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Revision as of 05:34, 22 March 2002 by Guppie (talk | contribs) (Added history of KLA)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Kosovo Liberation Army were Albanian-ethnic guerilla groups which operated in Kosovo in the late 1990s. Also known by the acronyms KLA and UCK (Albaninan: Ushtria Clirimtare E Kosoves).
The name "Kosovo Liberation Army" was first used in F.Y.R.O.M. in 1992. In 1995, beginnings of armed resistance to the Serbs appeared in Kosovo, when the KLA carried out isolated attacks on Serbian police. The KLA appeared for the first time in public in June 1996, assuming reponsibility for a series of acts of sabotage committed against the police stations and policemen in Kosovo and Metohija. After these bombings, Serb authorities named it a terrorist organization.
In 1997-98 KLA carried out numerous attacks on police in Kosovo, and set up roadblocks in the countryside. By May 1998 it effectively controlled a quarter of the province, centered around the region of Drenica, where Serbian police no longer dared to enter. In the summer of 1998, however, Serbian security forces launched an offensive against KLA, crushed most of its organization and regained control over most of Kosovo.
The KLA responed by establishing training camps and bases in the mountains of Albania. The Albanian government did little to prevent this, but did not support the KLA officially. The KLA more than regained its strenght, and when the Kosovo war broke out on March 24th 1999, KLA was estimated to have 6,000 to 8,000 people in total, 2,000 to 4,000 in Kosovo, and the rest in Albania.
Urged by the war, ethnic Albanians from all over Europe (but mostly from Kosovo) came to Albania to join the KLA. When the war was over in June, it was estimated that KLA had grown to a total of 17,000 to 20,000 in total, with perhaps as many as 15,000 in Kosovo at any time.
According to the agreement between NATO and Yugoslavia of June 1999, the KLA was disarmed. However, new guerilla groups, officially without links to the KLA, but probably consisting of KLA veterans, operated in the demilitarized zone between Kosovo and Serbia and in F.Y.R.O.M. in 2000 and 2001.
see also Kosovo War
File:Kla-uck.gif
The KLA insignia
