The National Liberation Army (NLA; , UÇK; , ONA), also known as the Macedonian UÇK (; ), was an ethnic Albanian militia that initiated the insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia in 2001 and was closely associated with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).Prezelj 2008, pp. 49–50 Following the insurgency, it was disarmed through the Ohrid Framework Agreement, which gave greater rights and autonomy to the state's Macedonian Albanians.

Background and foundation In 1992–1993, ethnic Albanians created the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which started attacking police forces and secret-service officials who abused Albanian civilians in 1995.Perret 2008, p. 63 Starting in 1998, the KLA was involved in frontal battle, with increasing numbers of Yugoslav security forces. Escalating tensions led to the Kosovo War in February 1998.

After the end of the Kosovo War in 1999 with the signing of the Kumanovo agreement, a 5-kilometer-wide Ground Safety Zone (GSZ) was created. It served as a buffer zone between the Yugoslav Army and the Kosovo Force (KFOR). In June 1999, a new Albanian militant insurgent group was formed under the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (UÇPMB), which started training in the GSZ. The group began attacking Serbian civilians and police, which escalated into an insurgency.

The NLA was founded in 1999 and led by former KLA commander Ali Ahmeti, a nephew of one of the founders of the KLA. Ahmeti organized the NLA from former KLA and UÇPMB fighters from Kosovo, Albanian insurgents from the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac in Serbia, young Albanian radicals, nationalists from Macedonia, and foreign mercenaries. With the signing of the Končulj Agreement in May 2001, the former KLA and UÇPMB fighters next moved to western Macedonia where the NLA was established, which fought against the Macedonian government in 2001. The acronym was the same as the KLA's in Albanian. According to former NLA leaders, the whole 2001 insurgency in Macedonia was planned in exile near Lucerne, Switzerland, from 1999. A NLA communiqué from 30 January 2000 claimed responsibility for attacks on police stations in Skopje and Oslomej. NLA had the strong support of the Albanian community and many Albanians joined it.

2001 insurgency in Macedonia

The NLA operated secretly until it began openly engaging the Macedonian military and police. Per the NLA, the goal of the insurgency was to secure greater rights for Albanians. The NLA also demanded a confederate Macedonia. Senior NLA commanders insisted that "We do not want to endanger the stability and the territorial integrity of Macedonia, but we will fight a guerrilla war until we have won our basic rights, until we are accepted as an equal people inside Macedonia." The Macedonian government claimed the NLA was a terrorist organization consisting primarily of KLA fighters, lacking domestic legitimacy and seeking secession or a Greater Albania.

On 22 January 2001, the NLA attacked a police station in Tearce, killing 1 and injuring 3. After the attack, the NLA began to carry out attacks on Macedonian security forces using light weapons."Three Serb policemen killed by Kosovar extremists", The Scotsman, 19 February 2001 In February, the NLA entered the village of Tanuševci and the conflict expanded to the Kumanovo, Lipkovo and Tetovo region. By the start of March, the NLA had taken effective control of a large swathe of northern and western Macedonia and had come within 12 miles of the capital Skopje.

In March, NLA members failed to take the city of Tetovo in an open attack, but controlled the hills and mountains between Tetovo and Kosovo. In 9 March, the NLA ambushed a police convoy consisting of deputy interior minister Refet Elmazi and secretary of state for interior affairs Ljube Boškoski. On 21 March, the Macedonian government gave the NLA a twenty-four-hour deadline to surrender their weapons or leave the country. NLA announced a ceasefire unilaterally, declaring that it does not want to threaten the territorial integrity of the country and called for a conversation about the rights of ethnic Albanians in the country. However, the government did not want to negotiate with NLA and launched an offensive against it on 25 March. In April, the NLA committed an ambush near Vejce on eight soldiers. On 3 May, a Macedonian government counteroffensive failed in the Kumanovo area. By 8 June, the rebels took Aračinovo, a village outside of Skopje. The NLA threatened to bomb strategic targets, such as the Skopje International Airport and the oil refinery, Okta AD. A ceasefire was mediated by the EU and the NLA was evacuated by NATO to a village under its control, Nikuštak. On 7 August, five NLA rebels were killed in Skopje in a police raid. The NLA ambushed Macedonian reservists near Karpalak on the next day. On 13 August, the Ohrid Agreement was signed between ethnic Macedonian and Albanian representatives, ending the conflict. NLA's leadership was not involved in the negotiations for the agreement but they accepted it.

Composition and military capabilities Approximately 400 young Albanian men from Macedonia, including figures like Ali Ahmeti, Gëzim Ostreni, and Xhezair Shaqiri, had fought within KLA's ranks. Many of these fighters later established the NLA, recruiting additional members from Kosovar Albanians, particularly from Prizren (a former stronghold of Ahmeti) and southeastern Kosovo, such as the municipality of Vitina, particularly the village of Debelldeh, which was a key stronghold of the NLA in Kosovo. About 80% of its fighters have been estimated as local Albanians from Macedonia, with only a small number of volunteers coming from Kosovo and the Preševo Valley. The Macedonian government denied that local ethnic Albanians had joined the NLA, while foreign observers and ethnic Albanians in Macedonia argued that the NLA had gained significant support from the local Albanian population.

