Period: Yugoslav Wars

Region: Kosovo and Metohia

The Albanian criminal Agim Ramadani (1963-1999)

Agim Ramadani (1963-1999) aka Katana was a pre-war dissident and JNA officer, and during the war in Kosovo and Metohija in the late 1990s, he became the commander of the notorious 138th Brigade of the Occupying Army of Kosovo, which took his name after his death.

Ramadani was a close associate - that is to say, the right hand - of Ramush Haradinaj and his terrorist gang, which for decades has been raiding Kosmet and committing many crimes.

In the 1990s, he went to Switzerland, when the former Yugoslavia had already broken up, and spent several years there helping Albanian criminals. Later, he organized the mobilization of Albanian young men in Western Europe. He returned to Kosovo in 1998 and was trained in terrorist camps in the Republic of Albania.

He was one of those fanatical Albanians who advocated a violent change of borders - the separation of Kosovo and Metohija from Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia, and their annexation to the Republic of Albania, in other words the creation of a Greater Albania.

He died on April 11, 1999, during the NATO aggression and the barbaric bombing of Serbia and Montenegro, during an attack on the positions of the Yugoslav Army, in the area of the Juničke mountains in the wider area of the Košare watchtower, where fierce fighting took place during Operation "Arrow 1".

After June 1999 and the occupation of Kosovo and Metohija, he gained an incredible posthumous reputation among Kosovo Albanians. Streets, squares and highways were named after him. Special events in his honor are held in his native Gjilan. Flags with his image are placed at sporting events.

The occupation authorities of the so-called Republic of Kosovo posthumously awarded him with the Order of the People's Hero.

His wife Shukriya Ramadani is employed in the MFA of the so-called Republic of Kosovo.

BIOGRAPHY

Agim Ramadani was born on May 3, 1963, in the village of Zegra, in the Gjilan municipality, in the East of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. He finished elementary school in his hometown, and the School of Economics in Gjilan. During his high-school days, he painted and wrote poetry. He participated in all extracurricular activities. He was chosen as one of the best students in Kosovo and Metohija.

He was also one of the initiators of the demonstrations of Albanians in Pristina during 1981, during the major riots, under the false pretext of cultural and educational autonomy, with the real goal of declaring the independence of Kosovo and Metohija. He was expelled from school and sentenced to two months in prison.

In the early 1980s, he went to Zagreb, where he attended the Military Academy of Communications, of the then Yugoslav People's Army. After finishing the command of the Fifth Military District, the JNA left him in the territory of the FR of Croatia, where he worked as a JNA officer and continued to paint as a hobby. He left the JNA in the summer of 1991.

Agim's mother	Agim's father

He married his girlfriend Shukriya, who bore him three children: two sons, Jeton and Edon, as well as a daughter, Lorina.

EMIGRATION

Agim Ramadani left for Switzerland at the end of December 1992, where his compatriots were already present. He maintained contacts with his mother. His work was recognized by the Albanian community in Switzerland and he was elected director of the Albanian Cultural Center in Zurich. In addition to working on cultural events, he increasingly became part of the militant activities of his community and helped establish the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army because he believed that only the independence of Kosovo and Metohija could bring a solution.

In mid-1994, he sent a message around the world that could be translated as follows:

- "Is it enough just to wait? Just look ... Let's just keep removing the curtain and see how freedom comes to us?".

Shukriya and Agim

Two weeks before his death, Agim Ramadani wrote a letter to his wife on March 24, 1999, stating, among other things: "I am happy to be free. Even if I die now, I will not be a hostage to anything because I feel the voice of freedom. It hurts me that you are not here to see the burning sky and to realize how beautiful are the colors of freedom."

CRIMINAL ODYSSEY

In the spring of 1998, when a fierce war was already raging in Kosovo and Metohija, he was given the task of mobilizing Albanian youth throughout Western Europe (Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands ...) and bringing them to the Republic of Albania, where extensive trainings were already organized in terrorist camps (Shkodra, Durres, Ljes, Kukes, Tropoja ...) conducted by German and Italian instructors, under the auspices of the NATO.

Albanian terorists with Ramadani

He came to the FR Yugoslavia illegally on June 24, 1998 and immediately became involved in the terrorist activities of his compatriots. His operational zone was Metohija, mostly around Gjakova. He also received the rank of Major, later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. His direct superior was Ramush Haradinaj.

In a fierce clash near the village of Opljaz on August 9, 1998, Ramadani's group killed 20 soldiers, including two Yugoslav Army officers. A bit later, on September 15, 1995, near the Đeravica watchtower (the highest peak of Prokletije mountain), Ramadani's terrorists attacked the border guards, and on that occasion, 40 soldiers were killed and 20 were wounded.

