April 23, 1998, Albanian–Yugoslav border ambush

Following World War II, Kosovo was given the status of an autonomous province within the Socialist Republic of Serbia, one of six constitutional republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After the death of Yugoslavia's long-time leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980, Yugoslavia's political system began to unravel. In 1989, Belgrade revoked Kosovo's autonomy. Kosovo, a province inhabited predominantly by ethnic Albanians, was of great historical and cultural significance to Serbs. Alarmed by their dwindling numbers, the province's Serbs began to fear that they were being "squeezed out" by the Albanians, and ethnic tensions worsened. As soon as Kosovo's autonomy was abolished, a minority government run by Serbs and Montenegrins was appointed by Serbian President Slobodan Milošević to oversee the province, enforced by thousands of heavily armed paramilitaries from Serbia-proper. Albanian culture was systematically repressed and hundreds of thousands of Albanians working in state-owned companies lost their jobs. It quickly gained popularity among young Kosovo Albanians, many of whom rejected the non-violent resistance to Yugoslav authorities advocated by the politician Ibrahim Rugova and favoured a more aggressive approach. The organization received a significant boost in 1997, when an armed uprising in neighbouring Albania led to thousands of weapons from the Albanian Army's depots being looted. Many of these weapons ended up in the hands of the KLA. Cross-border arms smuggling flourished; the unit charged with securing the Yugoslav border was the 549th Motorized Brigade, under the command of General Božidar Delić. The KLA's popularity skyrocketed after the VJ and MUP attacked the compound of KLA leader Adem Jashari in March 1998, killing him, his closest associates and most of his family. The attack motivated thousands of young Kosovo Albanians to join the ranks of the KLA, fueling the Kosovar uprising that eventually erupted in the spring of 1998. ==Timeline==

Clash According to Delić, at 05:45 on the morning of April 23, soldiers of the 53rd Border Battalion of the 549th Motorized Brigade encountered a group of 150–200 militants near the Košare outpost attempting to illegally enter Kosovo via northern Albania, just west of Deçan. Rebels had been massing at the Albanian–Yugoslav border for some time in anticipation of a renewed VJ offensive. Yugoslav authorities stated that the militants were "armed infiltrators" who had been undergoing training in military camps in Albania, and were attempting to smuggle weapons into Kosovo. According to Delić, the border patrol was greatly outnumbered by the militants. The VJ reported suffering no casualties in the clash. It was the single deadliest war-related incident in Kosovo since the attack against Jashari's compound the previous month. Initial reports suggested that anywhere between 16 and 23 militants had been killed. Aftermath During Milošević's trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Delić testified that an investigative judge from Niš visited the Košare outpost shortly after fighting had ceased, and conducted an on-site investigation. On April 24, Western reporters saw VJ personnel digging mortar positions south of Dečani, about from the Albanian border. The troops said they had been exchanging gunfire with the rebels over the previous two days. U.S. officials said they would push for a freeze on Yugoslavia's overseas assets and an international ban on foreign trade with the country in response to the violence. In turn, the Yugoslav military issued a statement requesting that the West put pressure on Kosovo Albanian leaders "to give up and denounce terrorism if they truly wanted a peaceful and political solution to Kosovo's problems." The statement also accused Albania of "training, infiltrating and illegally arming the terrorists," and demanded that the West pressure the country to desist from such activities. Villagers claimed that some of the dead had been arrested days before their deaths and thus could not have been ambushed, as the Yugoslav authorities claimed. Such claims could not be independently verified by Western reporters. ==See also==