National Liberation Army (Macedonia)
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The National Liberation Army (Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare Kombëtare - UÇK ; Macedonian: Ослободителна национална армија - ОНА), also known as the Macedonian UÇK, was an insurgent guerilla organization that operated in the Republic of Macedonia from 1999-2001. Although linked with the Kosovo Liberation Army (Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës), with which it shared initials and a very similar name, it was officially a separate organization.
Following the 2001 Macedonian War, it was disarmed under the terms of the Ohrid Agreement, under which greater rights and autonomy were to be given to the country's large Albanian minority population.
The NLA and the Macedonian War
The NLA was founded in the fall of 1999, and was led by former KLA Commander Ali Ahmeti, the nephew of Fazli Veliu, one of the founders of the KLA, but was out of the public eye until it began to openly engage the Macedonian military and police. [[Citing sources citation needed]]
In January 2001 the NLA began to carry out attacks on Macedonian security forces, using guns, bombs and landmines to ambush patrols near Macedonia's border with Kosovo."Three Serb policemen killed by Kosovar extremists", The Scotsman, 19 February 2001 The conflict soon escalated and by the start of March 2001 the NLA had taken effective control of a swathe of northern and western Macedonia.
In March 2001 NLA members failed to take the city of Tetovo in an open attack, but controlled the hills and mountains between Tetovo and Kosovo. The duration of the war was for most of 2001. On November 17th, the Macedonian Government ratified a peace deal and amnesty to those rebels without blood on their hands. The conflict in Kosovo officially lasted 8 months but all of 2001 has seen serious fights. There were attacks by albanian rebels way into 2002.
Composition and military capabilities
The NLA was estimated to comprise around 7,000 men at its peak."How many groups, how many guns?", The Economist, 25 August 2001 As was the case with the KLA, they were fairly lightly armed - generally with small arms and mortars - though there were also reports that they had acquired Stinger and SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles."Macedonia on brink of war", Sunday Times, 10 June 2001
The NLA was also supported by incursions from Kosovo, so the links to KLA and UCPMB was obvious, but never officially admitted.
Political aspects
The Macedonian NLA consisted of ethnic Albanians (some of which probably former KLA members) seeking to gain greater political and economic freedom in western Macedonia. Some allege that the NLA was in favour of a Greater Albania in which western Macedonia would have become part of Albania, or alternatively a Greater Kosovo. NLA leaders have denied these allegations repeatedly.
Ceasefire and disarmament
After the Ohrid Agreement, the NLA agreed to cease-fire in June. Under the Ohrid Agreement, the Macedonian government pledged to improve the rights of the Albanian population, that makes up just over 25.3 per cent of the population. Those rights include making Albanian language an official language, increasing the participation of ethnic Albanians in government institutions, police and army. Most importantly, under the Ohrid Agreement, the Macedonian government agreed to a new model of decentralization.
The Albanian side agreed to give up any separatist demands and to fully recognise all Macedonian institutions. In addition, according to this accord the NLA was to disarm and hand over their weapons to a NATO force.
Operation "Essential Harvest" was officially launched on 22 August and effectively started on 27 August. This 30-day mission involved approximately 3500 NATO and Macedonian troops to disarm the NLA and destroy their weapons. Just hours after NATO wrapped up the operation, Ali Ahmeti told reporters attending a news conference in the rebel stronghold of Sipkovica that he was dissolving the National Liberation Army and that it was time for ethnic reconciliation. In 2001, U.S. recognized KLA/NLA as terrorist organizations.
Many members of the Macedonian NLA, led by Ali Ahmeti, later formed the Democratic Union for Integration, a political party that has won the majority of the Albanian votes in the 2002 election and it is a part of the ruling coalition along with SDSM and LDP. Total casualties of war on each side is not known, it has been said that around 600 NLA soldiers died (around 1000 Albanian civilians) and between 60-70 Macedonian soldiers and police and 500+ civilians.
References
Links
http://www.alb-net.com/amcc/articles.htm Chronology of the warhttp://www.marxists.de/balkans/garganas/macedonia.htm Battles
Battles http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/mar2001/mac-m10.shtml
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/taylor1.html
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/deliso41.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1650954.stm November Battles, Start of War, January 2 2001
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/04/04/macedonia.clash/index.html 2002 attacks
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