
"We will do as our headquarters instructs," one commander told CNN. "But we will never work against the interests of the Liberation Army and the Albanian people."
Although KFOR has confiscated KLA weapons on several recent occasions, KFOR commander Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson said last week that he was "broadly satisfied" with the disarmament process.
The KLA is expected to hand over its remaining weapons and be out of uniform in two months. Under the June 21 agreement, KFOR promised to give "consideration" to the idea of a Kosovo National Guard, something the KLA insists upon.
"Kosovo cannot be imagined without a defensive force," said KLA political leader Hasim Thaci.
"We believe it will not just be a national guard, but we believe it will be an army of Kosovo whose character will not be a liberating one, but a defensive one," he said.

Kosovo Liberation Army emerges from the shadows

2006-01-12T15:48:00.000-08:00

By South East European reporter, Ana Karakusevic.

There is still little reliable information about the size and the structure of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The clandestine group first emerged in 1996, when it claimed responsibility for a series of bomb attacks in Kosovo.
In the past year, the KLA is believed to have killed dozens of Kosovo Serbs and Albanians whom it accuses of collaborating with the Serbian authorities.
Members of the KLA were rarely seen in public until late last year, when three heavily-armed and masked men appeared at a funeral of a Kosovo Albanian shot by Serbian police.
The KLA says it has captured a large amount of military equipment, including a helicopter, during clashes with Serbian police and army units.
Until recently, the main support - both political and financial - for the KLA came from Kosovo Albanian emigres in Western Europe and the US.
However, as the long-standing tensions in Kosovo increasingly erupted into open clashes, the support for the KLA among Kosovo Albanians started to grow. Many of them have become impatient with the failure of the peaceful resistance advocated by their political leadership.
Problems for the political leadership
If the emergence - and apparent military success - of the KLA presented Kosovo Albanians with a stark choice, it could also be said to force the hand of their political leadership.
Support for violent tactics could growThe leader of the Kosovo Albanians, Ibrahim Rugova, has condemned the actions of the KLA, but stopped short of denouncing them as a terrorist organisation, as urged by the US.
The main question, though, is whether the actions of the KLA will bring about a change in the position of the ethnic Albanian political leadership in Kosovo.
Until now, Mr Rugova and his followers have advocated dialogue with the Serbian authorities, under international supervision. This seems to be the preferred option of the main international players as well, but has so far been rejected by Belgrade.
If the Serbian authorities continue to regard Kosovo as an internal - rather than an international - problem, the Kosovo Albanian leadership may have little choice but to abandon its peaceful option.

KOSOVA LIBERATION ARMY (KLA)

2005-12-31T19:29:00.000-08:00

KOSOVA LIBERATION ARMY (KLA)

In 1998, briefly after the end of the war in Bosnia, when it became clear to many Albanians in Kosovo that the international community was not prepared to intervene on their behalf, first reports emerged from Kosovo describing a shady "Kosovo Liberation Army." They carried out attacks against Serbian police and more importantly against Albanian "collaborators." At this stage there were suspicions that this movement might have been the brainchild of Serbian authorities to discredit the so-far peaceful movement of the Kosovar Albanians. It turned out that the movement was indigenous, representing only a small group of Albanians of the province. Much changed since March 1998. The brutal reaction of the Serbian police and paramilitaries to the uprising of the UÇK in the Drenica reason in central Kosovo gave the movement rising support.
Increasingly, the Kosovo Liberation Army was transformed into a popular guerilla movement. The heavy handed tactics of the Yugoslav forces, targeting the UÇK through the population, created the base of support necessary for the movement to become a political factor impossible to ignore. While this happened, the Western Countries stood by silently, the protestes remained muffled, giving the Yugoslav president Slobodan Miloševic the impression that he can pursue this policy undisturbed. Only after a summer of pushing back the UÇK from its hasty territorial gains, the international community began to take interest in the events in Kosovo. The agreement between American special envoy Richard Holbrooke and the Yugoslav president reached in October 1998 was the result of belated foreign interest. The delay gave the Kosovo Liberation Army the power to sideline Ibrahim Rugova, the unofficially elected president of the Albanians of the province. It also created a state of crisis in the country need by Slobodan Miloševic to stabilize his power and suppress the opposition. The war in Kosovo coincided with the most suppressive laws yet against the media and the universities, the main sources of opposition in the country.
The agreement on Kosovo not only forsaw a cease-fire and a withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from the province, but also the creation of a 2,000 strong OSCE mission to verify the cease-fire. After 5 months still only 1,400 observers had been sent to the region. Instead of creating a strong, well-stocked mission, the Verification mission could not fulfill its goal. Instead of seeking to resolve the crisis, which was waiting to break out again, it took a predictable massacre in Raçak to move international negotiator to propose a peace plan. Instead of making the future of Kosovo open to direct and substantial negotiations, the Contact group presented a plan, which was many ways inadequate, offered only conjunction with the stationing of NATO troops in Kosovo, hardly an acceptable offer for the Yugoslav government. Not only did it offer an excuse for the Yugoslav government to opt out of the negotiations, it also offered no face saving measures, which could have been sold to the Serbian audience. By March, after having threatened air strikes for three times, NATO brought itself in the situation were it could no longer fail to follow up on its threat without loosing all credibility. The bombings were, however, not flanked by humanitarian support to refugees resulting from the escalation of the conflict.
The air strikes of NATO have eliminated differences between opposition and the government. No organization or party in Serbia can afford to welcome the air strikes. The already weak opposition is today in no position to offer an alternative to Miloševic, largely due to the absence of adequate support from the West. The support for independent media and an alternative civil network would have cost no more than a few Cruise Missiles, not to mention the human price and the physical damage the bombs are inflicting on Yugoslavia.
The overwhelming responsibility for the crimes committed in Kosovo and all the ensuing events lies with the Yugoslav leadership, that is Slobodan Miloševic, and many Serbian intellectuals which for a long time have demonstrated open racist and aggressive nationalist attitudes towards the Albanian population. The Western countries, however, which had the means to prevent the killing, once again failed to act at the right time and with appropriate policies.

