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Operation Fenix [3] was an operation launched by militants of the KLA's "cobra" unit, which conducted two ambushes out of Albanian territory near the border outpost of Koshare on Yugoslav forces. Six Yugoslav Army personnel were killed. The KLA suffered no casualties, and captured Yugoslav ammunition, equipment and looted the dead soldiers. [4]
In 1989, Belgrade abolished self-rule in Serbia's two autonomous provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo. [5] Kosovo, a province inhabited predominantly by ethnic Albanians, was of great historical and cultural significance to Serbs. [6] Prior to the mid-19th century they had formed a majority in the province, but by 1990 represented only about 10 percent of the population. [7] Alarmed by their dwindling numbers, the province's Serbs began to fear they were being "squeezed out" by the Albanians, with whom ethnic tensions had been brewing since the early 1980s. [8] As soon as Kosovo's autonomy was abolished, a minority government run by Serbs and Montenegrins was appointed by Serbian President Slobodan Milošević to oversee the province, enforced by thousands of heavily armed paramilitaries from Serbia-proper. Albanian culture was systematically repressed and hundreds of thousands of Albanians working in state-owned companies lost their jobs. [5]
In 1996, a ragtag group of Albanian nationalists calling themselves the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began attacking the Yugoslav Army (Serbo-Croatian Latin : Vojska Jugoslavije; VJ) and the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Ministarstvo unutrašnjih poslova; MUP) in Kosovo. Their goal was to separate the province from the rest of Yugoslavia, which following the separation of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1991–92, became a rump federation made up of Serbia and Montenegro. At first the KLA carried out hit-and-run attacks: 31 in 1996, 55 in 1997, and 66 in January and February 1998 alone. [9] The group quickly gained popularity among young Kosovo Albanians, many of whom favored a more aggressive approach and rejected the non-violent resistance of politician Ibrahim Rugova. [10] It received a significant boost in 1997 when civil unrest in neighboring Albania led to thousands of weapons from the Albanian Army's depots being looted. Many of these weapons ended up in the hands of the KLA. [11] The group's popularity skyrocketed after the VJ and MUP attacked the compound of KLA leader Adem Jashari in March 1998, killing him, his closest associates and most of his extended family. The attack motivated thousands of young Kosovo Albanians to join the KLA, fueling the Kosovar uprising that eventually erupted in the spring of 1998. [12]
The men, who were part of the KLA's "Cobra" unit, first prepared for the ambush by laying anti tank mines. [13] Later, a Yugoslav tank came and detonated one of the anti tank mines. The blast killed one soldier and injured four others. A Yugoslav army helicopter was sent out to pick up the surviving soldiers, but it was fired upon by the KLA. [14] A second attack happened shortly after, this time close to the Košare border outpost. The KLA fighters ambushed a Yugoslav army vehicle. They opened fire upon the vehicle and threw hand grenades at it, killing five Yugoslav soldiers and wounding two more. [15] They then collected ammunition and equipment from the vehicle and soldiers and robbed the dead of their personal belongings. The KLA then opened fire to another helicopter which came to evacuate the wounded. [16]
The higher court in the southern Serbian city of Niš on February 17, 2016, found Sicer Maloku, Gashi Xhafer, Demush Gacaferi, Deme Maloku, Agron Isufi, Anton Cuni, Rabit Alija and Rrustem Berisha guilty of acts of terrorism and ordered each of them to be jailed for 15 years for their involvement in two attacks on Yugoslav Army troops in Kosare on the same day in 1998. Rrustem Berisha is currently a Kosovar politician and military officer. He is currently the Minister of Defense of Kosovo. he responded to the conviction by saying this; “We had uniforms. We were soldiers and we fought against soldiers. They [the Yugoslav Army] killed civilians including elderly people, children and women." [17] Former Prime Minister of Kosovo Isa Mustafa said that a Serbian court's decision to convict eight former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters of killing Yugoslav Army troops in September 1998 was a farce. [18] Mustafa said that courts in Serbia have no right to judge Kosovo's citizens and even less to try former KLA fighters who were involved in what he called a liberation war and respected the laws and customs of warfare.
