[ALBSA-Info] Albanian Students Ready to Figh

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Albanian Students Ready to Fight

By BURT HERMAN

  
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Saying they were ready to fight, thousands of 
ethnic Albanian university students marched through Pristina to show support 
for the rebel campaign in neighboring Macedonia. 

``Our brothers are not alone,'' said Afrim Hoti, a student leader who 
organized the Wednesday night protest - the first major show of public 
support in Kosovo since the ethnic Albanian insurgency began in Macedonia a 
month ago. 

Asked if the Pristina University students were ready to take up arms, Hoti 
said: ``Of course, at any moment.'' 

``We are ready to do everything that's needed of us,'' he said. 

The demonstration ran peacefully, with student monitors in red armbands 
guiding the crowd through the city, escorted by U.N. police and small groups 
of NATO peacekeepers. 

But the tone of the crowd's chants was anything but calm. Students chanted 
the war cry ``UCK'' - the initials shared by the Kosovo Liberation Army that 
battled Serbian troops here as well as the rebel National Liberation Army 
fighting in Macedonia. 

Ethnic Albanians in Macedonia claim they are discriminated against despite 
forming at least a quarter of the country's population of 2 million. The army 
and police have launched a campaign to break the rebels around the city of 
Tetovo. 

``All who are here are saying stop the terror of Macedonian police for 
Albanians in Macedonia,'' said Blerim Arifi, a 20-year-old student who was 
leading the march with his body draped in the Albanian national flag. 

Students formed a strong support base for the KLA during the Kosovo conflict 
that culminated in 1999 with NATO's 78-day bombing campaign. 

``If they call us, we will go. I'm ready to go,'' said Agron Bajgora, a 
19-year-old from Podujevo who is studying English. ``But I hope that we won't 
need to go there.''