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22 09 2011 Life in Kosovo broadcast a debate with representatives from government, civil society, the International Crisis Group and the Serb community in the north to discuss the security situation in northern Kosovo, in light of tensions over border crossings.
Among the questions covered during the debate include: What is the next strategy of Kosovo’s Government to implement reciprocity measures on imports at border points 1 and 31? Will any authorities condemn the hooligans that burned the border crossings? What is meant by the request to “not get back" from taking control of customs posts in the north? Should the police activities in the north be followed by an increased campaign of diplomatic pressure on international institutions in Kosovo and Brussels?
Asked about the reasons for the government’s decision to implement ‘reciprocity measures’ at border points 1 and 31, Lirim Graiçevci, an advisor to the prime minister, said that “Serbia is guilty of bringing us to this situation, because it has not recognised the stamps of Kosovo customs since 2008.”
He added that “despite our continuous attempts to ask Serbia to recognise [these stamps], we have been met with repeated refusals; therefore, we decided to initiate reciprocity measures.”
The minister for trade and industry, Mimoza Kusari-Lila, said that this topic has been discussed for many years and the security of customs staff who work at border points has been repeatedly violated. “For example, a policeman was killed on duty; he was killed in the vehicle which transported him to the workplace and this is an incontestable fact.
However, it should be mentioned that, in the end, this decision [to implement reciprocity measures] has unified the
whole society of Kosovo,” she claimed.
Bojan Bojovic, a journalist for Klan TV in Zubin Potok, has been closely monitoring developments at the two border points. He said that “a group of unknown people has been prepared with automatic rifles at the first tunnel near Lake Ujmani. They gathered there at the request of Slavisa Ristic, mayor of the ‘parallel’ municipality set up by Serbs in Zubin Potok.
Naim Rashiti from the International Crisis Group said that organised crime in northern Kosovo finances a powerful group of Serbs. “The level of frustration in Kosovo’s society has reached an extreme point, and I think that this action by the Kosovo government will increase the pressure on the international community,” he added further.
Ferdinand Nikolla, executive director of the Forum for Civic Initiatives, claimed that since its inception, the EULEX mission in Kosovo has been politicised and has provoked the current situation by publicly arresting former KLA soldiers. “The government of Kosovo must guarantee to the citizens of this country that it will not allow such a mission to establish justice in a selective way,” he concluded.
After the debate, Life in Kosovo broadcast an interview with Reshat Maliqi, former director of the Kosovo Police, who was dismissed by the prime minister, without being aware of this decision, even though it had been published on the government’s official website.
The ‘Youth in Kosovo’ section closed the show, covering the topic of early childhood development in Kosovo, which was the subject of a recently published report by UNICEF.
At the beginning of 2010 BIRN network published Digging Deeper - A Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans, written in cooperation with Sheila Coronel, Director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and professor of professional practice at Columbia University, New York.
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