Kosovo Guerrilla Veterans Warn Of New War

Reuters
Sunday July 8, 2007

Veterans of Kosovo's 1998-99 guerrilla war said on Sunday they were prepared to take up arms again if deadlock between the West and Russia continued to block the province's independence from Serbia.

Veterans of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) warned the international bodies running the territory, primarily the United Nations, not to block the process.

Kosovo Albanian leaders "should not accept any delay to a status decision, nor new talks, which would bring only new hostility," the veterans said in a statement published in several Kosovo newspapers. They called on parliament to declare independence.

If the demands are not met, "we the veterans of the KLA war will be forced to act as KLA soldiers to fulfill the oath of our national heroes," the statement said.

The KLA veterans' association represents rank-and-file fighters after many senior commanders entered politics and eventually Kosovo's government after the war. It is unclear how much support the KLA veterans enjoy.

The statement was the most direct warning from the KLA veterans since Serbia ally Russia slammed the brakes on a Western-backed drive at the United Nations to grant Kosovo's secession from Serbia after 8 years under U.N. administration.

Kosovo's 2 million Albanians, 90 percent of the population, are growing increasingly impatient for independence, having seen the West delay the decision twice last year to limit the expected fallout in Serbia.

The KLA waged a guerrilla war against Serb forces in 1998-99. Serbia's brutal response, expelling hundreds of thousands of Albanian civilians, drew NATO into an 11-week bombing campaign to drive out Serb forces.

Independent estimates put the civilian death toll at between 7,500 and 10,000, mostly Albanians. The territory is now patrolled by 16,000 NATO peacekeepers.

Russia has threatened to veto a Western-backed U.N. Security Council resolution effectively offering statehood.

The West is now considering more talks between Serbs and Albanians, after 13 months of dialogue that ended in stalemate in March.

But Kosovo's leaders are coming under increasing public pressure to declare independence unilaterally, a step diplomats say would split the 27-member EU and possibly trigger a breakaway bid by Serb-dominated northern Kosovo.