General information
Part of Conflict: North Macedonia: Government
Date of first stated goals of incompatibility: 2001-01-23
Comment on date of first stated goal of incompatibility: On 23 January, the UCK sent a statement to a major Macedonian newspaper, titled "Communiqué no. 4". In the statement, the UCK took on responsibility for the previous days attack, at the same time as it opposed the governments ("the Macedonian occupiers and their Albanophone collaborators") plans to dominate the Albanian majority. The UCK claimed that attacks against Macedonian state representatives would continue "until the Albanian people are liberated".
On 7 March, an unidentified UCK representative specified the incompatibility by saying that the Macedonian Albanians have "taken up arms not to fight for Greater Albania, but rather because the political means undertaken thus far have not produced results in the sense of improving the current position of Albanians in Macedonia - the prime objective is to ensure "the full equality of Albanians with the Macedonian people".
On 10 March, a statement was faxed to a German broadcaster. The UCK claimed to respect the territorial integrity of the Macedonian state, however, the organisation was calling for changes to Macedonias constitution. The statement read that "Macedonia must be defined as a state of two peoples", Macedonians and Albanians. This would end the "discrimination against the Albanian population by the Slav-Macedonian majority".
Date of first use of armed force: 2000-01-11
Comment on date of first use of armed force: On 22 January, a UCK special unit carried out an attack on a police station in western Macedonia. The unit was accompanied by a group of observers armed with rifles and hand grenades. One policeman was killed and two were injured in the rocket attack.
On 26 February, violent clashes broke out between the warring parties when the UCK occupied the border village of Tanusevci.
First Battle Related Death: 2000-01-11
Comment on First Battle Related Death: On 11 January three policemen were killed in the village of Aracinovo near Skopje. A brief statement said that the policemen, two in uniform and one in civilian clothes, stopped a car in Aracinovo for a routine check. The people inside the car opened fire on the policemen, killing all three, whereupon the car disappeared in an unknown direction.
Date when dyad reached 25 battle releated deaths: 2001-05-03
Comment on date when dyad reached 25 battle related deaths: In the beginning of May, at least 25 people had died in battle.
Conflict issues
Conflict Goal Issues: Ushtria Clirimtare Kombëtare (UCK), also known as Osloboditelna Narodna Armija, (ONA), National Liberation Army (NLA), or Macedonian UCK, was an Albanian nationalist rebel group aiming to protect the rights of Macedonian Albanians from oppression by the ruling majority Slavic population. The group explicitly opposed the irredentist ideas which were common with other Albanian nationalist rebel groups. UCK emerged in 2001 which was its only active year of conflict, during which it stated several conflict goal issues. The group stated its intentions to protect Albanian civil-, language-, and cultural rights from oppression, called for the provision of public services to the Macedonian population through bureaucratic and administrative reform to expand on Albanian participation in Macedonian government and bureaucracy. UCK also called for citizenship reform to grant all Albanians in Macedonia Macedonian citizenship, called for the federalization of the Macedonian state to grant more power to local authorities and for the group to be recognized as a political party. Finally, UCK called for a restructuring of military and police forces as well as for the establishment of security-sector power-sharing which would entail the inclusion of UCK fighters into the military and police. As UCK only existed for one year, no continuity of issues could be established, and no main conflict issues were attributed to the group.
Conflict Dynamics Issues: UCK stated several conflict dynamics issues during its brief existence, calling for the release of prisoners detained by the Macedonian government and for the returning of Albanians to Macedonia. The group also made several statements toward the international community, calling for the withdrawal of military support from the neighboring governments, Europe, and the U.S. to Macedonia, for the implementation of a NATO intervention in Macedonia to protect Albanians, for the international Albanian diaspora to assist in the fighting against the Macedonian state, and for a third-party mediator to be supplied by the international community to resolve the conflict politically.
Conflict Resolution Issues: UCK released statements pertaining to four conflict resolution issues, calling for a ceasefire to be implemented, for negotiations to be initiated on the condition of international oversight, and for a general amnesty to be granted to UCK fighters.
Type of conflict issues: The coded conflict issues for this group are:
*Conflict Goal Issues: *
Autonomy, Bureaucratic setup, Change of administrative divisions, Citizenship reforms, Civil rights, Constitutional issues, CPS: Democracy, Cultural rights, Executive power-sharing, Federalism, Geographical status quo, Language rights, Public services, Recognition as a political party, Restructure military forces, Restructure police forces, Security sector power-sharing
*Conflict Dynamics Issues: * DFI: Withdrawal of military support, IFI: Foreign mediator, IFI: International monitoring, IFI: Military intervention/foreign forces, IFI: Support from diasporas/foreign fighters, Release of prisoners, Return of refugees/IDPs
*Conflict Resolution Issues: * Amnesties, Call for ceasefire, Call for negotiations, Structure of negotiations
Annual information
This section contains annual information systematically collected by the UCDP.