UCK Photo

2005-12-30T10:32:00.000-08:00

Ushtria Qlirimtare e Kosoves (UCK) Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)

2005-12-30T10:06:00.000-08:00

Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA]

Ushtria Clirimtare E Kosoves [UCK]

During the war in former Yugoslavia, over 5,000 ethnic Albanians fought together with Croat and Muslim military formations. When the policy of non-violent resistance failed to make any progress, some ethnic Albanians turned to violence. Rugova's position began to be undermined when the Kosovo Question was left off the agenda at the Dayton Peace talks in November 1995. Younger Kosovars increasingly began to ask why they should hold fast to nonviolence when the Bosnian Serbs were rewarded for their violence and brutality with their own quasi-state within Bosnia. The Kosovo Liberation Army -- KLA in English acronym or UCK in the Albanian acronym -- first appeared in Macedonia in 1992. In 1995 the beginnings of armed resistance to the Serbs appeared, when the KLA carried out isolated attacks on Serbian police. The KLA appeared for the first time in public in June 1996, assuming reponsibility for a series of acts of sabotage committed against the police stations and policemen in Kosovo and Metohija. After these bombings, Serb authorities named it a terrorist organization. Since 1997 the Kosovo Liberation Army has conducted attacks on Serbian police and other officials. They did not attack Yugoslave Army military facilities, rather, their emphasis was ambushes of police patrols and attacks on Albanians who collaborated with Serbian authorities.
The Kosovo Liberation Army is not a unified military organization subordinated to a political party or civil authority, but rather functions as a guerilla movement consisting of lightly armed fighters. However, its members carry visible insignia and execute the assignments of their command in a disciplined way. The KLA's strength has swelled from about 500 active members at the beginning of 1998 to a force of at least a few thousand men [though some estimates suggest that there are as many as 12,000 to 20,000 armed guerrillas]. The KLA is organized in small compartmentalized cells rather than a single large rebel movement. The KLA's strength is apparently divided between a maneuverable strike nucleus of a few hundred trained commandos, and the much larger number of locally organized members active throughout the region. The KLA typically performs actions in smaller groups, at times as few as three to five men.
Many members of KLA units are professionally trained, and include former Yugoslav army soldiers. The group functions very professionally underground, due in part to fact that some of its leaders are former members of UDBA [Internal State Security Service], the army and the police.

