New Guerrilla Group Surfaces in Southern Serbia
Radio B92
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
August 7, 2001

PRISTINA, Tuesday – A hitherto unknown organisation, the Albanian National Army (ANA), has claimed responsibility for the killing of two policemen in southern Serbia on Friday.

The rebel group said in a statement to AFP in Pristina today that Friday's attack was a "warning to the occupier of the Albanian territory of Anamorava and its international and Albanian-speaking allies." Anamorava is the Albanian name for the Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac areas of southern Serbia.

"The war is not over, any more than it is in Macedonia," the statement said. It vowed a war "even more violent and better organised" for "the national reunification of Albanians in a unified Albania."

Conflicts in Kosovo, southern Serbia and Macedonia were merely a "training ground for the fighters of the ANA for an overall Albanian rebellion," the statement ended. It was signed by the "ANA high command."

However, Presevo official Naser Neziri told B92 that Albanians in the region knew nothing of any Albanian National Army.

"This is the last thing Albanian people in southern Serbia need," he said. "We have chosen a political solution to the crisis, and we will stick to it."

It is not clear whether the Albanian National Army and the Liberation Army of Eastern Kosovo are one and the same. (AFP/B92)