2000
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 3 |
| Best | 3 |
| Low | 3 |
Secondary Warring Support:
Side A (Government of North Macedonia): n/a
Side B (UCK): n/a
2001
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 233 |
| Best | 72 |
| Low | 72 |
Secondary Warring Support:
Side A (Government of North Macedonia): n/a
Side B (UCK): n/a
Peace agreements
Name of peace agreement: The Ohrid Agreement
Date when warring parties signed the agreement: 2001-08-13
Comment of peace agreement: Full peace agreement
The agreement stipulates a complete cessation of hostilities, a complete voluntary disarmament of the ethnic Albanian armed groups and their complete voluntary disbandment. External defence will in the future be handled by the central government, but the agreement provides an arrangement with the goal to reach total ethnic equality in the police forces, and as a first step 500 policemen not of Macedonian ethnicity are to be hired. It was furthermore agreed that the UCK members would cede their armaments to NATO troops.
The peace agreement provided for greater rights for the ethnic Albanian community. Constitutional changes were to be made on a number of aspects: members of the minority groups, such as the Albanians, were to be referred to as Macedonian citizens and Albanian was given status of official language in areas where speakers constituted 20% of the population. Furthermore, Albanians were given the right to proportional representation in the judiciary, all areas of government administration and security forces. Greater rights were also provided for as for national and local politics, education and state employment. The double majority method was adopted, whereby legislation affecting minorities required not only a majority of parliamentary votes, but also a majority of votes of those deputies who were not members of the ethnic majority. Lastly a program for the resettlement of displaced persons is established.
Signatories: Boris Trajkovski President of the Republic of Macedonia, Ljubco Georgievski Arben Xhaferi President of the VMRO-DPMNE President of the Democratic Party of Albanians, Branko Crvenkovski Imer Imeri President of the Social Democratic President of the Party for Democratic Union of Macedonia Prosperity
Witnessed By : François Léotard Special Representative of the European Union James W. Pardew Special Representative of the United States of America
Comment of signatories: The peace agreement was signed by the four largest parties in the parliament: the IMRO-DPMNU, the SDAM, the PDP and the DPA. No UCK representatives signed the agreement. However, as was the case during the negotiations, the Albanian political parties were seen as a proxy for the UCK. Even though the UCK was excluded from the peace talks, its political chief, Ali Ahmeti, had the power to determine whether the Albanian parties should sign the agreement or not.
Third parties: NATO, European Union, United States of America
Comment of third parties role in peace agreement: The peace agreement provided for the establishment of a NATO mission, Operation Essential Harvest, whose mandate was to disarm the UCK and to destroy its weapons within 30 days. This mission was followed by reduced NATO operations which were maintaining security in order to facilitate the implementation of the peace agreement.
The European Union and USA witnessed the signing of the agreement.
Comment of Duration: Sporadic violence occurs in western Macedonia, and inter-ethnic tension remained high. However, the government proceeded with the implementation of the peace agreement.
Full-text peace agreement
2010
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Secondary Warring Support:
Side A (Government of North Macedonia): n/a
Side B (UCK): n/a
Dyad Archive
This section contains annual information no longer systematically collected by the UCDP.
2000 Dyad Archive
Negotiations: NO
Victory: NO
Terminated: NO
2001 Dyad Archive
Comment on Active: In late February, violence flared in Albanian-inhabited villages in the north of Macedonia. In mid-March, the fighting spread to Tetovo. The Macedonian government began a full-scale offensive by the end of the month. Fighting continued in the ensuing months while peace talks were initiated. In July, a ceasefire was agreed on. On 13 August, a peace agreement was signed between the parties.
Negotiations: YES
Comment on Negotiations: A few ceasefires were negotiated between the warring parties. The most important one was agreed on in the beginning of July. NATO was acting as a messenger, securing the signing of a ceasefire agreement with the UCK on 4 July, and with the Macedonian government on the following day.
Peace talks intensified between Albanian and Macedonian parliamentary parties in June. The Macedonian government never accepted the presence of the UCK at the negotiation table. On 23 May, the Albanian parties and the UCK signed an agreement on "common action" to end the conflict. From this date, the Albanian parliamentary parties officially represented the UCK position.
The negotiations deadlocked in mid-June, but continued throughout July with the assistance of international mediators. The focus of the talks were changes to the constitution to address the UCKs complaints of discrimination of Albanians. The issue of Albanian representation in the police force and the status of the Albanian language were two of the most debated questions. On 28 July, in Ohrid the last round of negotiations were initiated, leading to the signing of a peace agreement on 13 August.
Victory: NO
Terminated: YES
Type of termination: Peace Agreement
Date of termination: 2001-08-13
Comment on Termination: On 13 August, a peace accord was agreed on between the warring parties. The agreement was mediated by the US and the EU, and provided for significant constitutional changes. On 27 September, the UCK was formally dissolved.
Comment on Termination Date: The peace agreement was signed on 13 August 2001.
2010 Dyad Archive
Terminated: NO