Ali Ahmeti stated that the NLA comprised 5,000 members during the conflict, including those in logistical roles. Other sources suggest the NLA claimed to have the capacity to mobilize a larger force of up to 16,000, likely to intimidate the government. The Macedonian government estimated around 7,000 rebels, while Kusovac provided a more modest figure of 2,000–2,500 'full-time' combatants. Nonetheless, the NLA had a broader network of supporters involved in tasks such as reconnaissance, patrolling, communications, and logistics. Interviews with former combatants in the spring and summer of 2003 revealed that the NLA's total strength at its peak was between 5,000 and 5,500 troops. However, a distinction was noted between the fully armed front-line forces, numbering 2,800–3,500, and the remaining 2,000 personnel serving as rear-echelon support and logistics staff. According to the combatants, rear-echelon members, if armed at all, typically carried only light weapons, such as pistols. For instance, the NLA reported having two field hospitals staffed by 550 medical personnel, all of whom were unarmed. Members of the Albanian community in Switzerland and Germany raised funding for the NLA through a so-called National Liberation fund (Liria Komberate). The International Crisis Group argued that the NLA was the recipient of funding and weapons linked to criminal groups.

As with the KLA, they were fairly lightly armed – generally with small arms and mortars – though there were later reports that they had acquired SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles. As the war progressed the rebels managed to acquire heavy weapons including T-55 tanks and armoured personnel carriers captured from Macedonian government forces."Macedonia on brink of war", Sunday Times, 10 June 2001 The NLA also had thousands of land and anti-tank mines.

Organization The NLA claimed to have six brigades active within Macedonia. The 111th, 113th, and 114th Brigades operated in the Skopska Crna Gora (Karadak) region, while the 112th Brigade commanded several battalions in the Tetovo area. The 116th Brigade was responsible for the Gostivar region, and the 115th Brigade was positioned in the northwest of Skopje, including Raduša. In contrast, an OSCE official stated that the NLA had a total of 10 brigades but deployed only the six mentioned above, suggesting that the NLA possessed significant reserve potential.

The six brigades, each with their own commanders were:Dnevnik. 18 март 2006: "Според изјавите на уапсениот Садула Мурати 113-та бригада броела околу 1.400 припадници кои делувале од селото Лојане до Матејче, додека од Матејче до Никуштак активности имала 114-та бригада "Фадил Нимани-Тигар", кој беше убиен во борбите во Кумановско."

111th Brigade, unknown commanders 112th Brigade "Mujdin Aliu", commanded by Rahim Beqiri 113th Brigade "Ismet Jashari", commanded by Xhezair Shaqiri 114th Brigade "Fadil Nimani", commanded by Nazim Bushi 115th Brigade "Radusha", commanded by Rafiz Aliti 116th Brigade "Tahir Sinani", commanded by Tahir Sinani

NLA veterans in politics Some former leaders of the NLA have taken positions in politics in North Macedonia.

Ali Ahmeti, founder of the NLA, is the leader and founder of the third largest political party in North Macedonia, called the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI). Gëzim Ostreni, former NLA general, created the political party "Unity", along with Zulfi Adeli. The party was later merged with the Alliance for Albanians (AA) political party in North Macedonia. Jakup Asipi, former NLA commander, was elected to be the mufti for the municipalities of Kumanovo and Lipkovo. Talat Xhaferi, former NLA commander, who was the Minister of Defense of Macedonia from 2013 to 2014, president of the Assembly of North Macedonia from 2017 to 2024, prime minister of North Macedonia from 28 January to 23 June 2024.

Alleged war crimes

According to Human Rights Watch: "Ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia tortured, sexually abused road workers after abducting them from the Skopje–Tetovo highway." Dozens of ethnic Macedonians were kidnapped. Per Amnesty International, while many were released after a short time, 12 people apparently remained missing after the NLA released 14 others in late September. In October, reports suggested that the 12 may have been killed and buried in mass graves near Neprošteno. Another incident is the Vejce ambush, where Albanian guerrillas ambushed and killed eight Macedonian special operatives, part of a patrol of 16 special operatives.

The Macedonian government accused the NLA of bombing a 13th-century Orthodox monastery Sveti Atanasij in the village of Lešok on 21 August 2001. The attack occurred at around 3 am Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The interior had been gratified and destroyed. NATO military experts said that "the fact that the battery was lying within an area spattered by rubble and wreckage seemed to suggest that it was detonated using a relatively sophisticated timer device;".

The Macedonian government referred four cases against the NLA to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2002 for investigation: 'Mavrovo Road Workers' case – Five road workers from the Mavrovo construction company were abducted on 7 August 2001 and were tortured for eight hours. 'Lipkovo Dam' case – The valves of the Kumanovo water supply system at Lipkovo dam were closed down for 40 days in an area under NLA's control, leaving 120,000 citizens without drinking water. 'Neproshteno' case – 12 civilians were abducted from various locations around Tetovo in July 2001. 'NLA Leadership' case – Command responsibility with a combined charge of multiple war crimes, for which NLA's leadership was accused. The ICTY returned the cases to Macedonia in 2008.

Ceasefire and disarmament