by Fahri Xharra. Translation Petrit Latifi

Summay: Between the end of November 1944 and until January 1945 the Montenegrin “Boka” Brigade committed many atrocities against Albanians. This article by Fahri Xharra, using AI to compile various reports, exposes a lie that has been spread around for 80 years. The Montenegrin troops committed atrocities against Albanians in Peja, Decan, Junik, Dushkajë, Reka e Keqe, Gjakova, Prekaz, Llaushë, Rezallë, Likoshan, Tërstenik, Syriganë, Polac, Qirez, Tërnovc and Strellc i Epërm (near Drenica). Crimes include murder, executions, burning of homes and expulsion of civilians.

Part 1:

“Who were the Montenegrin criminal brigade which committed atrocities in Kosovo in 1944-1945? A story that Artificial Intelligence knows and that Kosovo has been living with OZNA falsifications for 80 years. A historical truth that I will write in the next few days, I have a prayer that your comments will be after the last part, let’s not rush.”

The “Boka Brigade” operated in Western Kosovo during the period from the end of November 1944 to January 1945. After entering from Montenegro, through Nikshiq and Rozhajë, it was established in Peja as an operational command center. From Peja, the brigade undertook military actions and clearing operations in the following regions:

Peja – main command base and logistics center
Istog – area where arrests and blockades of the local population suspected of opposing the partisan government are reported
Klinë – actions to clear Albanian armed units and establish military control.

Gjakovë (to a more limited extent) – sporadic interventions, mainly in coordination with other units. The brigade operated as part of the 46th Division of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army and cooperated with the 2nd Macedonian Brigade. The main goal was to secure the strategic area Peja–Klinë–Istog and eliminate any armed or political resistance against the new communist authorities. Many facts about this period have been either hidden or deliberately destroyed.

This is a well-known problem of historical research on Kosovo during and after World War II:

Main reasons why facts were lost or manipulated: Many of the documents of the OZN and partisan formations were considered state secrets in Yugoslavia. After 1945–1948, the process of normalization and “political integration” began, and documents of arrests, executions, and deportations were not published.

After the 1990s, when Kosovo seceded from the Yugoslav system, part of the archives remained in Belgrade and have not yet been returned. Living testimonies were weakened by fear or the emigration of many families.

Atrocities were committed in Junik, Dushkajë and Reka e Keqe

“Typical examples of intentional erasure or non-registration:
Official lists of those executed were not always compiled in villages such as Junik, Dushkaja, Reka e Keqe. Minutes of trials or “cleansing commissions” were often not kept at the municipal level.

In the official reports of the brigades, the general term “cleansing of reactionary elements” was used, without specific names. To be honest, the original files of the OZN are among the most difficult in all of former Yugoslavia to consult, for several reasons:

1. They were immediately classified as “high-level state secrets.” Even in the socialist period, only very narrow circles of military historians had partial access.

2. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, part of the archives remained in Belgrade and are today preserved by Serbian institutions, which often refuse requests from Kosovar scholars, and even from international scholars working on the topic of crimes against Albanians.

3. The archives are fragmented and some funds have mysteriously “disappeared” (many scholars suspect that they were destroyed or are still stored in secret service warehouses).

4. Even when access is granted, documents are often partially censored (names of commanders, locations, orders).

Many scholars and witnesses have noted that after World War II, a deliberate assembly of the public narrative occurred, which attributed most crimes and executions only to local Albanian partisan units (especially Fadil Hoxha’s “People’s Front”), while the responsibility of Yugoslav units—especially the Montenegrin and Macedonian brigades—was minimized or disappeared from official reporting.

This happened for several political reasons: The OZN (Yugoslav secret service) used local Albanian units as a “political cover” so that the violence would be seen as an “intra-Albanian conflict,” and not as an organized military invasion from abroad. So that the cleansing of areas with Albanian nationalist influence would be seen as a “cleansing of reactionaries,” and not as the elimination of local elites.

To protect the reputation of the Yugoslav brigades (especially the Bokelshka, the Montenegrin brigades and the 2nd Macedonian Brigade), which in propaganda reports appeared only as “liberators.” After Kosovo was declared part of the SFRY, any public discussion of the killings by federal forces was banned or labeled “Albanian nationalism.”

In post-war minutes and reports, the standard formula is often found:
“Operation of the local Partisan Order with the assistance of the corps forces…”without further specifying who carried out the executions.

Yugoslav People’s Army (JA) registers and brigade operational reports – not every document of the time was “OZN”. Some of the reports were also sent to military commands and some of them are partially declassified.

For example:

Archive of Yugoslavia (Belgrade) – Fund of the Supreme Command of the People’s Army (1944–1945).

Vojni arhiv – operational files of the corps, where sometimes the names of villages, dates of actions and numbers of victims are mentioned.

British archives (The National Archives, Kew – London) – reports of British liaison officers to Tito’s Headquarters, which occasionally mention the names of the brigades operating in Kosovo and the crimes. They call them “reprisals against anti-communist Albanians”.

