SUMMARY
The UCK (Ushtria Clirimtare Kombëtare; alternatively Osloboditelna Narodna Armija, ONA; National Liberation Army, NLA; Macedonian UCK) fought an intrastate armed conflict over government against the Government of Macedonia, FYR. UCK claimed to represent the relatively large (roughly one third of the total population) Albanian minority in Macedonia; the group claimed that the Albanian minority was subjected to political, social, and economic exclusion by Macedonia’s Slavic majority group. UCK’s primary goal was to overthrow the Macedonian government in order to “liberate” the Albanian population, and ensure its equal status to the Macedonian Slavic population. The group also explicitly stated that it did not pursue the establishment of a “Greater Albania”, which was an irredentist idea promoting the unification of all Albanian-populated territories into a single state. It has also been suggested that the actions taken by the UCK were intended to establish control over the lucrative smuggling routes going from Macedonia into Yugoslavia.
The first public appearance of the UCK was on 23 January 2001, when it via a fax communique claimed responsibility for an attack against a Macedonian police station on 22 January. However, Aleksa Stamenkovski - a former Macedonian Director of Counterintelligence - claimed that the existence of the UCK had been known for over a year prior to this. The political leader of the UCK was Ali Ahmeti, who along with other prominent founding figures like Amrush Xhemajli, was a former member of the Kosovar Albanian UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA). The chief military commander of the UCK was Gezim Ostreni. In March 2001, it was estimated that the UCK had between 200 and 800 fighters; other estimates put this number at 1500. These included not only local Macedonian Albanians, but also proponents of pan-Albanian ideology, and battle-hardened veterans from the various conflicts in Yugoslavia.
UCK had close friendship ties to its Kosovo-based counterpart UCK/KLA, and evidence suggested that the latter also provided support to the Macedonian group. For example, the experienced UCK/KLA commander Xhavit Hasani was believed to have joined the UCK in Macedonia; many experienced UCK/KLA rank-and-file fighters also joined the UCK. It should be noted that UCK/KLA leaders publically denounced the violence used by the UCK; however, some sources claim that this was more intended to appease the international community. The Government of Macedonia was convinced that the UCK received significant support from Kosovo; this was believed to be the case also according to other sources. The suspicion of UCK/KLA providing direct support to UCK was in part driven by the fact that the Kosovar group had claimed responsibility for minor violent incidents in Macedonia in 1997 and 1998. Furthermore, UCK/KLA spokesperson Jakup Krasniqi had at one point said that Macedonia could be the target of the UCK/KLA once Kosovo was liberated.
It has also been suggested that the UCK may have had connections to the UÇPMB (Ushtria Çlirimtare e Preshevës, Medvegjës dhe Bujanocit; Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac), another Albanian group that was fighting a low-intensity insurgency in Yugoslavia’s Preševo Valley.
On 13 August 2001, UCK and the Government of Macedonia signed the Ohrid peace agreement, effectively terminating the conflict; after this, UCK was no longer active in UCDP data. Following the end of the conflict, UCK leader Ahmeti formed a new political party, the Democratic Union for Integration (Demokratska unija za integracija, DUI), which became part of the ruling coalition that controlled the [Government of Macedonia, FYR[(/#/actor/47) after the 2002 parliamentary election.