Agim Ramadani and his terrorist group are also responsible for the murder of several Yugoslav Army border guards, members of the 53rd Border Battalion: Milos Pavlović (32), Vladimir Radoičić (19), Ilija Pavlović (19), Miroslav Jocić (30) and Miladin Gobeljić (20) who were on patrol on September 30, 1998 in the area of Košare watchtower. Ramadani's terrorists ambushed and brutally killed, and robbed them. Moreover, they recorded their rage against the dead soldiers with a video camera, which was published on the Internet years later.

During the winter of 1998/1999, he left for the Republic of Albania for tactical reasons, where he worked on the reorganization of the Occupying Army of Kosovo with Ramush Haradni and making plans for the spring invasion.

DEATH

On March 24, 1999, NATO officially intervened in the clashes between Albanian terrorists and Yugoslav security forces in Kosovo and Metohija, realizing they could not do it alone, and began the 78-day bombing of Serbia and Montenegro.

Junik mountains: Place of bloody fights

Thus, a ground invasion was launched from the Republic of Albania, through the mountain range of Prokletije, in order to deliver aid to Albanian terrorist gangs in the central and northern parts of Kosmet, which were about to be destroyed. This operation was code-named "Arrow 1".

Agim Ramadani, as the commander of his unit, the 138th Brigade of the Occupying Army of Kosovo, was given the task of breaking through the lines of defense in the Junicki mountains, in the area of the Kosare watchtower. On the Orthodox holiday of Good Friday, April 9, 1999, he led his group when over 500 terrorists attacked the positions of the 53rd Border Battalion of the Pristina Corps, which in the first three days numbered barely over 100 soldiers. Two days later the border units received help from the 125th Kosovska Mitrovica Brigade, so that the defense has its wall strengthened, but the terrorists were also receiving reinforcements.

In fierce clashes on Košare on April 11, 1999, at elevation 601 Raša Košares, he was hit by a sniper bullet and fell dead. This led to a temporary halt to the ground attack of Albanian terrorists, whose morale dropped after a few days. More precisely, the news of his death was kept secret for 5 days.

Waiting for NATO help in the bunkers

By the way, throughout the battle of Košare, Albanian terrorists, despite their numerical superiority, as well as the help of the Army of the Republic of Albania, special units of the American and British armies, failed in their efforts to break through to Gjakova.

MEMORIAL COMPLEX

In the immediate vicinity of the Košara watchtower, veterans of the former Kosovo occupation Army, with the help of the institutions of the criminal state "Kosovo", erected a memorial park in the shape of circular lines in 2012, where carved tombstones with the names of Albanian terrorists who died in 1999 are located. Among them is a stone tablet with the name Agim Ramadani.

International diplomats visit the complex

A mural with his image as well as numerous motifs of his paramilitary unit was also made there.

Significant anniversaries are regularly celebrated here, with the presence of the highest officials not only of the so-called Republic of Kosovo, but also of the Republic of Albania, as well as foreign diplomats, glorifying the atrocities of the Occupying Army of Kosovo.

LEGACY

On May 30, 1999, the European Academy of Arts (of which he had become a member a year earlier) posthumously awarded Agim Ramadani a charter of gratitude for his contribution to art.

In mid-June 1999, the Yugoslav Army and the Serbian Ministry of the Interior withdrew from the territory of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, in accordance with the Kumanovo Military-Technical Agreement. At the time, the southern Serbian province was taken over by international forces - KFOR and UNMIK , accompanied shortly after by return of the terrorists from the Occupying Army of Kosovo who are committing crimes against Serb civilians and ethnic cleansing.

During the occupation of Kosovo and Metohija, a myth was created of Agim Ramadani. The "Gjilan - Pristina" highway bore his name, as did the main street in downtown Pristina. Numerous squares, streets of Prizren, Gjilan and Gjakova were named after Ramadani.

Also, multi-day cultural events have been held in his native Gjilan for years, something like days of remembrance, presenting him as a national hero, mostly at the beginning of May. Flags and banners with his image can often be seen at sports matches Albanians take part in.

In Tirana itself, the capital of the Republic of Albania, several exhibitions of paintings have been made in his honor, often visited by representatives of Albanian public and political life, as well as members of his family.

There are also numerous videos and Albanian-speaking social networks pages that promote the "merits" of this criminal.

Shukriya Ramadani, Agim's wife, got a job in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that criminal state after the proclamation of the criminal Republic of Kosovo in 2008 in Pristina under the patronage of the European Union and NATO.