The Kosovo Liberation Army

This chapter illustrates the emergence of the Kosovo Liberation Army during the 1990s, the role of Marxist-Leninist clandestine organizations and of the Albanian diaspora as the seeds of what became to be known as the Kosovo Liberation Army. It describes the highly decentralized organizational structure of the Kosovo Liberation Army and the differences and conflicts between the different Albanian resistance groups. The chapter traces the efforts of the international community, and especially of the US, to reach an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo Albanians, and how the Kosovo Liberation Army used truces to improve its position on the ground. The chapter concludes with an outline of the Rambouillet Conference in 1999 where a peace plan was proposed, which was rejected by Serbia but, after many efforts, endorsed by the Kosovo Albanians. Yugoslavia’s/Serbia’s failure to accept the peace plan led to the NATO military intervention, which put Kosovo under the administration of the United Nations.