None of the former KLA militants have served the sentence they were given. [19]
The Kosovo Liberation Army 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.
The Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac was an Albanian militant insurgent group fighting for separation from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for three municipalities: Preševo, Medveđa, and Bujanovac, home to most of the Albanians in south Serbia, adjacent to Kosovo. Of the three municipalities, two have an ethnic Albanian majority, whilst Medveđa has a significant minority of them.
The Račak massacre or Račak operation was the massacre of 45 Kosovo Albanians that took place in the village of Račak in central Kosovo in January 1999. The massacre was perpetrated by Serbian security forces in response to Albanian separatist activity in the region. The Serbian government refused to let a war crimes prosecutor visit the site, and maintained that the casualties were all members of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) killed in combat with state security forces.
Haradin Bala, also known as Shala, was a Kosovo Albanian former commander of the Albanian militant organization Kosovo Liberation Army.
Adem Jashari was one of the founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a Kosovo Albanian separatist militia which fought for the secession of Kosovo from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1990s.
The Armed Forces of the Republic of Kosova was a military of Republic of Kosova, paramilitary organization and military wing of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), the main right-wing party in Kosovo established by Ibrahim Rugova and Bujar Bukoshi. It was active during the Kosovo War from August 1998 until the war's end in June 1999.
The Battle of Košare was fought during the Kosovo War between the FR Yugoslav Forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the latter supported by the NATO air forces and Albanian Army. The battle was fought around Košare on the border between FR Yugoslavia and Albania from 9 April 1999 until 10 June 1999 during the NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia.
Agim Ramadani also known with nickname "KATANA", was an Albanian commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an ethnic Albanian paramilitary organization that sought the independence of Kosovo from Serbia. He was killed in action during the Battle of Košare. After the war, he was declared Hero of Kosovo.
The Battle of Junik was fought during the Kosovo War between the ethnic Albanian paramilitary organization known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the security forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia over the town of Junik in western Kosovo.
The Insurgency in Kosovo began in 1995, following the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War. In 1996, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began attacking Serbian governmental buildings and police stations. This insurgency would lead to the more intense Kosovo War in February 1998.
On December 14, 1998, the Yugoslav Army (VJ) ambushed a group of 140 Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) militants attempting to smuggle weapons and supplies from their base in Albania into the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A five-hour battle ensued, ending with the deaths of 36 militants and the capture of a further nine. Dozens more fled back to Albania, abandoning large quantities of weapons and supplies, which the Yugoslav authorities subsequently seized. The ambush was the most serious war-related incident in Kosovo since a U.S.-negotiated truce took effect two months before. It came on the heels of increasing tensions in the province, where inter-ethnic violence had been escalating steadily since early 1995.
On the morning of April 23, 1998, a band of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters was ambushed by a much smaller group of Yugoslav Army (VJ) border guards near the Košare outpost, just west of Dečani. The fighters had been trying to smuggle weapons and supplies into Kosovo via northern Albania. Nineteen were killed in the ensuing attack, and a further two were captured. The VJ did not sustain any casualties. Some of the militants retreated back to Albania, while others managed to break through the ambush and make it past the Yugoslav border, into Kosovo. Following the clash, the VJ confiscated a large quantity of arms that the militants had been transporting.
On July 18, 1998 a Yugoslav Army (VJ) border patrol ambushed a column of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) insurgents and foreign mujahideen just west of Dečani, on the frontier between Albania and Yugoslavia. The ambush resulted in the deaths of four KLA fighters and 18 mujahideen, most of whom were citizens of Saudi Arabia. Twelve militants were wounded, and a further six were arrested by the Yugoslav authorities and charged with illegal entry and gunrunning. The VJ reported seizing a significant amount of arms and ammunition that the militants had been smuggling. One Yugoslav border guard was seriously wounded in the clash.
The Battle of Lumë, also referred by the Albanians as the Uprising of Lumë, was a series of clashes between the Albanian locals of the region of Lumë in Ottoman Albania against the invading Serbian army in 1912 during the First Balkan War period. As the Kingdom of Serbia sought to gain access to the Adriatic Sea, the Serbian army met significant resistance from Albanian militia in the Luma region, resulting in the defeat of the Serbian forces. In securing the central Adriatic coast in Albania, Albanian political figureheads were able to disembark in Durrës and proceed with their plans for the eventual Albanian Declaration of Independence.
