Conflicts on the Yugoslav-Albanian Border

FRAMEWORK FOR BLOODSHED

AIM Belgrade, 22 April, 1998

During past several months, the Kosovo crisis and its escalation seem to be slowly developing into a conflict between FR Yugoslavia and Albania. The Liberation Army of Kosovo (OVK), members of the border armed forces of the Yugoslav Army (YA), federal defence minister Pavle Bulatovic and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) saw to it. But, first things first.

U noåi 16. aprila, kako je saopåio Generalþtab VJ, u rejonu karaule "Morina" nedaleko od Ðakovice, graničari su "u skladu sa svojim ovlaþåenjima" spriječili ilegalan ulazak u zemlju iz Albanije grupi od pedesetak muþkaraca.

General staff of YA declared that the border guards, "in the line of duty", prevented a group of approximately 50 men from Albania from entering the country, in the region of watchtower "Morina" near Djakovica, during the night, on April 16.

"The patrol entered the clash, and soon reinforcement arrived on the spot", it is stated in the report.

U puþkaranju je pomenta grupa "razbijena i potisnuta u dubinu Alabnije", a jugoslavenski graničari su zapljenili veåu količinu oruºja i municije koja je prenoþena "na dvanaest tovarnih grla": 156 automatskih puþaka "AK - 47", 61 poluautomatska puþka ("Simonov"), četiri mitraljeza, sedam ručnih bombi, 31 upaljač za bombe, 251 okvir za "AK - 47", te 10 484 metka cal. 7,62 mm. Generalþtab VJ ističe da je ovo oruºje kineskog porijekla, te da je "konzervisano tzv. dubokom konzervacijom" þto bi trebalo ukazati da potiče iz skladiþta regularne albanske vojske. Navodi se i da je u istoj prilici zapljenjena i veåa količina uniformi sa amblemima U¼K, ali i sa oznakama bivþeg Zbora narodne garde Republike Hrvatske.

The mentioned group was "defeated and forced back deep into Albania" in the exchange of fire, and Yugoslav border guards confiscated a greater amount of arms and ammunition which was being transported on "twelve pack animals": 156 automatic guns "AK - 47", 61 semiautomatic guns ("Simonov"), four machine guns, seven hand gremades, 31 bomb fuses, 251 frames for "AK - 47", and 10,484 bullets of 7.62 mm calibre. General Staff of YA emphasises that the arms are of Chinese origin and that it has been "conserved by so-called deep conservation", which should mean that it comes from the regular Albanian army stocks. It is mentioned that on the same occasion, a considerable amount of uniforms with emblems of OVK and with signs of the former National Guard Corps of the Republic of Croatia.

Upon inspection of the site of the incident by a local mixed commission, in the vicinity of the boarder marker C - 7, an unidentified group of civilians opened fire on the soldiers of YA, says the report of General Staff. Since the Albanian representative succeeded to convinced this group to cease fire, only after quite a long telephone talk, managed to persuade this group to cease fire and withdraw, the General Staff concludes that "this course of events, especially during work of the joint commission, points out to co-ordinated action and even involvement of the Albanian state authorities".

The relevant Albanian state agencies denied that any incident happened at all, and strongly deny any involvement in the Kosovo events. But, minister Pavle Bulatovic, directly accuses Tirana by his statement in Politika ekspres by saying "that Albania supports terrorism in Kosovo and Metohija and secession of this province". Zivorad Igic, member of the SPS main board, confirmed that the ruling party shares the same opinion by his statement for Tanjug in Pristina: "Albania is more strongly and more openly declaring itself political commissar and representative of Albanian separatism in Kosovo".

Before the impressions and accusations calmed down, YA declared that a similar incident happened again on April 19 early in the morning. The frontier patrol prevented five people from crossing the border from Albania in the same region of "Morina" wathtower, at boarded marker C-4\5. On this occasion, after a fusillade, three "AK-47", two semiautomatic guns, sixteen hand grenades, seven frames and 388 bullets of 7.62 mm calibre were confiscated.

