The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Burrel: KLA Training Camp with Another Purpose?
From April 1999 to the end of the
conflict in Kosovo, the Albanian army base outside the town of Burrel, 120 kilometers
south of Kukes and 90 kilometers north of Tirana, served as a KLA training camp.
By Altin Raxhimi
About 2,000 KLA volunteers, most coming from Western Europe, were trained there in all.
In 2003, an UNMIK and ICTY [Hague war crimes tribunal] mission visited a house 40 minutes away in the village of Rribe to investigate allegations that organs from Serbs abducted from Kosovo had been “harvested” there.
The issue gained prominence last year when Carla del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor for the ICTY, mentioned these allegations in a book she wrote on her time in office.
Although a forensic team went to look at the house the inquiry never went anywhere, while becoming a hot political issue between Albania, Kosovo and Serbia.
The Kosovo and Albanian authorities argued that the investigation never went anywhere because the allegations were unfounded and malicious, “cooked up by Belgrade” to undermine the legitimacy of Kosovo’s fight for independence.
In Belgrade, officials have highlighted the claims as “proof” that the Albanian guerrilla war against Serbia was a brutal criminal enterprise.
Meanwhile, the issue remains open. The number of the missing Albanians who disappeared during the Kosovo conflict is now believed to have fallen from 1,800 from 1,200 while the number of disappeared Serbs has remained roughly the same, at about 400. Were all or some of these 400 killed in Albania? The mystery over their disappearance has not been solved.
By Altin Raxhimi
About 2,000 KLA volunteers, most coming from Western Europe, were trained there in all.
In 2003, an UNMIK and ICTY [Hague war crimes tribunal] mission visited a house 40 minutes away in the village of Rribe to investigate allegations that organs from Serbs abducted from Kosovo had been “harvested” there.
The issue gained prominence last year when Carla del Ponte, the former chief prosecutor for the ICTY, mentioned these allegations in a book she wrote on her time in office.
Although a forensic team went to look at the house the inquiry never went anywhere, while becoming a hot political issue between Albania, Kosovo and Serbia.
The Kosovo and Albanian authorities argued that the investigation never went anywhere because the allegations were unfounded and malicious, “cooked up by Belgrade” to undermine the legitimacy of Kosovo’s fight for independence.
In Belgrade, officials have highlighted the claims as “proof” that the Albanian guerrilla war against Serbia was a brutal criminal enterprise.
Meanwhile, the issue remains open. The number of the missing Albanians who disappeared during the Kosovo conflict is now believed to have fallen from 1,800 from 1,200 while the number of disappeared Serbs has remained roughly the same, at about 400. Were all or some of these 400 killed in Albania? The mystery over their disappearance has not been solved.
