Who was Ahmet Krasniqi, and how was he killed secretly in Tirana?

Ahmet Krasniqi was killed on September 21st 1998 shortly before midnight in Tirana. He was the defence minister at Bujar Bukoshi Government.

His body rests in the tomb of Sharra, very close to his friend Azem Hajdari.

We bring you an interview a few years ago by a close relative of Krasniqi, who confessed to the Albanian newspaper.

Part of the following interview:

Aziz Krasniqi, Ahmet Krasniqi's first cousin, through an interview for the Albanian “Gasette, relates details from his life and clashes within Kosovo politics in those years.

This year it's 15 years since the murder of former Defence Minister Mr. The executed Ahmet Krasniqi in Tirana, how much did his death hurt you?

Krasniqi: His murder has hurt us a lot for the fact that he was killed in the mother state, as we have already known, and most Kosovo Albanians still know. In Tirana Ahmeti was not illegally, all Albanian state institutions have known, as he lived in Tirana and that residence had addresses. It was on a mission, and that mission was Kosovo's liberation.

How do you remember the moment of his murder, who told you where you were?

Krasniqi: It was September 22nd 1998, we were in a Serbian offensive, which had swept the entire radius of Qyqavica. It was the 13:00 news, when we received the news of Colonel Ahmet Krasniqi's murder, that was very bad news for us as a family and one of the worst evils that could be done to our family, when it is known how much our family contributed to a Greater Albania and where it was killed.

We've heard that at Mr. Krasniqi was not present, there were even few participants, why so?
Krasniqi: For KLA leaders staying in Tirana, I don't know, but I know that Commander Churqavica's KLA of Staff (second quarter in Kosovo, following Likofci) Hashim Krasniqi from Julioda had talked several times with Ahmeti over the phone from Qyqavica in Tirana: Hashim at the funeral couldn't go because it was still war, but to honor him at the grave has gone to some anniversary. The last time it was September 21, 2012. I believe very much that for the 15th anniversary, if not all, most of Ahmet Krasniqi's native KLA soldiers, head of then commander Hashim Krasniqi, we will go to pay their respects where he is buried, to the Church of Sharra, Tirana.

What a real contribution Mr. Ahmet Krasniqi in the Kosovo Liberation Army?

Krasniqi: Then I didn't know, because I didn't have time to investigate, because I was a soldier myself. The KLA, but later from various scriptures and evidence I learned that its contribution was great. Ahmet Krasniqi has supplied it KLA with weapons, with money for war needs and a lot of soldiers.

By the time Ahmet Krasniqi was killed in Tirana, was the version of the execution due to the illegal arms trade he was dealing with?
It is not true, it is the disinformation and propaganda of people and pro-Serbian policies.

In our voyages through information we read that some called Mr. Ahmet traitor, why all that war against him?

Krasniqi: I've read it to you and all the family members. These charges have hit us as much as killing him. All those ravens, who by the proclamation of Ahmet Krasniqi the traitor, try to reason on his murder, let him remain ashamed of such a quality. They are still served as sacrifices for political warfare, as Aziz Zilijvoda's family has served the titans. How could Ahmet Krasniqi, the son of Hajriz Krasniqi, who had been killed by titans by beating his father with wood? How traitor Ahmet Krasniqi, grandson of Aziz Zilijvoda, who in his war had caused the titans problems for an ethnic Albania. How could Ahmet Krasniqi be a traitor when his brother, on the occasion of the famous 1981 demonstrations, was imprisoned and sentenced to prison by devoted UDB titans? And finally, how could Ahmet Krasniqi, member of the National Patriotist Movement Metush Krasniqi, including Sabri Maxun (Novosela), Yusuf Gervala, Shefqet Jasari-Strofci, etc.

Krasniqi has been an APJ colonel, has that affected the definition?

Krasniqi: All KLA officers were APJ career officers, even its two commanders; Agim Ceku's Bislim Zurapi. If being an APJ officer was a reference to a traitor, then I had to shoot these guys I mentioned and everyone else. To date, neither Kosovo nor Albania's institution has often named Ahmet Krasniqi a traitor. I've never read from a communiqué, nor a General Staff. The KLA has declared Ahmet Krasniqi a traitor. On the contrary, former Kosovo leader Fatmir Sejdiu has declared Kosovo's hero. Following this act, two crow voices were presented in the press, and the charioting against Ahmeti. One is not stopping yet, and that is Ibrahim Kelmendi. Last year, after Milaim Zeka, on the site “Our Prestreme” says that all Albanian leaders then and today know the names of those who killed Ahmet Krasniqi, gives another information when it says: “At the end of the day we have further information and evidence about this murder, where author Ibrahim Kelmendi in his last book explains, saying that “I interviewed the soldier who executed Ahmet Krasni...<4> When Ahmet Krasniqi, Ilirian, grandson of Aziz Zilioda, in the quality of the site manager, posted this information, all of a sudden both Milaim Zeka and Ibrahim Kelmendi were locked up, following insults and mutual insults, Ibrahim Kelmendi went on with insults, saying that “hadn't had that privilege of killing Ahmet Krasniqi himself, and if he knew the killer, then today, he would take the father's own land of Ibrahim6. In this reaction of Ibrahim Kelmend reacted to a nickname, marking the name and surname of the potential killer, who, according to an article that exists on the face of Star Polovina, this bomber has been shot behind his back! This is how Star Paulovina describes the potential bomber: “This was from a well-known Kosovo city. Until then he was known as a good man but was given much drink. Many months later, the middle of September 21, 1998, was to be killed. It was in a battle with the militia of the Serbian Army, but it took the bullet to its back”.

Who's the second soldier alive?

