Kosovo Protection Corps Under Fire

AIM Pristina, May 31, 2001

One May morning the U.N police force in Kosovo announced that a high ranking official of the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) had been arrested on suspicion of having participated in an apparently politically motivated murder in the southern town of Prizren a year ago. Namely, in May 2000, Ekrem Rexha, a former senior officer of the Kosovo Liberation Army, also known by his nome de guerre Commander Drini, was gunned down by unknown assassins in front of his home in Prizren. He was killed while leaving for work with the joint administrative structures formed by UNMIK. A year after his murder, the police issued a press release saying that a group of people had been arrested in connection with the crime, among whom was general Sali Veseli, a former KLA senior officer and a senior officer of the KPC, the part military, part civilian organization that succeeded the KLA after it was demilitarized and transformed.

The announcement, confirmed by the U.S. office in Pristina, provoked quite a stir, especially because one of the murdered man's former colleagues, and a senior officer, was among the suspects. The arrest dealt a great blow to the Kosovo Protection Corps. Its commander, Agim Ceku, said his organization "is convinced that general Sali Veseli, arrested on suspicion of having been involved in the murder of Ekrem Rexha, is innocent." General Ceku also said that the international police had arrested the wrong man and that he was convinced Veseli was not involved in the murder. "They were brothers in arms and friends in times of peace as well," Ceku stressed, adding that he himself had been informed of the murder by Veseli. Given "the importance of Mr. Veseli to the Kosovo Protection Corps, situation within this organization has become very grave," Ceku said, adding that his organization "has doubts in regard to the international police's objectivity." The KPC believes that the arrest of Veseli was a result of the activities of certain circles that do not want the organization to become stronger. On the other hand, the U.S. Office in Pristina welcomed the arrest and said "it will have no negative bearing on the KPC's role."

Nevertheless, the KPC found itself on the defensive yet again. "The only internationally recognized Kosovo institution," the KPC, faced numerous attacks and criticism since its founding, in the wake of the former KLA's demilitarization and transformation. According to the local press, in most of cases the KPC was the "usual suspect," especially after clashes broke out in southern Serbia's Presevo Valley and in northern Macedonia. The Serbian government kept accusing KPC leaders of supplying the Albanian guerrillas of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac with troops and weapons. The KPC leaders never denied that "certain former KLA guerrillas may have joined the fighters in the Presevo Valley," but they refuted any organized support and role by the KPC in the war in the region.

The accusations, however, intensified when the conflict in Macedonia started, where ethnic Albanian military formations took the name of National Liberation Army, which in the Albanian language has the same abbreviation as the KLA -- UCK.

The same abbreviation, however, according to the KPC, "should not be a reason for accusations." Again the KPC is forced to defend itself, especially after the head of its Pristina headquarters, general Gezim Ostreni, an ethnic Albanian from Macedonia, joined the National Liberation Army and soon became its commander. General Ceku immediately dismissed Ostreni from the KPC, and reiterated that "the Kosovo Protection Corps supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Macedonia, but at the same time demands that ethnic Albanians in that former Yugoslav republic be given equal rights." He also said that any KPC member whose involvement in violent activities has been proved will be excluded from the force. General Ceku did not rule out the possibility that some other members of the organization were also involved in violence in Macedonia and the Presevo Valley, but added that there will be no place for them in the KPC. It seems that Ceku has become rather nervous due to ever frequent accusations and checks by international peacekeepers, who together with UNMIK supervise the operation and activities of the KPC. Sources in KFOR have said that during unannounced inspections "a large number of the KPC troops were found absent from their jobs, raising suspicion of their possible involvement in illegal activities." The KPC command was offended by such wording, and by the fact that it was ignored by the international factors, as, for instance, in the Sali Veseli arrest of which it learned from the press. General Ceku had a series of meetings with international officials "in order to clarify the reasons for a campaign against the KPC." The KFOR commander, Norwegian General Thorsten Skiaker, and the head of UNMIK police, Christopher Albiston, assured him that "the KPC enjoys full support of international mechanisms." At the same time they, however, stressed that "individuals deviating from established rules cannot be tolerated." Ceku said he had reached a certain degree of agreement with international representatives that "the KPC will gradually advance and be given concrete tasks which currently are being carried out by KFOR or someone else." According to him, "the KPC is organized in such a way that it can assume much greater responsibilities than it currently has," clearly aiming at expanding the KPC's competence and its coming closer to a military formation...

It appears, however, that upgrading the KPC's status will have to wait for better times. International representatives rejected demands that its status be advanced within the constitutional framework for Kosovo. It remains a civilian organization, and its commanders will apparently have to struggle to preserve its current numbers. Initially it was envisaged as an organization composed of 3,000 regular troops and 2,000 reserve troops, but many voices can be now be heard calling for the demobilization of 2,000 members. The KPC is also having difficulty deploying its personnel in the whole of Kosovo, and in the inclusion of ethnic minority members. General Ceku has called on Kosovo's minorities to join his organization. So far, only 116 ethnic minority members have joined the KPC, and not a single Serb. The reason for that, the Kosovo public believes, is that they have been prevented from doing so by their political leaders...

Besnik Bala

(AIM)