KOSOVO: KLA CONTINUES ITS RESISTANCE FIGHT

Описание: (21 Oct 1998) English/Nat

The Kosovo Liberation Army (K-L-A) is continuing its resistance fight in the hills of Kosovo.

In a remote location in the Drnica region, it has formed a special unit to counter the ongoing Serb offensive.

To prove they have not been wiped out, as claimed by the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, they took journalists on an armed patrol.

The fight goes on for the K-L-A.

While Slobodan Milosevic has been telling the world he has obliterated resistance in the restive province, the renegade fighters have formed a secret unit.

And as the brutal Balkan winter approaches they are vowing to continue their battle for independence.

Stationed 25 to 30 kilometres outside the capital Pristina, the new unit of separatists is in training, waiting until it has to fight Serb forces hand-to-hand.

They have kept the exact location of their make-shift base secret, but it is known to be in the Drenica region, in central Kosovo.

The area is believed to be a major KLA stronghold, where Albanian separatists have strong support, even in the wake of the prolonged and withering onslaught by Serbia.

Despite few of the guerrillas having any formal training, the unit likes to behave like a crack military outfit.

It is led by a Commander known as \"Number 10\".

The men wear new black uniforms and smart red berets.

They are well drilled, spending time each day practising marching and exercise.

They monitor all patrols from a distance, knowing their only strategy can be to defend against further attacks, rather than attack the superior forces of their opponents.

And they are well armed and equipped as they watch Serb police positions through binoculars from vantage points high in the hills.

The only position they hold is in the relative quiet of the deserted village they have made their base.

And like any other unit, the separatist fighters often end their day on patrol trying to escape the horrors of what is happening in the field.

After a long day they take off their uniforms and play football in the village yard.

But they are aware their patrols are no war games.

In another village in Kosovo another refugee camp has sprung up.

Yet more ethnic Albanian civilians are forced to run from one demolished settlement to another to hide from the constant threat of death.

These people are some of the estimated 300-thousand who have been displaced by the fighting.

Most have only the most meagre of possessions left.

Some are already falling prey to the weakness that is bound to come as food becomes increasingly scarce and the merciless winter sets in.

And the fight they are left with is far less glamorous than the resistance movement of the K-L-A - the fight for survival.

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