UNRRA and United Nations archives – reports on Albanian refugees who fled to Albania after the winter operations of 1944–1945, which contain indirect evidence.

Published memoirs – some former Yugoslav partisans have left memoirs describing the actions without propaganda filters.
See you tomorrow with terrifying facts that were imposed on the Albanians of those years.

Part two:

Crimes:

In the Junik area, assassinations of political opponents or local figures were committed, during the establishment of the new government. Although the Bokelshka Brigade is not always mentioned by name in the known literature on Junik, the assassination on January 17, 1945 occurred during the period when the Boke Brigade, the 2nd Macedonian Brigade, and units of the OZN cooperated closely in the Peja–Đakovica–Junik region.

In the absence of specific documents (e.g. the list of units that participated in the execution of Ali Bajraktar), it cannot be said with absolute certainty which formation directly carried out the act. However: The historical context shows that the executions of this time were part of a wider campaign of political cleansing that encompassed the entire territory of Dukagjini.

Peja

December 1944 – January 1945: With the entry of Montenegrin brigades (including Bokeljska), a general disarmament of Albanians took place.
Hundreds of young people gathered for violent mobilization for the Srem front. Anyone who opposed was declared an “enemy” and shot.
In the neighborhoods of Peja, OZNA and Montenegrin partisans carried out extrajudicial executions. Albanian homes were raided, and many families were expelled. Testimonies speak of public executions in the town square and of the Peja prison, which was filled with young Albanians who later disappeared.

Deçan

January 1945: Forces of the Bokeljska brigada entered the villages of Deçan (it was a strong area of ​​Albanian nationalists).
The inhabitants of villages such as Isniq, Carrabreg, Rastavicë, Lumbardh were forced to surrender their weapons.
Many men were taken from their homes and shot as “ballists” or “reactionaries”. In some cases, the burning of villages was used as a form of collective punishment. The exact number of victims is not fully documented, but local testimonies speak of dozens of people shot in each village.

Gjakova

December 1944 – February 1945: Gjakova was one of the main centers of mobilization of Albanians to Srem. The Bokeljska brigada together with the OZNA forcibly rounded up hundreds of young men. Some were sent to Vojvodina, but many others were executed as “politically unreliable”.
Many prominent Albanians from the city (intellectuals, local leaders) were arrested and sent to prisons in Pristina and Niš, where some disappeared. Executions also took place on the outskirts of the city – especially in the Krena area, where according to sources entire groups of young people.

Methods of crime

In all three of these cities, the crimes had a recurring pattern: Disarmament and psychological terror. Forced mobilization of Albanians.
Executions without trial on the spot or after being taken over by the OZNA. Burning and raiding of villages for collective punishment.
Disappearances of persons (many never returned from prison).
Balance

According to historians, in Peja, Gjakova and Deçan alone, during the winter of 1944–1945, the number of Albanians killed reached hundreds, while those forcibly mobilized numbered thousands. These crimes were committed by Montenegrin brigades (including the Bokeljska brigada) in collaboration with the OZNA, as part of the policy of the Yugoslav state to suppress any resistance and to politically cleanse Kosovo.

Crimes in Drenica (January–February 1945)
1. Prekaz (Llaushë, Rezallë, Likoshan, Tërstenik)
Center of the Shaban Polluzha uprising.
After the first battles, the villages were burned and destroyed.
Captured men were executed, many of them in front of their families.
Dozens of mass shootings are reported in Prekaz and Llaushë.
Women and children were forced to flee in the winter, many died of cold and hunger.

2. Rezallë (Skënderaj)
One of the largest massacres: Dozens of men and boys were rounded up and executed in groups. The bodies were left lying in the fields and often the families were not allowed to bury them. Witnesses speak of 50–70 killed in this village alone.

Likoshan – Tërstenik
Villages targeted for their support for Polluzha.
Residents were forced to surrender their weapons; those who resisted were killed immediately.
Houses burned, systematic looting by units of the Bokeljska brigada.

Skënderaj – Drenica Center
After the collapse of the uprising, hundreds of men from Skënderaj and surrounding villages were arrested and sent to Prishtina and Niš by the OZNA. Many of them disappeared without a trace.
According to Albanian sources, over 500 Albanians were killed in the Skënderaj area alone in January–February 1945.

Other documented massacres
Syriganë, Polac, Qirez, Tërnovc – burning and mass shootings.
Strellc i Epërm (near Drenica) – reported executions on site.
Entire villages were reduced to rubble, leaving behind victims and missing persons.

Death toll in Drenica
Historians estimate that 2,000–5,000 Albanians were killed in Drenica during the winter of 1944–1945. Hundreds of villages were burned or damaged. Thousands more were deported or sent to the Srem front.
Many prominent Albanian figures (local leaders, fighters from Polluzha) were executed by the Bokeljska brigada in coordination with the OZNA.

Summary

In Drenica, the Bokeljska brigada was the ironclad military force that carried out attacks on villages, while the OZNA carried out the selection and elimination of people. This interaction made Drenica a symbol of a silent genocide against Albanians in early 1945.