The ties of Kosovo and Macedonian Police members to the Kumanovo Group The confession of the daughter of the convict

His daughter, Melissa Zekij, has related some things that Dad Valdet told him.

She said her father had invited Xhafer Zymber, killed in the armed conflict in Kumanovo. He had told him they are going there to fight for Albanian rights.

A month before the war starts, Dad knows. Xhafer Zymber has called him, told him that we are going to fight for the rights of Albanians in Macedonia, precisely because of the break of the Ohrid Agreement and whether to unite Albanian lands. Here they say there are a lot of people and they've been waiting since the fighting starts to come to about 200 more. But it's done with about 40 people. When Dad was interested in knowing who's going, he knew some of them, but he didn't have any great friendship with them, except with Xhaferin”, Melissa confessed.

But one thing she tells for the first time, she says that her father was told that he is an American commander who will take the lead. But something else came up.

They said there was an American commander and they believed he was American. But when Dad went to jail, he realized he wasn't American because he didn't have that accent, but neither as Macedonians, but all the other stuff. You don't know his name.

Even according to her confession, a group of some, including her father (Valdet Zekiaj), have helped members of the Kosovo Police in co-operation with members of Macedonia's Police.

When the border has been crossed, the Kosovo Police have sent them along with those of Macedonia, and here we suspect they have secret services. Kosovo police have taken them to the border, then along with those Macedonians have crossed the border, and through the mountains have gone to Kumanovo”, she continues the confession.

However, before leaving for Kumanovo, she says her father's group went to a Kosovo town and broke her phones.

Before leaving for Kumanovo, members of this group have gone to a town in Kosovo and handed in and broken their phones, and when they went to Kumanovo they had only simple phones. There they went to see the ground and then returned to Kosovo”, Melissa relates what she had heard from her father.

She says that after several days in Kumanovo, they later returned to Kosovo. According to her, their ideal has been to unite Albanian lands, imagining the war there as the Kosovo one in 1998.

“Now they've gone there. On the day of the start of combat, Dad contacted Mom on the phone and told her they started fighting. From then on, sometime around 5:00 in the morning, he didn't talk to Mom or anyone else. Now we even started from the news to find out what's going on, but they didn't know if he was alive or dead”, it's about the anxiety they experienced in the family.

She says one of Macedonia's Albanian police officers has notified Valdet's brother (Melisa's uncle) in America to prove he is alive.

We have learned from the lawyer and through an Albanian police officer. Dad was so hurt. He has told an Albanian police officer to check on his bodyline, and there's the number of mothers (scarking) and uncle (Valdet Zeka's brother) in America. The cop called my uncle in America and told him Dad was okay. And now we've committed ourselves to finding the lawyer”, the Melissa confession goes on.

She says that, according to what she heard from her father, Sami Ukshini, known in opinion as commander “Sokoli”, had contacts with the DUI leader in Macedonia, Ali Ahmeti.

“Sami Ukshi (Cohor Sokoli) had contact with Ali Ahmeti and asked him what to do because we were surrounded. He (Ali Ahmeti) has told them to surrender that he is now bringing the OSCE. But it wasn't actually O. The SEU but only Macedonian cops. Dad was present when “Sokoli” spoke on the phone with Ali Ahmeti when he told them to surrender”, she said.

She says they knew they would be punished, but not so much.

We knew Dad would be punished because the indictment was too big. But he did not have great deeds that punished him. Dad says when I know I did something bad, I don't have to, but he wants to know why they went there and who sent them. He doesn't know the names”, she tells about the Insander Journal.

Melissa, a young woman at the time and not very informed of the event, says she has asked her father why they are not going to Mitrovica to fight but to Kumanovo. She explains her father's reasoning,

When I got this job, my first question was that, why don't you go to Mitrovica, because she was more at risk than Kumanovo, and Dad told me the Ohrid Agreement was broken. I then had 16 years and didn't know what the Ohrid Agreement was, and he told me that there (Macedonia) is not allowing Albanian schools, ignoring their rights. Dad said that when we do it in Kumanovo, then we go to Mitrovica”, that's the conversation with his father.

In her view, Father has regretted not asking more about the reason for going there, but he has not regretted the ideal he had in his head.

Dad regrets he didn't investigate more before he left, but not the ideal he thought of. He feels betrayed by someone who doesn't know who he is, she's finished her confession.

Moreover, the Criminal Court in Skopje sentenced 33 members of the Kumanovo group to 746 years in prison. Of them, 7 were sentenced to life imprisonment, 13 persons were sentenced to 40 years in prison, 6 persons 20 years, one of the accused was sentenced to 18 years, two to 14 years, and two other members of 13 years. In the absence of evidence, four people were acquitted of all charges.

With life in prison, Andy Krasniqi, known as Merkelsevo, Deme Shehu, Fadil Feyzullahu, Nasuf Zeqiri, Valdet Zekaj, Beg Bajra and Fejzula Rushovski were sentenced. /Insander/