June, 1999

"A voice of the Kosova resistance"

Editor's note: The following interview with Pleurat Sejdiiu, diplomatic representative of the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) and member of the Kosovan interim government, took place on April 29 in London by Christopher Ford and David Black of HOBGOBLIN, the English Marxist-Humanist journal. Sejdiiu is a medical doctor who joined the movement in 1985. He says he was inspired in his youth by Che Guevara, another physician-turned-guerrilla.

By the late 1990s the ethnic Albanian majority, living under a system of creeping apartheid and the threat of genocide, rejected the compromise program of Ibrahim Rugova, which was totally reliant on Western support but could not win any compromises from Serb nationalists. The challenge to Rugova's party was cemented in 1996 by Adem Demaqi and his Kosova Parliamentary Party. Demaqi argued that rather than try and compromise with those committed to a "Greater Serbia," the movement should direct its dialogue to Serbs in Kosova who opposed ethnic nationalism. This strategy also envisioned a full military struggle for a multiethnic Republic of Kosova which, on gaining self-determination, could enter into a new and equal federation with Serbia and Montenegro, called "Balkanija." By mid-1998, Demaqi's party had become the most influential force in the leadership of the KLA and Peoples Movement for Kosova (LPK).

The KLA was formed in 1993 at the third meeting of the general council of the LPK. The KLA formed as the military wing of the LPK, but in a very short time a decision was made that the KLA must be built up on its own so it could be independent. That was because most of the political parties who had been in so-called power during 1990-93 were pacifists such as the Rugova party, who had stolen the ideas and methods that had been in the program of the LPK.

In our program we say we will use all means for the liberation of Kosova, whether democratic or military. But with democratic means proving nothing and being useless, we thought that by becoming an independent military organization we would attract other political parties. But that didn't happen.

With the creation of the KLA, the LDK, especially Rugova, started accusing the KLA of being linked to the Serbian state security. Rugova was saying that Serbia had an interest in destabilizing us all. That was pure demagoguery. So we have had actually to fight on two fronts. As well as the military campaign, we had to fight politically against the LDK as the main force opposed to any methods other than peaceful means, while all the time they only sat in their offices, having meetings and press conferences. They have even been against the students, organizations having mass demonstrations.

But oppression in Kosova went on all the time, growing day by day and the ranks of KLA began to grow from those with the idea that the only way to get our independence was by armed struggle.

The big rise of the KLA was in 1997. In early 1998 the first frontal confrontation with Serb forces happened in Drenica. During 1993-98 most Albanians thought it was Serbs killing their own to destabilize Kosova. But in February and March 1998 for the first time the KLA came without masks and people saw they were their own sons and brothers.

After this confrontation, the people started thinking that there was a plus in having a military wing. After this first attack, the Serbs decided to destroy the compound of one of our leaders, killing 47. The whole family was killed, including the smallest one who was three months old. They thought that would destroy the KLA, but that didn't happen. That big massacre actually boosted the ranks of the KLA from a couple of hundred guerrillas into thousands and thousands of fighters.

Now we came to the position of having a real structure. Until now we have had a political directorate which was the leading force of the KLA command force, but now we have come to the stage where the KLA has been given a right by people from all political parties to form a government which will bring them free elections.

Under the Serbian regime any suspicion of being in the KLA, even the LPK, meant you got five years at least in prison. This strictly underground war caused many dilemmas and gave a lot of space to Rugova to play the game of state power.

The first to accuse the KLA of being a terrorist organization were Serbs. Even the Americans had never gone so far as to put the KLA on the terrorist list. The first diplomat who openly said the KLA was a terrorist organization was Gelband from the U.S. But then he was the first one who denied it, because he was the first one to meet people from the directorate of the KLA. When the first question of the journalists was "why the change of mind?" he said yes, he was the one who said they were terrorist/Marxist-Leninists, but added that all this information had come from the Kosovan political parties he had spoken to—Rugova again!

After the Western diplomats met us—and a lot of us are intellectuals who have been living abroad and we know well the difference between what is an act of terrorism and what is the fight for freedom—they started contacting us more often, coming to our compounds, garrisons and barracks and so on.

During this period there's been a lot of accusations—they have been first of all launched from the Serb side—that we are an Islamic terrorist group. Well, we are born Muslim, but of course we have nothing to do with any such thing. And now the latest one is that we are running a network of drug dealers! But it's clear the KLA is a freedom movement and that nothing can stop us.

