Kosovo Liberation Army

The Kosovo Liberation Army (abbreviated KLA; Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës—UÇK) was an ethnic-Albanian paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from Yugoslavia during the 1990s. Its campaign against Yugoslav (south Slavs) security forces precipitated a major Yugoslav military crackdown which led to the Kosovo War of 1998–1999. Military intervention by Yugoslav security forces led by Slobodan Milošević and Serb militia within Kosovo in response to diverse operations led by the KLA prompted an exodus of Kosovar Albanians/Serbs and a refugee crisis that eventually caused NATO to intervene militarily in order to stop what was widely identified as an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing. Later the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) legally found that Serbia "use[d] violence and terror to force a significant number of Kosovo Albanians from their homes and across the borders, in order for the state authorities to maintain control over Kosovo... This campaign was conducted by army and Interior Ministry police forces (MUP) under the control of FRY and Serbian authorities, who were responsible for mass expulsions of Kosovo Albanian civilians from their homes, as well as incidents of killings, sexual assault, and the intentional destruction of mosques."

The conflict was ended by an "almost-imposed" negotiated agreement that requested the UN to take over the administration and political process, including local institutional building and determine the final status of the region.

The United States then cultivated diplomatic relationships with the KLA leaders. In 1999 the KLA was officially disbanded and their members entered other armed groups such as various Albanian Macedonian rebels, the UCPMB in the Preševo Valley region and UNMIK instituted NGOs within Kosovo such as the Kosovo Protection Corps (in accordance with UNSC resolution 1244 which required the establishment of a civilian emergency protection body to replace the former KLA) and Kosovo Police Force. Some of the Kosovo Liberation Army leadership opted to enter politics, and by taking advantage of the 1999 confusion they still lead the Albanian faction of the partially recognized Kosovar government.

First attacks
In February 1996 the KLA undertook a series of attacks against police stations and Yugoslav government officers, saying that they had killed Albanian civilians as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign leaded by Slobodan Milošević, which was true. Serbian authorities denounced the KLA as a terrorist organization and increased the number of security forces in the region. This had the counter-productive effect of boosting the credibility of the embryonic KLA among the Kosovo Albanian population.

According to Roland Keith, a field office director of the OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission:

According to the report of the U.S. Committee for Refugees:

The Yugoslav Red Cross had estimated a total of 7,500 refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Kosovo, most of whom were Serb. The UNHCR estimated the figure at 3,000 refugees who had fled to Montenegro and Central Serbia, which were Kosovo Serbs.

The NATO North Atlantic Council had stressed that the Serbians were "the main initiator of the violence" and that it had "launched what appears to be a deliberate campaign of provocation".

Foreign volunteers
The KLA included in its ranks foreign volunteers from Sweden, Italy, Belgium, the UK, Germany, Albania, and the US, and France. 30–40 Volunteers from the Croatian Forces International Volunteers Association also participated in training KLA troops.

The KLA usually rewarded its international volunteers after service with passage home, as a gesture of thanks.

Aftermath (post-1999)
After the war, the KLA was transformed into the Kosovo Protection Corps, which worked alongside NATO forces patrolling the province. The KLA legacy remains powerful within Kosovo. Its former members still play a major role in Kosovar politics.

Ali Ahmeti organized the NLA that fought in the Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia, of former KLA fighters from Kosovo and Macedonia, Albanians from Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac in Serbia, young Albanians from Macedonia, and other foreign countries. The acronym was the same as KLA's in Albanian.

Its former political head Hashim Thaçi is now the leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Prime Minister of Kosovo since January 2008.

The KLA's former military head, Agim Çeku, after the war became Prime Minister of Kosovo. The move caused some controversy in Serbia, as Belgrade regarded him as a war criminal, though he was never indicted by the Hague tribunal.

Ramush Haradinaj, a former KLA commander, served briefly as Prime Minister of Kosovo before he turned himself into the ICTY at The Hague to stand trial on war crimes charges, and was later acquitted of every charge set.

Fatmir Limaj, one of the senior commanders of the KLA, was also tried at The Hague, and was acquitted of all charges in November 2005. He has since been arrested by the EU police in Kosovo on war crimes charges but set free again.

Foreign support
In 1996 the British weekly The European carried an article by a French expert stating that "German civil and military intelligence services have been involved in training and equipping the rebels with the aim of cementing German influence in the Balkan area. (...) The birth of the KLA in 1996 coincided with the appointment of Hansjoerg Geiger as the new head of the BND (German secret Service). (...) The BND men were in charge of selecting recruits for the KLA command structure from the 500,000 Kosovars in Albania." Former senior adviser to the German parliament Matthias Küntzel tried to prove later on that German secret diplomacy had been instrumental in helping the KLA since its creation.

