Kosovo Liberation Army

Kosovo Liberation Army
Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës
LeadersAdem Jashari †
Hamëz Jashari †
Sali Çekaj †
Zahir Pajaziti †
Hashim Thaçi
Agim Çeku
Fatmir Limaj
Ramush Haradinaj
Kadri Veseli
Sylejman Selimi
Rexhep Selimi
Bekim Berisha †
Naim Beka
Agim Ramadani †
Foundation17 November 1994 (1994-11-17)[1]
Dates of operation1990s–20 September 1999 (est. 1992–93[2][3] but relatively passive until 1996)
Active regions
IdeologyAlbanian nationalism[4][5][6]
Greater Albania[a]
Kosovo–Albania unionism
Size12,000–20,000,[11] 20,000,[12] 24,000 (April–May 1999),[13] or 25,000–30,000[14]
Allies Albania
Opponents
Battles and wars
Flag

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA; Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës [uʃˈtɾija t͡ʃliɾimˈtaɾɛ ɛ ˈkɔsɔvəs], UÇK) was an ethnic Albanian separatist militia that sought the separation of Kosovo, the vast majority of which is inhabited by Albanians, from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and Serbia during the 1990s. Albanian nationalism was a central tenet of the KLA and many in its ranks supported the creation of a Greater Albania, which would encompass all Albanians in the Balkans, stressing Albanian culture, ethnicity and nation.

Military precursors to the KLA began in the late 1980s with armed resistance to Yugoslav police trying to take Albanian activists in custody.[15] By the early 1990s there were attacks on police forces and secret-service officials who abused Albanian civilians.[15] By mid-1998 the KLA was involved in frontal battle though it was outnumbered and outgunned.[15] Conflict escalated from 1997 onward due to the Yugoslav army retaliating with a crackdown in the region which resulted in population displacements.[16][17] The bloodshed, ethnic cleansing of thousands of Albanians driving them into neighbouring countries and the potential of it to destabilize the region provoked intervention by international organizations, such as the United Nations, NATO and INGOs.[18][19] NATO conducted a bombing campaign against Yugoslav forces and provided air support to KLA.[20]

In September 1999, with the fighting over and an international force in place within Kosovo, the KLA was officially disbanded and thousands of its members entered the Kosovo Protection Corps, a civilian emergency protection body that replaced the KLA and Kosovo Police Force, as foreseen in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. The ending of the Kosovo war resulted in the emergence of offshoot guerilla groups and political organisations from the KLA continuing violent struggles in southern Serbia (1999–2001) and northwestern Macedonia (2001), which resulted in peace talks and greater Albanian rights.[21] Former KLA leaders also entered politics, some of them reaching high-ranking offices.

The KLA received large funds from Albanian diaspora organizations. There have been allegations that it used narcoterrorism to finance its operations.[22][23] Abuses and war crimes were committed by the KLA during and after the conflict, such as massacres of civilians, prison camps and destruction of cultural heritage sites.[24] In April 2014, the Assembly of Kosovo considered and approved the establishment of a special court to try cases involving crimes and other serious abuses allegedly committed in 1999–2000 by members of the KLA.[25] In June 2020 the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor's Office filed indictments for crimes against humanity and war crimes against a number of former KLA members, including the former president of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi.[26]

  1. ^ "17 nëntori shënon Ditën e Pagëzimit të UÇK-së" [17 November marks the Baptism Day of the KLA]. Sinjali.com (in Albanian). 17 November 2022.
  2. ^ Eriksson, Mikael; Kostić, Roland (15 February 2013). Mediation and Liberal Peacebuilding: Peace from the Ashes of War?. Routledge. pp. 43–. ISBN 978-1-136-18916-6.
  3. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/293283.stm [bare URL]
  4. ^ Yoshihara 2006, p. 68.
  5. ^ Perritt 2008, p. 29.
  6. ^ Koktsidis & Dam 2008, pp. 165–166.
  7. ^ State-building in Kosovo. A plural policing perspective. Maklu. 5 February 2015. p. 53. ISBN 9789046607497.
  8. ^ Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U. S. Intervention. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. 2012. p. 69. ISBN 9780262305129.
  9. ^ Dictionary of Genocide. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2008. p. 249. ISBN 9780313346415.
  10. ^ "Albanian Insurgents Keep NATO Forces Busy". Time. 6 March 2001.
  11. ^ Hockenos, Paul (2003). Homeland Calling: Exile Patriotism & the Balkan Wars. Cornell University Press. p. 255. ISBN 0-8014-4158-7.
  12. ^ Bartrop 2016, p. 120.
  13. ^ Hosmer, Stephen T. (2 July 2001). The Conflict Over Kosovo: Why Milosevic Decided to Settle When He Did. Rand Corporation. pp. 88–. ISBN 978-0-8330-3238-6.
  14. ^ Bodansky, Yossef (4 May 2011). bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America. Crown Publishing Group. pp. 398–403. ISBN 978-0-307-79772-8.
  15. ^ a b c Perritt 2008, p. 62.
  16. ^ Yoshihara 2006, pp. 67–68.
  17. ^ Goldman, Minton F. (1997). Revolution and change in Central and Eastern Europe: Political, economic, and social challenges. Armonk: ME Sharpe. pp. 308, 373. ISBN 9780765639011.
  18. ^ Jordan, Robert S. (2001). International organizations: A comparative approach to the management of cooperation. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 129. ISBN 9780275965495.
  19. ^ Yoshihara 2006, p. 71.
  20. ^ "NATO Gives Air Support to KLA Forces". The Washington Post. 2 June 1999.
  21. ^ Koktsidis & Dam 2008, p. 161.
  22. ^ Narco-terrorism: international drug trafficking and terrorism, a dangerous mix : hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, One Hundred Eighth Congress, first session. United States Senate U.S. G.P.O. 20 May 2003. p. 111.
  23. ^ Perritt 2008, pp. 88–93.
  24. ^ UNDER ORDERS: War Crimes in Kosovo. executive summary Archived 13 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine. hrw.org (2001)
  25. ^ "Kosovo court to be established in The Hague". Government of the Netherlands. 15 January 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC_06-24-2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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