Kosovo Liberation Army - Status As Terrorist Group

Status As Terrorist Group

The Yugoslav authorities, under Slobodan Milošević, regarded the KLA a terrorist group. In February 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton's special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, condemned both the actions of Serb government and of the KLA, and described the KLA as, "without any questions, a terrorist group". UN resolution 1160 took a similar stance.

But the 1997 US Department's terrorist list hadn't included the KLA. In March 1998, just one month later Gerbald had to modify his statements to say that KLA had not been classified legally by the U.S. government as a terrorist group, and the US government approached the KLA leaders to make them interlocutors with the Serbs. A Wall Street Journal article claimed later that the US government had in February 1998 removed the KLA from the list of terrorist organizations, a removal that has never been confirmed. France didn't delist the KLA until late 1998, after strong US and UK lobbying. KLA is still present in the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base list of terrorist groups, and is listed as an inactive terrorist organization by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism from the Homeland Security.

During the war, the KLA troops collaborated with the NATO troops, and they were qualified by the NATO as "freedom fighters". In late 1999 the KLA was disbanded and its members entered the Kosovo Protection Corps.

Read more about this topic:  Kosovo Liberation Army

Famous quotes containing the words status as, status, terrorist and/or group:

    As a work of art it has the same status as a long conversation between two not very bright drunks.
    Clive James (b. 1939)

    [In early adolescence] she becomes acutely aware of herself as a being perceived by others, judged by others, though she herself is the harshest judge, quick to list her physical flaws, quick to undervalue and under-rate herself not only in terms of physical appearance but across a wide range of talents, capacities and even social status, whereas boys of the same age will cite their abilities, their talents and their social status pretty accurately.
    Terri Apter (20th century)

    The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket. Revolution, legality—counter-moves in the same game; forms of idleness at bottom identical.
    Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)

    Remember that the peer group is important to young adolescents, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Parents are often just as important, however. Don’t give up on the idea that you can make a difference.
    —The Lions Clubs International and the Quest Nation. The Surprising Years, I, ch.5 (1985)