Fugitive UCK wants "Albanian state within Macedonia"

A terrorist who escaped from the Macedonian police custody after last week's deadly clashes in Kumanovo, says the goal is to "create a state."
Source: Tanjug Friday, May 15, 2015 | 11:17

(Beta/AP, file)

Albanian language website Albeu is reporting that Osmani denied that the terrorist group had any financial goals.

According to him, it consisted of "more than 2,000 fighters."

Osmani also said he and other captured terrorists "did not surrender because they ran out of ammunition," but because "one of their friends spoke to someone on the phone and was told there were also OSCE representatives in the Divo settlement (in Kumanovo)."

Thus, Osmani revealed, they thought "the OSCE, not the Macedonian police, would take them over."

"Had we known, we wouldn't have surrendered, we would have fought until we were all dead," he said.

Osmani also told the broadcaster that he was "forced to show where weapons from Goshince were hidden" after his arrest, and that this was where he managed to escape.

The Macedonian police said late on Thursday they were "intensively searching" for the fugitive.