According to allegations of YA, there were no wounded among its members. Nothing is said about the two groups from Albania. Independent sources in Kosovo, both Albanian and Serbian, mainly confirm the version of YA. At the same time, we learn that the situation in the whole boarder region is extremely tense, there are statements that special military and light armoured forces (whatever that may be) are arriving to help boarder guards, that military aeroplanes are flying right over some villages in Kosovo, etc. There are news that there is massive and fast emigration of local Serbian and Albanian people from this territory.

At the press conference, only a few weeks ago, YA openly declared that "the number of Albanian terrorists in Kosovo is overestimated" according to its data, and that the quantity of arms illegally imported from Albania is negligible. After the latest mentioned statement of the General Staff, the Army contradicted itself. Concerning the evaluations of the "security situuation" in Kosovo and the steps that should be taken, the well-informed claim that lately there have been sharp disputes between the army and police authorities. It is also declared here, that for quite some time, Belgrade has had information about secret bases in Albania for training of the OVK members as well as about different channels for smuggling arms. There is no answer to the question why this was not published if it had been known. As if some bigger incident is expected to happen in order to make the problem of Kosovo develop into a conflict between Yugoslavia and Albania. If this should happen, the latest national homogenisation under the actual regime would additionally be reinforced and the position of reformist Milo Djukanovic in Montenegro would be significantly weakened, and it is also estimated that the international community, which is threatening by sanctions, would be forced to make significant concessions. Such a conflict would set the whole region on fire, inducing completely unpredictable consequences.

In the past few days, there are also numerous indications of spreading of violence: the police in the Republic of Macedonia confiscated "an entire arsenal" of different arms of OVK or some similar organisation in the period when incidents at the Yugoslav- Albanian border occurred. But all these speculations have their seamy side. It is possible that the international community, i.e. NATO, may decide to undertake preventive military action before it is too late.

Members of OVK long for escalation of violence in the whole region and foreign military action. One of their masked commanders explained some time ago to certain western journalists that the Albanians from Kosovo and the Moslems from Bosnia cannot be compared at all. "They were all alone in the world, but we have support from mother Albania". Besides, similar bosses do not hesitate to declare that their aim is to unite not only Kosovo but Western Macedonia as well with Albania.

According to well informed independent sources, OVK has well elaborated ways of crossing the country borders and carrying arms, as well as communication systems. The situation in Albania is a hardly restrained anarchy after the total collapse and disintegration of the state in 1996. Purchasing of different arms and military equipment can there be organised without special difficulties, military bases can be established, etc. The Albanian state authorities are simply not capable of preventing or, for example, of stimulating or significantly participating in provoking violence in Kosovo. One foreign journalist compared the situation in North Albania to North Iraq after the Gulf War: although formally a part of the same state, its authorities have no real power there. According to the same journalist, men fluent in English and German besides their mother tongue, can be found among members of OVK on both sides of the border. Both facts are in favour of "internationalisation" of the Kosovo problem, as well as creating the necessary war infrastructure. Indeed, if one intends to cross illegally the "tightly closed" Yugoslav-Albanian boarder with twelve mules loaded with more than two hundred guns and a few thousand bullets, it means that this person is quite self-confident. In other words, this means that he had taken similar actions before, that he has a safe shelter, that distribution channels are spreading further in Kosovo, etc. The incident with the smaller group of 19 April is estiamted as a test of the transparency of the "Morina" region...

The Yugoslav Army acted according to its authorization and there is nothing disputable about it. The problem is following: if such incidents become more frequent, military engagement in Kosovo will become inevitable. What would then happen, may exceed even the darkest forecasts. The framework for a big bloodshed has been set up, and there is not much time left for an agreement which could eliminate it. The question is whether both the Serbian and the Albanian party are aware of this.

Philip Schwarm

(AIM)