It ballooned because it delivered where
Rugova didn't even promise. It delivered an alliance with the USA
against the hated Serbs. It delivered weapons. It delivered hope and
a plan. It delivered vengeance, the self-expression of the
downtrodden. It was joined by near and far and, by its own
reckoning, its ranks swelled to 50,000 warriors. More objective
experts put the figure of active fighters at one fourth this number.
Still, it is an impressive number in a population of 1.7 million
Albanians. During the war, it was joined by 400 overweight
suburbanites from North America, Albanian volunteers within an
"Atlantic Brigade". It also absorbed Albanians with rich military
experience from Serbia and Croatia as well as foreign mercenaries
and possibly "Afghanis" (the devout Moslem veterans of the wars in
Afghanistan, Lebanon and Bosnia).
The influx of volunteers put pressure on the leadership - both
organizational and pecuniary. The KLA - an entrepreneurial start up
of insurgency - had matured into a national brand of guerilla. It
revamped itself, creating directorates, offices and officers, codes
and procedures, a radio station and a news agency, an electronic
communications interception unit, a word of mouth messenger service
and a general military staff, headed since February 1999 by "Sultan"
and divided to seven operational zones.
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