18 ethnic Albanians in Montenegro indicted on terrorism charges

PODGORICA, Dec. 8 – Eighteen ethnic Albanians, including five United States citizens, were indicted last week on planning terrorist attacks in the southern Malesia region, aimed at putting it under ethnic Albanian control terrorism. They were charged by Montenegro’s special prosecutor for organised crime Stojanka Radovic. The group planned to take over police stations, border crossings to Albania and all key institutions in Malesia, with the aim of expelling the non-Albanian population and creating an ethnic Albanian controlled territory, according to the charge. The operation called the Flight of Eagle, which is an Albanian national symbol, was averted a day before it actually carried out its plans and maximal sentence for the crime, if convicted, would be up to 15 years in jail. The group was arrested Sept. 9 just before parliamentary elections in Montenegro. The prosecutor said they had planned to start terrorist activities during the election night with the help of former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK). Radovic said the group was financed by ethnic Albanian immigrants in the United States, based in Detroit, and five members of the group came from that area. The U.S. has sent a team of doctors and legal experts to supervise the investigation. Ethnic Albanians make about five percent of the tiny Balkan country of Montenegro’s 620,000 population and are concentrated in the Malesia region, bordering Albania and around southern town of Ulqin.