KOSOVO: ARMED MASKED MEN REAPPEAR IN WESTERN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 001054 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL, INL, AND EUR/SCE, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/07/2016 TAGS: PTER KCRM KJUS ASEC UNMIK YI SUBJECT: KOSOVO: ARMED MASKED MEN REAPPEAR IN WESTERN KOSOVO REF: A. 05 PRISTINA 1109 ¶B. 04 PRISTINA 233 ¶C. 03 PRISTINA 599 Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Repeating a pattern we saw last year, armed masked men have sporadically reappeared on the roads of western Kosovo, illegally stopping people and conducting vehicle checkpoints. In 2005, these incidents began as supposed "political statements" but quickly turned into opportunities for robbery. The head of Kosovo's largest war veterans association has disassociated himself with these masked men, who reportedly wear Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) insignia and uniforms. Though the appearance of these bands is unsettling, it is unlikely they reflect any real political response to the delay in status, and are more likely simply a product of lawlessness and unemployment in a traditionally underdeveloped part of Kosovo. END SUMMARY. Masked Men Reemerge in Western Kosovo ¶2. (C) According to Kosovo Police Service (KPS) reports, the KPS received an anonymous call at about 9:00 p.m. on December 5, 2006 reporting that masked men were conducting a vehicle checkpoint on a road in Gerqine Village in Gjakova municipality in western Kosovo. KPS Lt. Col. Latif Merovci (protect),the head of the serious crime division, told us that about four or five KPS officers responded to the call and found a vehicle checkpoint manned by about 10 masked men, some of whom were armed. As the police officers approached the checkpoint, the masked men ran into the woods. When KPS officers followed suit, the masked men shot at them. Police returned fire, but the suspects managed to escape. The KPS reported that their officers found some evidence at the scene, including one AK-47 magazine and a rocket launcher loaded with a projectile, which they are currently analyzing. There were no reported injuries. ¶3. (C) Merovci said the police received three telephone calls later that evening from a man claiming to be a member of the Albanian National Army (AKSH),an Albanian nationalist paramilitary group operating in the southern Balkans. The man asked whether any KPS officers had been hurt in the shoot-out and said that none of the masked men had been ;harmed. According to the KPS's follow-up flash report on the incident, the caller said, "We are the sons of Drenica," and "we didn't show up (to rob people),but ... to tell (them) that if the government fails, the sons of Drenica will be in the forest. We Drenica people are accustomed to suffer(ing)." (Note: Drenica, in central Kosovo, was the birthplace of the KLA and there was heavy fighting between the KLA and Yugoslav Army in Drenica's forests during the late 1990s. End Note.) ¶4. (SBU) In addition to the masked men in Gjakova, the Kosovo daily newspaper Epoka e Re reported on December 6 that armed and masked "soldiers" with Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) insignia and uniforms had stopped people and vehicles on village roads in the Decan municipality, also in western Kosovo. Epoka e Re, a news source of questionable reliability, said these groups were demanding mobilization of former KLA members and the general public "because of the postponement of the resolution of the status and indications that the Albanians should not hope for independence." The head of the KLA Veterans Association in that region, Avdyl Mushkolaj, told Epoka e Re he had heard about, but not seen, these groups. Mushkolaj called on all KLA war veterans to mobilize, but says he is "against those who go out uniformed and masked in the night hours." Masked Men Not a New Phenomenon in Kosovo ¶5. (SBU) Masked men stopping people and vehicles in Kosovo is not a new phenomenon. There were reports of such incidents as early as January 2003; most were simple robberies (see reftels). A new rash of reports emerged in PRISTINA 00001054 002 OF 002 2005 of a group of masked men claiming to be with the Kosovo Independence Army (KIA) intermittently stopping people and vehicles in western Kosovo. They did not rob their victims, but forced them to distribute leaflets which quickly evolved from calls for independence for Kosovo to ominous threats against United Nations and Kosovo officials perceived as standing in the way of independence. The group faded away after a few months. Throughout 2006, there have been periodic reports of masked men in Kosovo, but their activities were more criminal than political in nature. Comment ¶6. (C) The appearance once again of small bands of masked and armed men in western Kosovo is neither a new phenomenon nor a particularly alarming one, but it bears watching. Young men in the most underdeveloped part of Kosovo can be easily persuaded to participate in this kind of activity; there is no evidence such bands are engaged in anything more than sheer criminality despite the supposedly political aims they may claim to espouse. The fact that even war veterans groups have maintained a distance from these groups speaks to the general conviction in Kosovo, at least for the time being, that independence is best pursued through non-violent means. These incidents may, however, factor into Kosovo's domestic politics and sow discord among the political parties -- opposition PDK leader Hashim Thaci, stung by reports that the masked men had supposedly identified themselves as being from Drenica, his home base, took to the airwaves December 8 to accuse Ramush Haradinaj (leader of the AAK party in the governing coalition and indicted for war crimes in the Hague) of being behind these armed groups in what is traditionally the Haradinaj stronghold of western Kosovo. Neither Thaci nor Haradinaj is likely involved, but the issue provides fodder for their ongoing rivalry for the support of former KLA soldiers in Kosovo's political scene. End Comment. ¶7. (SBU) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable in its entirety for release to U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari. KAIDANOW