James Bissett, Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania, wrote in 1990 that media reports indicate that "as early as 1998, the Central Intelligence Agency assisted by the British Special Air Service were arming and training Kosovo Liberation Army members in Albania to foment armed rebellion in Kosovo. (...) The hope was that with Kosovo in flames NATO could intervene ..." According to Tim Judah, KLA representatives had already met with American, British, and Swiss intelligence agencies in 1996, and possibly "several years earlier" and according to The Sunday Times, "American intelligence agents have admitted they helped to train the Kosovo Liberation Army before NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia". Intelligence agents denied, however, that they were involved in arming the KLA.

American Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, while opposed to American ground troops in Kosovo, advocated for America providing support to the Kosovo Liberation to help them gain their freedom. He was honored by the Albanian American Civic League at a New Jersey located fundraising event on 23 July 2001. President of the League, Joseph J. DioGuardi, praised Rohrabacher for his support to the Kosovo Liberation Army, saying "He was the first member of Congress to insist that the United States arm the Kosovo Liberation Army, and one of the few members who to this day publicly supports the independence of Kosovo." Rohrabacher gave a speech in support of American equipping the KLA with weaponry, comparing it to French support of America in the Revolutionary War, saying "Based on our own experience, the Kosovo Liberation Army should have been armed." "If the U.S. had armed the KLA in 1998, we would not be where we are today. The 'freedom fighters' would have secured their freedom and Kosovo would be independent."

Reported abuses
There have been reports of war crimes committed by the KLA both during and after the conflict. These have been directed against Serbs, other ethnic minorities (primarily the Roma) and against ethnic Albanians too which collaborated with Serb authorities in the war. According to a 2001 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW):

These reports were later acquitted of all charges.

The KLA engaged in tit-for-tat attacks against Serbian nationalists in Kosovo, reprisals against ethnic Albanians who "collaborated" with the Serbian government, and bombed police stations known to be frequented by Serb officials, to cross the border to gain Kosovo again. This was successful. Reports say most of he KLA's activities were funded by drug running, though this is not true as no evidence has been found to support this accusation.

The Yugoslav authorities regarded the KLA as a terrorist group which seem as a potential threat to the Yugoslav Police, though many European governments did not.

The exact number of victims,(which were Yugoslav authorities or Serbian Police officials) of the KLA is not known.

The Podujevo bus bombing was an attack on a civilian bus in a Serb-populated area near the town of Podujevo, Kosovo on 16 February 2001 by a Kosovar Albanian mob, (not the KLA).

Carla Del Ponte, a long-time ICTY chief prosecutor, claimed in her book The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals that there were instances of organ trafficking in 1999 after the end of the Kosovo War. These allegations were dismissed by Kosovar and Albanian authorities. The allegations have been rejected by Kosovar authorities as fabrications while the ICTY has said "no reliable evidence had been obtained to substantiate the allegations".

In early 2011 the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs viewed a report by Dick Marty on the alleged criminal activities and alleged organ harvesting controversy; however, the Members of Parliament criticized the report, citing no evidence, and Marty responded that a witness protection program was needed in Kosovo before he could provide more details on witnesses because their lives were in danger. Investigations are still being done.

Status as terrorist group
The Yugoslav authorities, under Slobodan Milošević, regarded the KLA a terrorist group. In February 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton's special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, condemned both the actions of Serb government and of the KLA, and described the KLA as, "without any questions, a terrorist group". UN resolution 1160 took a similar stance.

But the 1998 US Department's terrorist list hadn't included the KLA. In March 1998, just one month later Gerbald had to modify his statements to say that KLA had not been classified legally by the U.S. government as a terrorist group, and the US government approached the KLA leaders to make them interlocutors with the Serbs. A Wall Street Journal article claimed later that the US government had in February 1998 removed the KLA from the list of terrorist organizations, a removal that has never been confirmed. France didn't delist the KLA until late 1998, after strong US and UK lobbying.

During the war, the KLA troops collaborated with the NATO troops, and they were qualified by NATO as freedom fighters. In late 1999 the KLA was disbanded and its members entered the Kosovo Protection Corps.

Drug and arms trafficking
The KLA has also been connected to arms trafficking'', with it being responsible for 70% of the heroin smuggled into Western Europe in the 1990s. Interpol's report in the US Congress of 2000:

Although, the KLA were connected to arms trafficking, no evidence were found for this accusation.

General references

 * "KLA Action Fuelled NATO Victory", Jane's Defence Weekly, 16 June 1999
 * "The KLA: Braced to Defend and Control", Jane's Intelligence Review, 1 April 1999
 * "Kosovo's Ceasefire Crumbles As Serb Military Retaliates", Jane's Intelligence Review, 1 February 1999
 * "Another Balkan Bloodbath? Part Two", Jane's Intelligence Review, 1 March 1998
 * "Albanians Attack Serb Targets", Jane's Defence Weekly, 4 September 1996
 * "The Kosovo Liberation Army and the Future of Kosovo", James H. Anderson and James Phillips, 13 May 1999, Heritage Foundation, Heritage Foundation (Washington, USA)