Most illegal groups in post-war Yugoslavia have been basically nationalist groups, but to have the support of the Albanian state they had to have as an ideology Marxism, because Albania was a Marxist regime. But when Communism collapsed, the LDK changed as well, so now we are without ideology.

We are not ashamed of our past, because we have been part of the leftist movements. But what everyone must have in mind is that Albania suffered most from so-called Communism. We have leftists in our movement who really believe in various ideas of Marx, and we also have the extreme Right, but our ideology is that the time of democracy will come, and everyone will have the right to think for themselves.

NATO—SAVIOR OR ALBATROSS?

The first draft which was presented to us at Rambouillet was acceptable as an interim agreement, but what happened in the last three days was by all means a coup d'etat against the Kosova Albanians. For ten days our delegation fought very hard on that draft. But after the American negotiator went to Belgrade we found ourselves with a new draft which was less than what Milosevic was ready to give us in 1989. So that was the point at which we refused and only after the intervention of the Americans through Albright and James Rubin did we come back to the previous accord.

Some people in the West thought the KLA would split but they were wrong. We didn't want Thaci, the head of the KLA delegation, to become a new Gerry Adams if there was going to be a split and a new "IRA," to draw a comparison. I was the first to point this out on CNN at Rambouillet.

At Rambouillet, Demaqi resigned from the KLA delegation because he did not trust NATO. Demaqi wanted a statement on the right to a referendum to be held on independence. But it was not a split in the KLA between the political and military sections. We consulted every field commanderÑeven if their opinion was unfavorable to us—and then signed an interim agreement.

The proposal at Rambouillet that the KLA disband was a hot point for us. It was stated that there would be be a process of transformation for the KLA, but that the KLA would not disappear.

Milosevic is unpredictable but he is not clever. He thought he could save his nation from destruction but he didn't. Now we have the so-called opposition of Draskovic, but he is a clown. They know Kosova is lost. The Serbian people know it, but they won't admit it—as was the case in Germany during World War II. Even when the Serb opposition said they had different ideas, it was not on Kosova.

The ethnic cleansing is no surprise. We thought NATO would utilize the KLA by arming them and assisting their position. The KLA has changed a lot from last year. We've had so many volunteers we couldnÕt handle it. We've changed from the guerrilla structure and we now have lot of former officers, many from Bosnia or formerly of the Yugoslav army.

Because we face an offensive against the civilian population, we have to fight on two fronts, one in fighting the Serbs and two in saving the civilians. After the big offensive on the 31st of March, we entered a new phase. We have survived the Serb attacks. The KLA General Command ordered a general mobilization of our people in Albania, Kosova and abroad. Since then, we have 20,000 training in northern Albania and moving into Kosova, and another 20,000 young men and women have gone to KLA-held territory rather than stay in areas where they will be executed. The liberated areas—we control about a third of the country—are being stabilized, we have started gaining ground in the border areas and we intend to establish a corridor from the Albanian border to Drenica.

ARM THE KLA!

We are ready to fight. We have no need for British and Americans to die. In Croatia the Serbs had tanks and artillery, yet when faced with an armed force as strong as them, Krajina fell in 24 hours. Serb morale is low; they avoid real fighting.

The West doesn't arm the KLA because they say that the arms embargo applies to all of the regions of old Yugoslavia, although that hasn't stopped the Russians from supplying arms to Belgrade! The Western powers are fearful about the situation in Macedonia, but Macedonia doesn't have a real army. If the KLA is armed it will be the strongest in the Balkans. Even with an interim agreement moving towards self-determination within five years, the struggle will be protracted.

A map of a proposed partition has been published which would leave Pristina and the Trepca mines in Serbian hands. This is Milosevic's plan. In case of not having all of Kosova, they would take this. But we have a very strong force in the north of Kosova. It is the area I am from, so they joke about us—we are like Braveheart!

To partition, we say No! The KLA will be united. There can be no partition. Albanians have lost enough land since our nation existed.

In history I have been inspired by Michael Collins and Che Guevara. I'm studying the Irish movement and we didn't want to sign anything that would split us as in 1921 in Ireland. We don't want the death of another Michael Collins. And look what happened to the PLO with bombings and terrorism.

In Yugoslavia real socialism didn't exist. Tito did not solve the national question and in many ways he made things worse. We are a poor country, and socialism would be the best way for us, but it will be up to the people to decide after freedom is won.

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