Moderate Albanians(finally) start fighting back against KLA Terror

PRISTINA -- More than a thousand Pristina residents protested last night over the murder of Tahir Zemaj and another two Kosovo Albanians.

Tahir Zemaj, his son Enis and their cousin Hasan Zemaj were killed on Saturday in Pec.

Zemaj’s murder is the last in a series of attacks on Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova’s associates, supporters and friends, report the Belgrade media explaining that Zemaj was a supporter of Rugova’s Democratic League of Kosovo.

Zemaj was one of the key witnesses in the trial of five former KLA and Kosovo Protection Corps members, known as the Dukadjini group, convicted in December of kidnapping murder of four Kosovo Albanians in 1999.

This terrorist act is aimed against Kosovo’s progress and independence, against our children’s future, said Rugova.

We demand that the judiciary and UNMIK arrest the assailants as soon as possible and take them to court. Our society must isolate these criminals who are attacking Kosovo’s freedom and independence, said President Rugova.

The creation of the FARC was Rugova's move to establish his own Kosovo National Guard to maintain sovereignty of what was hoped to be an independent kosovo based on a western style democracy administered by the elected LDK government. Unfortunately Rugova did not expect the UCK to become the driving force of resistance to the Serbs at which point you have two opposing Kosovar Albanian political camps UCK and LDK, with the UCK's origins being militant and the LDK's being political.

The UCK had a head start in the resistance game towards the Serbs and as was done with other groups like the LKCK, the UCK maintained loose ties with Rugova's military FARC element in order to maintain a combined effort to fight the Serbs. With Thaci's ambition to control Kosovo a primary UCK objective, he had to work with these armed Kosvoar Albanian elements who formed and fought the Serbs within their own independent brigades until such time that the UCK could conduct internal house cleaning which has been ongoing which is why the UCK prisons were established. The first faze of this was to destroy Rugova and his LDK political party by going after the local LDK representation.

Unfortunately for the UCK, the LDK's popularity in Kosovo is the only thing the keeps Rugova in place. Thaci and his backers know that the Western nations would rather deal with Rugova and his more moderate position that the LDK represent but are obliged to deal with the UCK because of their forced military and political presence in Kosovo. Should they kill Rugova the population would turn their backs on Thaci and the murderers he employs. So Thaci has no choice but to live with the popular Rugova.

What has happened to Tahir Zemaj, his son Enis and their cousin Hasan Zemaj was simply revenge for the testimony against the murdering Dukadjini group who were responsible for the killing of FARC members and as you know in the Balkans no one forgets. This can be seen as a move by the LDK to expose the dark side of the KLA through a recognized legal civilized means i.e. the international administered courts in Kosovo. Perception is everything and despite the murder of Jemaj and family members a brilliant move by Rugova.

Another reason for the KLA revenge killing is simply that Zemaj is a staunch supporter of Rugova and was a member of his earlier military initiative to form the FARC which since the NATO/UN entry into Kosovo has maintained a very low profile but never the less are opposed to the UCK. How will the remaining FARC elements react to these killings, most probably with good old fashioned revenge bloodshed based on family honor which casts aside political views very quickly. This could be a new phase of the struggle between the UCK and LDK but this time Rugova may have a problem controlling this relatively unknown FARC element.

The LDK are non militaristic and wish to maintain this position which is why Rugova has not entertained using those fighters loyal to him against UCK aggression which would result in absolute bloodshed. Rugova intends to use politics and his domestic and international popularity as his main weapon but since these events will he be able to keep the lid on this can of worms.

Things never really change in Kosovo as Albanians continue to kill Albanians………

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