The Albanian Black Arm

On the night of September 24, someone ambushed Sabri Hamiti, a ranking official of the Kosovo Democratic League, and fired two bullets into his chest in downtown Pristina. Hamiti survived the hit because the perpetrator missed his heart by an inch or so, but it is unlikely whether he will recover fully because his lungs have been damaged. The only thing the neighbours noticed was the young man's Lenin-styled hat.

Bearing in mind that almost 1,000 people have died in Kosovo over the past few months, the attempt to kill one man shouldn't draw too much attention. However, the attempt to kill this man, Sabri Hamiti, rocked Pristina because he was a ranking official on Kosovo's political scene. It was also the third assassination attempt in less than a month. Two ranking politicians were killed in Tirana, meaning that their assassinations could be explained by the turmoil and the struggle for power in the neighbouring Albania. However, the third hit brought the theory of a conspiracy to eliminate all those standing in the way of "liberating and unifying" ethnic Albanians in and around Kosovo. In other words, it seems that the ethnic Albanians now have their own version of the Black Arm, a secret Serb organization that operated in the early twenties with the motto "unification or death".
The first murder, which sparked mass riots in Albania and eventually Premier Fatos Nano's resignation, happened on September 12 in downtown Tirana. The victim was Azem Hajdari, a member of the Albanian parliament and a ranking official of Salli Berisha's Democratic party. Although he was born in Albania, Hajdari constructed his career in Kosovo and the liberation of his "enslaved brothers" in the southern Serbian province He also led the students' uprising against Ramiz Aljija in Albania back in 1991, and has been nicknamed the "Albanian Seselj" for his insurgent activities. Bersiha himself had to modify his position on Kosovo when he came to power, but Hajdari remained his number one man for the southern Serbian province. Hajdari remained an important figure even when the Democratic Party lost the elections in March last year. He was the chairman of the Council for defense, public order and national security. He was very influential on both sides of the border - in Albania and Kosovo. He managed to survive an assassination attempt in the Albanian parliament building last year. This time round, he wasn't so lucky.

There is no doubt that he was an obstacle to Fatos Nano's regime, but many people believe that his assassination has been motivated by events that took place in Kosovo. Salli Berisha had strong ties with Adem Demaqi while he was the Albanian president, while his most recent ally is Kosovo's exiled "Premier" Bujar Bukoshi, who set up a FARK organization four months ago (Republic of Kosovo Armed Forces). The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) declared traitors all those who joined the organization. Eliminating Hajdari quite simply meant that the FARK lost an influent political ally in Tirana. However, few people paid attention to this detail in the chaos that emerged after his murder. The Albanians believed that Hajdari's assassination was orchestrated by either Fatos Nano or the Serbian secret service, although there are few reasons to believe that it is able to operate in Albania.

The second assassination happened only two weeks later. The target was Ahmet Krasniqi, the "defense minister" in Bukoshi's exiled government and the FARK commander-in-chief. Krasniqi was a colonel of the former Yugoslav National Army until 1991. He was in charge of the Gospic garrison and surrendered it to Croat troops without a fight when the war broke out in that former Yugoslav republic. He stayed in Croatia after that for awhile, but left when he realized he had no place in the Croatian army. He kept a very low profile for quite some time, and then he popped up in Tirana as Bukoshi's defense minister. Ironically, a decree promoting one of his officer was published the day he was assassinated.

Krasniqi was murdered outside his Tirana flat, with a weapon commonly used by the Albanian secret service. The Albanian secret service searched Krasiniqi's flat the day before, allegedly looking for a dangerous fugitive. They took away Krasniqi's personal gun and disarmed his bodyguards. Although there is no doubt that that the secret service was involved in Krasniqi's murder, sources close to the KLA's foreign-based Marxists and Leninists said they were out to get the FARK only a few days before the event. They also claimed unofficial responsibility for his death. The KLA's officially regrets Krasniqi's death but underscored that he had "no ranks or position within the KLA headquarters". That, however, didn't stop Albania from giving Krasniqi a royal funeral after displaying his body for day in the National Army building.

It became clear that there is a hit list after the attempt to assassinate Sabri Hamiti. The event confirmed rumours that the KLA is out to eliminate genuine and potential "traitors" of the ethnic Albanian cause, after a heavy defeat it suffered at the hands of Serbian police in Kosovo. Hamiti was Ibrahim Rugova's capital political advisor and his role in Rugova's crucial decisions was instrumental. "Those who tried to kill Hamiti probably realized that assassinating Rugova himself would cause an uproar among ethnic Albanians, so they went for his closest aide instead to intimidate and isolate the DSK president. The KLA spokesman Jakup Krasniqi accused the DSK and the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Information center of "undermining the KLA" only a day before Hamiti was ambushed.

There are details indicating that this is only the beginning. A group of ethnic Albanian politicians who wanted to visit the Mount Nicevic region last week was detained and interrogated for two days by men who claimed to be the KLA military police. Some of those politicians were told that the KLA had a hit list of traitors soon to be eliminated. The list allegedly includes prominent ethnic Albanian intellectuals from Kosovo who dared criticize the KLA. The group was released and told that some of them would be court marshaled by the KLA when the time comes.

All those events have sent shivers down the spine of the Pristina political scene. "Up to now, I was only afraid that the police might detain me and rough me up. Now, I am afraid that some idiot will ambush me outside my own house and blow my head off because I owe him 20 German marks or something", a worried ethnic Albanian said. "All anyone has to do is say that I betrayed the cause and I can be killed", he added. The situation in Kosovo is terrible as it is. A dirty war within an ongoing civil war is the last thing that could make things better.