June 16, 1999
THE INSURGENTS
Kosovo Forces Retake a Town, Armed With Roses and Sad Smiles
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By STEVEN ERLANGER
LOGOVAC, Yugoslavia -- The Kosovo Liberation Army took Glogovac
on Tuesday morning, holding an impromptu victory stroll down the
ruined main street of this ethnic Albanian town.
Children rushed to greet them and threw flowers on them. Some of
the fighters, in their fatigues, put pink roses in the barrels of
their Kalashnikovs, while others fired bursts of gunfire into the
air.
They marched behind the red and black flag of Albania, just a
few miles from the last Serbian checkpoint and tank position.
"It's very hard to say in words what my heart says," said
Shaban Shala, a member of the army's general staff and deputy
commander of this region, Drenica, where the insurgency was born
and where the Serbs concentrated their offensive. "It was one year
of war, a year of suffering and pain and destruction. But this day
gives meaning to all the pain."
Shala said he had asked one soldier not to fire into the air,
but the soldier said: "My father was killed and my brother was
killed and your brother was killed for this day, and I will shoot
for them."
Shemsi Bajraktari, a 22-year-old fighter and former student of
electrical engineering, said his hardest moments were when he had
to watch the expulsion, abuse and murder of the civilians whom the
army was formed to protect.
"We felt desperate and weak when we were unable to protect the
people," he said, a flower in his curly hair. "On one side, it's
a victory; but from the other side, it's a defeat, because we lost
so many people."
And what is his strongest emotion? Bajraktari smiled broadly.
"Victory," he said.
Now, he said, he is eager to become a student again, but he
couldn't say whether the rest of the fighters were so ready to
disband their units.
Shala, who worked as a lawyer and a human-rights advocate before
picking up the gun, said there was much sadness, too.
"The worst was when we saw the population in their hands,"
he said of the Serbs. "Sometimes we caused the Serbs big losses,
but that wasn't so important for us, because it would cause the
deaths of thousands of civilians. So we had to be strong and
disciplined, because we were walking on the edge of a sword."
All the Kosovo Albanians are grateful to NATO, he said. Earlier
Tuesday morning, he met with British and Norwegian officers. "We
complimented each other," he said, and then added with no evident
irony: "This is partly their victory, too."
They are to meet again later Tuesday night and again on
Wednesday to discuss the situation and the insurgents, Shala said.
He carried a sidearm and a Kalashnikov; he said the allied officers
had not tried to take them away.
Asked if the rebel army is ready to disband -- to be
"demilitarized" in the words of the peace settlement and the
Security Council resolution authorizing KFOR, the international
force here -- Shala said: "The people need a protection force. Now
it is KFOR. But every people needs a security force, and we will be
that force, but we will do it in cooperation with NATO and the
United Nations."
As he spoke, his men and the Albanians of Glogovac listened
respectfully, shushing the little children who danced around them
tossing flowers.
Nuhi Hyseni, 27, has few illusions about the strength of the
insurgent army he fought for. The war had brought freedom with much
thanks to NATO, he said. But now the allies ask them to disband.
"I adore NATO," he said, "but it's really hard to demilitarize
totally. You have to know what we suffered for two years in the
hills."
A month ago, he said, Serbs killed his brother, Shefqet, 31, a
civilian who left a wife and four children. The insurgents found
his body, along with that of a small group of refugees. But Hyseni
has not yet been able to go home to Vrbovac, a village a few miles
to the north, to find out the details.
Still, he said, "if we live in freedom, maybe we don't need
weapons."
The fighting was very tough, especially around the villages at
Obrinje and Banjica and Trdevac, he and the others said. "The
Serbs had too many heavy weapons," he said. "It wasn't equal, but
we fought well."
Glogovac, only 20 miles west of Pristina, was an entirely
Albanian town of some 12,000 people before this war. Now, it has
perhaps 5,000 people, said Daut Elshan, 45, an electrician at the
town's main industry, a ferronickel plant that has been shut for
many months.
Many of the Albanians here were pushed out by Serbian forces,
who only a month ago filled 100 buses with people and sent them
toward the Macedonian border.
"Every day they came to our houses," Elshan said. "They took
two of our tractors and told us they would execute our sons, and
that we would never see them again. They asked for 1,000 Deutsche
marks to save them."
He said the Serbs put a gun barrel to his throat and a knife to
his wife's eye, and threatened to cut it out unless they were paid.
Fazli Hasi, 69, a grizzled man leaning on a cane, said: "We
couldn't sleep at night from fear and shooting in the air. The
Serbs came day and night. They were drinking and shooting in the
air, and beat me and everyone."
Xhevdet Bajraktari, 30, a fighter and former metalworker from
this town, could not stop grinning. Wherever he walked, people
touched his arms and kissed him.
"I fled from my house a year ago," he said. The Serbs had set
up an army position close to the house, so he left to join the
insurgents. "Now," he said, with an enormous grin, "I feel very
satisfied. Now I just want to go home."
