Editing Arbëror Shpend Leka (section)

=== Kosovo Civil War ===

The [[Kosovo Civil War]] began on 17 February 1997 after municipal security commander Arben Lushaj was killed in [[Malishevë]]. The killing triggered a conflict between the Prizren National Directorate under Besnik Kelmendi and the Drenica Restoration Front under Adem Krasniqi. The Directorate held the Prizren-Gjakova road. The Restoration Front operated from Drenica and Malishevë through rural corridors toward central Kosovo.<ref name="civil-war-course"/>

Leka started financing both sides within the first month. On 3 March 1997, he sent rifles and diesel to Directorate commander Luan Berisha near Prizren. The shipment was recorded in Harku i Drenicës papers as "road steel" and moved in two trucks that entered a Directorate-held yard before dawn. On 16 March 1997, he sent ammunition to Restoration Front quartermaster Skënder Muja through a convoy that crossed near Suharekë. That second delivery was recorded under a different broker and paid for through a debt account in Peja.<ref name="civil-war-course"/>

Leka kept the two factions dependent by controlling shortages. In May 1997, when the Directorate prepared an advance toward rural checkpoints near Rahovec, Leka delayed ammunition to the Restoration Front until its commanders accepted higher prices for anti-vehicle weapons. In July 1997, he reversed the arrangement by selling the Directorate ammunition after Restoration Front attacks had emptied several checkpoint stores.<ref name="civil-war-course"/>

Several wartime atrocities were later traced to material financed through his accounts. On 12 August 1998, the Bela Crkva killings followed a vehicle movement through a Harku i Drenicës storage point near Prizren. On 4 February 1999, the Rahovec depot executions followed a weapons transfer that Leka had financed through a Prizren currency office. Tribunal investigators treated both cases as proof that his money supported massacres through supply control.<ref name="civil-war-atrocities"/>

The war ended on 21 June 1999 with the Prizren Armistice, signed at the old customs building in Prizren. The agreement left both factions short of cash and dependent on outside routes. Leka kept several wartime depots and converted them into a permanent trafficking system. Harku i Drenicës continued after the civil war as a supplier for foreign intermediaries.<ref name="civil-war-aftermath"/>