Krasniqi: We Ahmet's family don't know. You may know Ibrahim Kelmendi, since according to Milaim Zeka, he has even made an interview with that soldier and figure out in one of his books.

We go back a few years in time. In 1991, Mr. Krasniqi defected from the APJ and joined the Croatian National Guard. Is it true that the commander supplied arms to Croats to defend their case for liberation?

Krasniqi: From that interview, we Ahmeti's family learned a lot, if you're referring to the interview he translated from Croatian Sefedin Krasniqi... So in 1991, as already known publicly, he had defected, in fact, been imprisoned in Rijeka, Croatia and sent to prison in Belgrade. When Serbs had sent him to the front in Croatia, he had defected and returned to Kosovo, then illegally to Albania to his uncle, or my grandfather, Aziz Gillivoda, in Elbasan. While the Croatian Guard had done many services, it never united them, because as I said, The APJ had imprisoned him; it was General Chad, a Slovenian national who had fought for Yugoslavia's preservation. Everyone knows Ahmet Krasniqi was against the keys of Albanian soldiers and officers at the Croatian Guard during the war. Anyone I have ever had to talk to, he had advised Albanian soldiers to desert and remain on guard for Kosovo's release.

Is this honor known in Croatia to be called, which an Albanian did to Croats?

Krasniqi: As far as I know, this honor is not recognized by Croatian institutions, but by the commanders of the Croatian Guard, with whom he had cooperated and who he had helped. In Gospic and Lika, Ahmeti is highly respected. Dr. Drazen Jerkovic, who was shocked when he heard of his murder in Tirana. This interview is found on many websites.

In an interview of those years that we read from the deceased, he wrote that the general who arrested him and imprisoned him lived happily in Rijeka, while Mr. Ahmet Krasniqi, if only they took his house to Gospic with all he had, took it to Rjeka?
Krasniqi: Yes, Ahmet Krasniqi, as well as we, as a family of Aziz Zilijvoda for all the rulers in the former Yugoslavia, we have no doubt been sacrificial for taking accounts among the rulers. Also in Albania, my grandfather, later apology, who turned 19 years old in the past few days, did not fare well with the Enverists. After my late father, Fak Krasniqi, secured the Aziz Zilioda file” and his trial in Albania, I was shocked to read that we other members in Kosovo have crossed the same monstrous route. Believe me, we children of Aziz Julioda's family, we've never dared to go out and play with our peers, because our parents were afraid that there would be some militia patrol at the time and asked us or provoked something... While General Chad was Slovenian, it could not be offered as easily as Ahmet Krasniqi and many Albanian officers and soldiers in former Yugoslav republics returning to coffins since 1981.

Can you tell us a little bit about the immigration years in Austria, what was he doing there?

Krasniqi: Ahmet Krasniqi has never emigrated to Austria, there was a transit for Germany, after he had advised Aziz Zilioda to go there and from there to start preparations for Kosovo's liberation war. Having failed to cross to Germany, he returns to Croatia and sinks into poverty and deep misery.

Hard years followed the former minister's life until he was forced to sell vegetables in Rovinj; did he talk to you at that time, how he felt...?
Krasniqi: I was young at the time, but from scriptures and many evidence I learned that, in 1994, Sefedin Krasniqi had managed to make a contact, and that, with my father's order, Faik Krasniqi and cousin Shefqet Krasniqi. And in 1996, Ahmet Krasniqi, from Germany, after visiting his brother, Behxhetin, goes to Switzerland to Sefedin Krasniqi, who puts him in touch with the man Ahmeti had joined in the Metush Krasniqi Movement, namely Shefqet Jashar Strafci. Before returning for Croatia, he is contacted by Government Information Minister “Bukoshi”, Xhafer Shatrin, accompanied by Hilmi Nekbi.

How close was the commander with Kosovo, and what were his efforts to contribute to Kosovo's liberation?

Krasniqi: The commander was tied to Kosovo all his life. We have now learned that when he defected from the APJ and came to Pristina, he had been met by Dr. Fehmi Agani, exactly for organising the war in Kosovo. Ahmet Krasniqi, had never forgotten Kosovo because in the APJ my father, Faik Krasniqi, and great patriot Metush Krasniqi, had instructed him to register. I am convinced that for that period, from the living, no one knows better to talk about Ahmet Krasniqi than Sabri Maxun-Novosella and Shefqet Jashar ão Strofci.

Krasniqi was appointed Kosovo defence minister in Bukoshi's government; how did this appointment come about?

Krasniqi: The government must know this question “Bukoshi” and Bukoshi himself. However, all his colleagues have indicated Ahmet Krasniqi was the most skilled military officer of all Albanian military men who had educated and served in the former APJ.

How did Ahmet Krasniqi end up in Tirana?

Krasniqi: He had moved from Switzerland to organise the Kosovo Army and formed the Ministry of Defence. All the brigades that he prepared for war were sworn in Tropoj. There has been an agreement known as the Oslo Agreement, between the Defence Ministry, Adem Demac and Xhavit Halil, for joint organisation of the war. It was decided there by Bukoshi that Krasniqi would lead the war from Tirana to make the organisation of the war under the Oslo Agreement, where he hosted the ministry and three brigades -- 134, 131 and 138. After several months the situations changed; even though he personally gave the General Staff help, things began to deteriorate for him, so much so that until his execution. Ahmeti also had a clash with Bukoshi, who cut off the supply of the army by means, saying to him: “If he doesn't meet my terms for war where the exit to Kosovo remains, I'll attend.” Like any war fought on Albanian soil, even here was a clash between forces, where Ahmet Krasniqi was only a victim.

So you're saying there was a crash between the Army General Staff and Bujar Bukoshi then prime minister?
Krasniqi: Yeah, there's been a collision between them, but here's that Pandora's box, which once it's opened, lots of them will come out.