The Kosovo Liberation Army is alleged by Serbia to include about 1,000 foreign mercenaries from Albania, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Muslims) and Croatia. Among the mercenaries it is alleged that there also British and German instructors. Most of these mercenaries are said to be Albanian nationals, especially former Albanian army officers, policemen and members of the state security forces. According to Serbian accounts, the primary KLA training camps in Albania are Ljabinot near Tirana, Tropoja near the Yugoslav-Albanian border, Kuks and Bajram Curi near the Yugoslav-Albanian border. Serbia claims that these locations are also the headquarters for the command and units of the Albanian army and police for the northeastern part of Albania and the centers for recruiting followers of the overthrown Albanian president Sali Berisha.
The KLA initially conducted hit-and-run attacks against the Serbian special forces police operating in the province. Typically, KLA units fire on Serbian patrols, trying to draw them into the woods where they will be ambushed. Initially, the buildings and personnel of the Serbian Special Police were not targeted, nor were high police officials and police vehicles. After the March 1998 Drenica massacre the KLO engaged in a wider scope of actions. In April and May 1998 there were a number of attacks on police units and facilities and attacks on the Military Police working with the Serbian police. In May and June 1998 larger-scale actions consisted actions to defend villages on important crossroads in order to form in the west of Kosovo [between Pec and Djakovica] a line of liberated territories and to disrupt communications between local police and Army units and the main forces in eastern Kosovo. The Yugoslav Army responded to these actions with heavy weaponry. Other KLA actions in this period included attacks on roads to isolate dispersed police stations and control points needing daily supplies.
Until March 1998 the KLO used only light arms, but more recently KLA forces have been armed with assault rifles, along with Ambrust and Soviet-designed RPG shoulder-fired anti-tank rocket launchers, mortars, recoilless rifles, anti-aircraft machineguns, and mortars. The KLA equipment includes some weapons from the Second World War, such as PPS-41 automatic rifles and the MP-40, "Mosine-Nagant", though the inventory of modern arms, ammunition, telecommunication equipment, and other supplies is much larger. The KLA has obtained weapons used by the former Yugoslav People's Army, as well as other weapons produced in China and Singapore.
The KLA is said to have two command centers -- one is abroad, and the other center is in Pristina, where the KLA has a well-developed logistics base. Direct contact with Kosovo and Metohija is maintained via Gnjilane, Vitina, Glogovac and Pristina. It is evident that the KLA has a well-organized surveillance apparatus, and that an organized word of mouth messenger service is operating to supplement established radio communications links.
Both Rugova and the KLA have insisted upon independence for Kosovo. The KLA's professed long-term goal is to unite the Albanian populations of Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania into a greater Albania. Until recently, the Kosovars viewed granting Kosovo the status of a third republic within Yugoslavia as a transitional stage in achieving Kosovo's independence. This option was attractive to the international community as it did not result in changing the international border. But Serbia rejected this concept, taking the position that Kosovo remained Serbia's internal matter. And by mid-1998 the Kosovar view of this concept was equally negative, with an international protectorate and demilitarization seen as interim steps towards independence.
Aside from causing casualties and deaths, the armed resistance provided Milosevic the pretext for his brutal crack-down. In late February 1998, following an unprecedented series of clashes in Kosovo between Serbian police forces and members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Serbian police raided villages in Kosovo's Drenica region, a KLA stronghold. The police reportedly burned homes and killed dozens of ethnic Albanians in these raids. Thousands of ethnic Albanians in Pristina protested Serb police actions, and were subsequently attacked by the police with tear gas, water cannons, and clubs. As a result of the fighting, thousands of Kosovar Albanians were displaced from their homes, many taking refuge with host families, while a smaller proportion (several thousand) took to the hills and forests.
Over the summer of 1998 large-scale fighting broke out, resulting in the displacement of some 300,000 people. Since July 1998 Milosevic steadily increased the level of violence against the Albanian majority. Estimates put the number of deaths at several hundred. The local economy collapsed due to the Serbian embargo which began in early 1998. A ceasefire was agreed in October 1998 which enabled refugees to find shelter, averting an impending humanitarian crisis over the winter. A Verification Mission was deployed under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). However, violence continued and the situation worsened significantly in January 1999. A peace conference, held in Paris, broke up on 19 March with the refusal of the Yugoslav delegation to accept a peaceful settlement. At 1900 hours GMT on 24 March, NATO forces began air operations over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Milosevic's estimate that he could wipe out the KLA in five to seven days was wrong. As of early May 1999 the KLA had increased in size to as much as 8,000 or 10,000, an increase of several thousand combatants. The number of supporters has also risen to about 20,000. As Serbian military units are destroyed or driven into hiding by NATO air operations, there is a resurgence of UCK activity. The hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Kosovar Albanians are taking shelter in locations which often coincide with many of the UCK controlled areas, and it appears that some sanctuary is being provided for these people within these areas. The KLA is receiving recruits from the refugee population, in Albania primarily, and they are training aggressively. They have a broader base of support than they had before, and they continue to acquire or gather weapons, some of which they gather from Serb forces if they win the engagements. The KLA is attacking, blowing up vehicles, and inflicting fatalities on the VJ and the MUP with increasing regularity. Generally the KLA can't move freely, and they do not control extensive amounts of territory.
The KLA increased rather dramatically in size in the first two months of Operation Allied Force. On March 24th the US Government estimated that they had a total of 6,000 to 8,000 people in Kosovo and Albania with perhaps 2,000 to 4,000 in Kosovo -- up to half may have been in Kosovo at any one time. By late May the US Government estimated that the KLA had grown to a total of 17,000 to 20,000 in both Kosovo and Albania, with perhaps as many as 15,000 in Kosovo at any one time. According to US Government estimates, KLA training had improved, the quality of the recruits was getting better, and the quality of weaponry was also getting better. To the extent the KLA succeeded in battle, they were able to acquire some weapons from the Serb forces -- both the army forces [VJ] and the special police [MUP]. The KLA also continued to acquire weapons on world markets.