Ethnic
Albanian-Americans To
Fight Against Serbs
05:35 p.m Apr 12, 1999 Eastern
By Patrick Rizzo
NEW YORK (Reuters) -
Hundreds of ethnic Albanian
Americans mustered Monday to
join the fray in Kosovo as fighting
between Kosovo Liberation Army
guerrillas and Serb forces raged on
along the Yugoslav-Albanian
border.
The 385 men and a few women
were leaving on a chartered flight
for Tirana, Albania Monday night
from Newark International
Airport. Precise departure details
were not being released.
With echoes of the Abraham
Lincoln Brigade, American
volunteers who fought in the
Spanish Civil War at the end of the
1930s, the group has dubbed itself
the ''Atlantic Brigade''.
The recruits ranged in age from
teenagers to men in their 60s.
Most have no military training.
Many have never been to Kosovo
and do not speak the local
languages well.
Sunday the volunteers, dressed in
army fatigues emblazoned with the
KLA's insignia, held a ''swearing
in'' ceremony in Yonkers, N.Y.,
organized by the KLA and
Homeland Calls, its U.S.
fund-raising arm.
They will be joining the 2,000 to
3,000 ethnic Albanians from the
United States who have already
volunteered to fight the Serb forces
in Kosovo, said Shirley Cloyes
DioGuardi, Balkan Affairs Advisor
for the Albanian American Civic
League.
''Planeloads have been going out''
since last spring, she said. ''We
see others going out as long as
there is no help going in.''
Volunteers for the KLA have been
coming from ethnic Albanians in
the United States, Europe and
elsewhere. The KLA is training
them in Albania.
Cloyes DioGuardi said the
volunteers are being financed by
donations from the seven million
ethnic Albanians who live outside
the Balkans, mostly in the United
States and Europe. She said she
did not know how much money
had been raised.
''But it's not enough,'' she added.
Congressman James Traficant,
Democrat of Ohio, is expected to
introduce a resolution in the House
of Representatives this week
calling for NATO and the United
States to arm the KLA, to invade
Yugoslavia with ground troops and
to try Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic for war
crimes.
Since March 24, Milosevic has
defied a massive NATO bombing
campaign and continued military
operations in Kosovo. Since that
date, about 456,000 ethnic
Albanian refugees fled or were
expelled from Kosovo.
NATO foreign ministers earlier
Monday accused Milosevic of
creating a humanitarian catastrophe
in Kosovo and said they would
continue to bomb until he relented.
They reiterated that an invasion of
Kosovo was not being
contemplated.
Fierce battles between the KLA
and Serb forces have raged over
the past four days.
Monday KLA guerrillas fought
Serb forces on the
Yugoslav-Albanian frontier.
According to Albanian police and
OSCE officials, three Albanian
citizens and four KLA fighters
have been killed on Albanian
territory during fighting involving
machine guns and Serb mortar
attacks, some against villages and
border posts.
Eyewitnesses said three Kosovo
villages near the northern Albanian
border were set ablaze Monday.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. |