Rrustem Berisha is a Kosovar politician and military officer. He was Minister of Defense in Haradinaj cabinet. During the Yugoslav Wars, he fought in the Croatian War of Independence and the Kosovo War. He was a commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the Battle of Košare.
Sali Çekaj was a Kosovo Albanian commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kosovo (FARK) and Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). He was killed at the Battle of Košare on 19 April, 1999 during the fighting with Yugoslav forces. After the Kosovo War, he was declared Hero of Kosovo.
Rustem Mustafa, also known Remi, was the former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army's (KLA) Llap Operational Zone. Born in Kosovo, Mustafa played a significant role in the armed conflict between Serbian forces and the KLA during the late 1990s.
Operation Eagle was a military operation by the "Kobra Unit" of the Kosovo Liberation Army in the villages of Voksh and Sllup against Yugoslav forces. The engagement resulted in the deaths of six Yugoslav policemen and soldiers, meanwhile the KLA sufferred no casualties. The KLA also managed to capture Yugoslav ammunition and equipment, before withdrawing back to the Yugoslav-Albanian border.
The Battle of Đocaj and Jasić also known as the Battle of Zharra took place during the Kosovo War between the ethnic Albanian paramilitary organization known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the security forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia over the villages of Đocaj and Jasić in the Junik municipality in western Kosovo.
The Zllash torture incident occurred during the Kosovo War, involving the torture of six individuals suspected of collaboration, ultimately resulting in the murder of one victim. The incident was carried out by the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK), specifically the Guerria-BIA unit under the leadership of Salih Mustafa.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)A Serbian court delivers its verdict this week in the case of eight former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters accused of terrorism for ambushing and killing Yugoslav Army troops in 1998.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)The indictment alleges that the eight accused men – Sicer Maloku, Gashi Xhafer, Demush Gacaferi, Deme Maloku, Agron Isufi, Anton Cuni, Rabit Alija and Rrustem Berisha – first prepared an ambush for Yugoslav Army border troops by laying anti-tank mines.
A Yugoslav Army tank detonated the mine, killing one soldier and wounding four others, and then the KLA fighters opened fire on an army helicopter that arrived to take away the casualties, the charges claim.
This was followed by a second attack shortly afterwards close to the Kosare border post, when the accused set another ambush and opened fire on a Yugoslav Army vehicle, throwing hand grenades and killing five soldiers and wounding two more, the prosecution alleges.
The KLA fighters – who attacked from Albanian territory – then robbed the soldiers and targeted another helicopter that came to evacuate the wounded, according to the indictment.
"We had uniforms. We were soldiers and we fought against soldiers. They [the Yugoslav Army] killed civilians including elderly people, children and women," Berisha said.
Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said that a Serbian court's decision to convict eight former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters of killing Yugoslav Army troops in September 1998 was a farce.
Mustafa said on Thursday that courts in Serbia have no right to judge Kosovo's citizens and even less to try former KLA fighters who were involved in what he called a liberation war and respected the laws and customs of warfare. "The government of Republic of Kosovo will inform [its] international partners about this tendency and will ask them to put pressure on Serbia to stop such court farces and the pursuing of citizens of the Kosovo Republic under baseless charges [which are] totally outside international judicial standards," Mustafa said during a government meeting. He added that Wednesday's verdict convicting the eight former KLA fighters, which handed down by a court in the Serbian city of Nis, will not have any legal impact because Serbian courts does not have a jurisdiction over Kosovo citizens. "Kosovo is an independent country. For Serbia, the citizens of Republic of Kosovo are foreign citizens," Mustafa said. The higher court in Nis on Wednesday found the former KLA members guilty of acts of terrorism for ambushing and killing Yugoslav Army troops in Kosare in Kosovo in September 1998. The former KLA men – Shiqer Maloku, Xhafer Gashi, Demush Gacaferi, Deme Maloku, Agron Isufi, Anton Cuni, Rabit Alija and Rrustem Berisha – were convicted in absentia and given prison sentences of 15 years each.