Kosovo Downplays March by Banned Paramilitaries

Public appearance of masked and uniformed members of so-called Albanian National Army, ANA, prompts official pledge of investigation.

Petrit Collaku

Pristina

The appearance of a group of masked and uniformed persons on Wednesday in the central town of Drenas, claiming to be members of the banned Albanian National Army, ANA, has prompted Kosovo authorities to pledge an investigation.

The group staged a brief march in the town, marking the seventh anniversary of ANA's first appearance in public. The group then joined a public meeting in a restaurant where officials from their political wing, the Front for National Unification of Albanians, FBKSH, addressed a crowd.

Calling itself the military wing of the FBKSH, the ANA was supposed to have finally disbanded itself in 2009. The ANA was branded a terrorist organisation by the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, in 2003.

The interior minister, Bajram Rexhepi, said police had already started investigations and several of the uniformed men had been identified.

“This was an adventure by some persons who have not managed to find a place in society,” Rexhepi told Balkan Insight. However, he said the government took the case seriously and would arrest them.

According to two Pristina dailies, Koha Ditore and Zeri, the Kosovo head of the FBKSH, Ismail Bajraktari, recently said that it was "time to go public on the ideals of the FBKSH and ANA concerning the unification of Albanian territories.

“We will go on to the end,” Bajraktari was quoted as saying.

Security expert Florian Qehaja said the group of masked persons did not present much of a security risk. "They are a group of desperate people with nationalistic tendencies and an unserious appearance," Qehaja, from the Kosovo Centre for Security Studies, told Balkan Insight.

Qehaja said that the group had chosen the Drenas area to stage their parade as the police presence was weakest in this part of Kosovo.

Members of the ANA, known also as the Armata Kombetare Shqiptare, AKSH, were seen in Kosovo periodically after the conflict with Serbia ended in 1999.

In October 2007, Kosovo’s public broadcaster, RTK, aired footage and an interview with armed and masked members of the ANA, patrolling and checking vehicles on a highway near the border with Serbia.

Apart from Kosovo, the ANA has previously made appearances in ethnic Albanian areas of Macedonia and southern Serbia.