National Liberation Army (Macedonia)

The National Liberation Army (NLA; Ushtria Çlirimtare Kombëtare, abbr. UÇK; Ослободителна народна армија, abbr. ONA), also known as the Macedonian UÇK (UÇK Maqedonase; Македонски UÇK) was an ethnic Albanian militant and separatist militia that operated in the Republic of Macedonia in 2001 and was closely associated with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Following the 2001 insurgency in Macedonia, it was disarmed through the Ohrid Framework Agreement, which gave greater rights and autonomy to the state's Macedonian Albanians.

Background
In 1992–1993, ethnic Albanians created the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which started attacking police forces and secret-service officials who abused Albanian civilians in 1995. Starting in 1998, the KLA was involved in frontal battle, with increasing numbers of Yugoslav security forces. Escalating tensions led to the Kosovo War in February 1998.

After the end of the Kosovo War in 1999 with the signing of the Kumanovo agreement, a 5-kilometre-wide Ground Safety Zone (GSZ) was created. It served as a buffer zone between the Yugoslav Army and the Kosovo Force (KFOR). In June 1999, a new Albanian militant insurgent group was formed under the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (UÇPMB), which started training in the GSZ. The group began attacking Serbian civilians and police, which escalated into an insurgency.

With the signing of the Končulj Agreement in May 2001, the former KLA and UÇPMB fighters next moved to western Macedonia where they established the NLA, which fought against the Macedonian government in 2001. Ali Ahmeti organized the NLA from former KLA and UÇPMB fighters from Kosovo, Albanian insurgents from the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac in Serbia, young Albanian radicals, nationalists from Macedonia, and foreign mercenaries. The acronym was the same as the KLA's in Albanian.

2001 insurgency in Macedonia
The NLA was founded in the fall of 1999 and initially led by former KLA Commander Ali Ahmeti, a nephew of one of the founders of the KLA. The NLA operated secretly until it began to openly engage the Macedonian military and police. The NLA's proclaimed goal was equal rights for the ethnic Albanian minority within a confederate Macedonia. Senior NLA commanders insisted that "We do not want to endanger the stability and the territorial integrity of Macedonia, but we will fight a guerrilla war until we have won our basic rights, until we are accepted as an equal people inside Macedonia." The Macedonian government claimed the NLA were an extremist terrorist organization seeking to separate Albanian majority areas and unite those territories with Albania, though high-ranking members of the group have denied this.

On 22 January 2001, the NLA attacked a police station in Tearce, killing 1 and injuring 3. After the attack, the NLA began to carry out attacks on Macedonian security forces using light weapons. The conflict soon escalated and, by the start of March 2001, the NLA had taken effective control of a large swathe of northern and western Macedonia and had come within 12 miles of the capital Skopje.

In March 2001, NLA members failed to take the city of Tetovo in an open attack, but controlled the hills and mountains between Tetovo and Kosovo. On 3 May, a Macedonian government counteroffensive failed in the Kumanovo area. By 8 June, the rebels took Aračinovo, a village outside of Skopje. On 13 August, the two sides signed a peace deal ending the open conflict. The crisis is considered to be the turning point during the insurgency.

Composition and military capabilities
The NLA was estimated to comprise 5,000 men at its peak. As was the case with the KLA, they were fairly lightly armed – generally with small arms and mortars – though there were later reports that they had acquired SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles. As the war progressed the rebels managed to acquire heavy weapons including T-55 tanks and armoured personnel carriers captured from Macedonian government forces. The NLA had also thousands of land and anti-tank mines.

Organization
The NLA was organized into six brigades, each with their own commanders:

The 111th, 113th, and 114th Brigades operated within the Skopska Crna Gora, while the 112th operated around and within the Tetovo municipality. The 116th Brigade operated in the Gostivar municipality while the 115th Brigade was responsible for Skopje.
 * 111th Brigade, unknown commanders
 * 112th Brigade, commanded by Rahim Beqiri
 * 113th Brigade, commanded by Xhezair Shaqiri
 * 114th Brigade, commanded by Nazim Bushi
 * 115th Brigade, commanded by Rafiz Aliti
 * 116th Brigade, commanded by Tahir Sinani

NLA veterans in politics
Some former leaders of the NLA have taken positions in politics in North Macedonia and Kosovo.


 * Ali Ahmeti, founder of the NLA, is the leader and founder of the third largest political party in North Macedonia, called the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI).
 * Gëzim Ostreni, former NLA general, created the political party "Unity", along with Zulfi Adeli. The party was later merged with the Alliance for Albanians (AA) political party in North Macedonia.
 * Jakup Asipi, former NLA commander, was elected to be the mufti for the municipalities of Kumanovo and Lipkovo.
 * Talat Xhaferi, former NLA commander, who is serving as prime minister of North Macedonia, was the president of the Assembly of North Macedonia up until 26 January 2024, and the Minister of Defense of Macedonia from 2013 to 2014.

Alleged war crimes
According to Human Rights Watch, "Ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia tortured, sexually abused road workers after abducting them from the Skopje–Tetovo highway."

Dozens of ethnic Macedonians were kidnapped. While many were released after a short time, 12 people apparently remained missing after the NLA released 14 others in late September. In October, reports suggested that the 12 may have been killed and buried in mass graves near Neproshteno. The case was referred by the Macedonian government to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for investigation.

Another incident is the Vejce ambush, where Albanian guerrillas ambushed and killed eight Macedonian special forces from the Lions unit, a patrol of 16 special operatives. The families of the dead soldiers and several ministers claim that the information was sold to the guerrillas and that a major betrayal took place. The guerillas set up an ambush, attacking the patrol's lightly armored Humvee vehicles with small arms fire and RPGs. The patrol stopped and Macedonian forces and guerrillas exchanged fire in a short skirmish, after which the soldiers started retreating. Half of the patrol managed to escape, one soldier was shot and seven others captured and executed with knives and then their corpses were burned.

