« Back to Provision

Disarmament – 2001

After signing a peace agreement, NATO officially started the operation “Essential Harvest” on 27 August 2001 for 30 days. This 30-day mission involved the sending of approximately 3,500 NATO troops, with logistical support, to disarm ethnic Albanian groups and destroy their weapons.[fn] “NATO’s role in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,” NATO, accessed March 3, 2011, http://www.nato.int/fyrom/.[/efn_note] But immediately after the deployment of the NATO troops, a spat on quantity of rebel arms to be collected emerged with government insisting at least 60,000 weapons were in the hands of the NLA, far more than the NATO estimate of less than 3,000. The Macedonian government had said in the past that the NLA had 6,000 to 8,000 light arms.¹ On 24 August 2001, NATO and ethnic Albanian guerrillas agreed on number of arms to be collected, with alliance estimating 3,300 weapons, while Skopje insisted that the number was over 60,000.²

On 26 September 2001, NATO completed its 30-day mission to disarm ethnic Albanian militants. NATO forces collected a total of 3,875 weapons from the rebels, exceeding their stated goal of 3,300.³ On 27 September 2001, the leader of the National Liberation Army (NLA) Ali Ahmeti said in a press conference that the Ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia had formally disbanded and returned to their normal lives. He also invited the Macedonian police to enter former NLA-controlled areas.⁴

1. “Debate heats up over rebel arms as NATO troops pour into Macedonia,” Agence France Presse, August 23, 2001.
2. “Timetable of seven-month conflict in Macedonia,” Agence France Presse, August 27, 2001.
3. “Macedonia:NATO Disarmament Mission Ends; Other Developments,” Facts on File World News Digest, September 26, 2001.
4. “Rebels in Macedonia officially disband,” Agence France Presse, September 27, 2001.