News of the massacre sparked local uprisings against Muslim Albanians in several towns and cities across Macedonia, and such revolts included burning and vandalizing shops and mosques. Surviving members of the roadside patrol that was massacred gave eyewitness testimony of the killings. They claimed that the massacre was carried out by a group of 10 bearded men. The bodies were never released to the public or civilian investigators and autopsies were carried out in a military morgue.

There was also an NLA bombing of the 13th century Orthodox monastery Sveti Atanasij in the village of Lesok on August 21, 2001. The attack occurred at around 3 am Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The interior had been gratified and destroyed by the NLA. NATO military experts said that "the fact that the battery was lying within an area spattered by rubble and wreckage seemed to suggest that it was detonated using a relatively sophisticated timer device;".

Ceasefire and disarmament
After the Ohrid Agreement, the NLA agreed to a ceasefire in June. Under the Ohrid Agreement, the Macedonian government pledged to improve the rights of the Albanian population, that make up around 20% of the population, a percentage heavily disputed by Macedonians. Those rights include making Albanian an official language, increasing the participation of ethnic Albanians in government institutions, police and the army. Most importantly, under the Ohrid Agreement, the Macedonian government agreed to a new model of decentralization.

The Albanian side agreed to give up any separatist demands and to fully recognize all Macedonian institutions. In addition, the NLA was to disarm and hand over their weapons to a NATO force. Operation Essential Harvest was officially launched on 22 August and effectively started on 27 August. This 30-day mission was to initially involve approximately 3,500 NATO troops, a number that went up to 4,200 NATO troops and Macedonian troops, to disarm the NLA and destroy their weapons. Just hours after NATO wrapped up the operation, Ali Ahmeti told reporters attending a news conference in the rebel stronghold of Sipkovica that he was dissolving the National Liberation Army and that it was time for ethnic reconciliation. Many members of the NLA, led by Ali Ahmeti, later formed the Democratic Union for Integration, a political party that won the majority of the Albanian votes in the 2002 election and formed part of the ruling coalition along with SDSM and LDP until August 2006 when, following July 2006 parliamentary elections, a conservative VMRO-DPMNE / DPA coalition came to government.

The total casualties of the war on each side are not known, but both sides claimed their own military casualties were around 60 each, while about 60–80 ethnic Albanian civilians and possibly about ten Macedonian civilians are thought to have been killed.

Formation of the Albanian National Army
In July 2001, members of the NLA formed the Albanian National Army (ANA, AKSh), and announced itself on 3 August 2001. The group is associated with FBKSh (National Front for Reunification of Albanians), its political wing. The group participated in attacks against Macedonian forces with the NLA. After the NLA disbanded, the ANA later went and operated in the Preševo Valley. The ANA continued to attack Macedonian security forces, while the NLA still claimed responsibility for attacks that occasionally occurred.

Later developments
After the Ohrid Agreement on 26 March 2002, ANA members attacked former NLA members in the village and former NLA stronghold Mala Rečica near Tetovo. The battle between former members of the NLA and members of the ANA lasted four hours and about 100 militants participated in it. According to some sources, 1 to 2 militants died in this skirmish.

In 2004, Avdil Jakupi, a ANA commander, surrendered to authorities in Kosovo, were he was sentenced to fourteen years in prison for kidnapping two policemen and attempting to bomb railway lines.

In 2004 and 2005 a group of 80 militants led by Agim Krasniqi controlled the village of Kondovo twice. Through the media, Krasniqi threatened to shell Skopje and his men kidnapped and beat four police officers. Krasniqi was later arrested my Macedonian Police and sent to court. He was charged with acts of terror, which he and his group pleaded not guilty to.

On 7 November 2007, ANA insurgents of the "Jakupi Group" controlled the region of the village Brodec on the Šar Mountains. The Macedonian police force later crackdown on the group, dubbed Operation Mountain Storm. The operation was carried out by a multi-ethnic police force, and according to Macedonian authorities, six members of the ANA were killed.

In April 2010, a weapon cache believed to be intended for group actions was discovered near the border with Serbia; it included uniforms with UÇK marks.

A movement calling itself the NLA claimed responsibility for the 2014 Skopje government attack. The organization, in the letter signed by "Kushtrimi" to the government, claimed that the "Hasan Prishtina" elite force hit the government building in a coordinated action. The organization claims it is dissatisfied with the 2001 Ohrid Agreement.

On 9 December 2014 at 8 p.m members of the National Liberation Army carried out bomb attacks near Macedonian police stations in Kumanovo and Tetovo. The Ministry of the Interior announced that in both cases it was not about bombs, but about a kind of explosive device. there were no injuries and no major damage. A private car parked near the train station was damaged. After the attack, the NLA took over responsibility.

On 21 April 2015, a group of 40 armed men with NLA patches attacked a border police station at Gošince. The group tied the policemen up and beat them, then stole their arms and communication devices. Before they left for Kosovo, the issued the message: "We are from the National Liberation Army. Tell them that neither Ali Ahmeti nor Nikola Gruevski can save you. We do not want any framework agreement and if we see you here again, we will kill you. We want our own state."

On 14 May 2015, a series of shootouts happened in Kumanovo between Macedonian police and a group who claimed they were the NLA. Between 50-70 militants were present during the fighting. Ten militants were killed, and reports state they wore uniforms with NLA insignia, with 30 more being arrested. According to Nikola Gruevski the armed group did not have the support of members of the Albanian minority contrary to the 2001 conflict.