Author: birnEU

This programme was conducted with the cooperation of Kosovo Police anti-drug unit. The programme brings exclusive footage on how it has destroyed the trafficking networks of heroin, cocaine, and marihuana, which are thought to have trafficked approximately 300 kilograms of narcotics.

Kosovo is one of the transit roads where many narcotic substances/drugs are transported. The narcotics are transported through Kosovo to the EU countries.  Justice in Kosovo team has cooperated with Kosovo Police for 9 months in order to see the activities of the Kosovo Police anti- drug unit.

The Kosovo Police data show that heroin trafficking starts in Afghanistan, then continue through Turkey and Kosovo and it ends up in EU countries, whereas marihuana is brought from Albania to Kosovo and then continues to EU countries.

The analysis of Kosovo Police show that a portion of drugs remains in Kosovo and it is consumed by the domestic (Kosovo) drug users.

During the first six months of the action, Kosovo Police confiscated 15 kilograms of heroin, 295 kg of marihuana, 3.5kg of cocaine, 264 plants of cannabis, 26 kg of ecstasy, and 34 grams of other drugs.

In addition, there is an exclusive footage of high-risk police operations conducted while confiscating 120 kilograms of marihuana in Pejë, 7 kilograms of heroin in the village Shkabaj, 12 kilogram of marihuana in Gjakovë, and 5 kilograms of heroin in Ferizaj.

One of the most important operations was during September 2013 where Kosovo Police confiscated approximately 7 kg of heroin.

According to the police information, this drug came from Turkey to the village Shkabaj, near Prishtina. The drug was mixed with other drugs and packaged in the village Shkabaj.  The drug dealers were headed to Albania, but the Kosovo Police stopped them near Prishtina. The drug and the vehicles were confiscated immediately. There were many operations similar to this one. During the clip the audience had the chance to see many of the places where drugs are consumed.

Moreover, the programme addresses the ways of hiding narcotic and the international connections of the trafficking networks that operate in Kosovo.

 

In 2011, Kosovo Government through a decision has banned the grit exploitation from the domestic rivers. “The law will be valid for three years counting from the day that the law starts to be implemented”, was said in the decision of the Government on November 2^nd, 2013. 

The decision signed by the Prime Minister Hashim Thaci assigned the Commission for Mines and Minerals, Kosovo Police and other institutions to implement this law.

Moreover, in 2013 the owner of company “Elezaj”, Bedri Elezaj, from Klina, told Justice in Kosovo that some officials asked him to give them money in order to help him.

A part of Mr. Elezaj’s company was closed in the end of 2011 because of the decision that was released from the government. Mr. Elezaj started to build a concrete mixer near his company, but in order to put the concrete mixer in function he needed the permission from the Commission for Mines and Minerals.

Mr. Elezaj was warned by the inspectors that he was not allowed to put the concrete mixer in function if he exploits grit illegally. He said that the inspectors never found him exploiting grit, but the inspectors flattered him and offered him to sign a document which he did not understand.

In addition, Mr. Elezaj realized too late what he signed and called the head inspector Nuredin Bislimi who told Mr. Elezaj that the fee can be from 5 thousand Euros to 50 thousand and that he should be careful.

Moreover, Mr. Elezaj decided to meet with the head inspector in Prishtinë and they agreed to give him 1000 Euros bribe in order to cancel the fee.

Meanwhile Elezaj decided to notify the police about this case because he was tired of being pressured.

Two days after the meeting, the head inspector Bislimi and the inspector Lulzim Çitaku visit the “Elezaj” company. Mr. Elezaj, in cooperation with Kosovo Police, gave Nuredin Bislimii 1000 Euros and a few meters away the police immediately arrested the head inspector Bislimi and the inspector Citaku for the penal act of bribe taking.

In addition, the evidences of Mr. Elezaj are being used as main proofs against two inspectors. The case prosecutor of for this case, Shpresa Gashi, told Justice in Kosovo that she made an agreement with Nuredin Bislimi. Mr. Bislimi declared himself as guilty therefore he will receive a lower punishment of 6 months – 1 year in prison.

The lawyer of Nuredin Bislimi, Bajram Tmava, said that her client admitted guilt for bribe taking and during the whole process he was defended in silence.

The other inspector, Lulzim Çitaku, declared himself as not guilty on the ground that he did not know that his chief was asking for bribe. This was confirmed by Çitaku’s lawyer, Mahmut Halimi; whereas, the prosecutor Gashi, who dealt with this case, said that according to the evidence, Çitaku knew about the bribe. She said that the prosecution is investigating also for other inspectors who took bribes. 

As usually, Justice in Kosovo also broadcasted the clips recorded in cooperation with the Kosovo Police. Security in Traffic was the action of the police in this clip. The Kosovo Police officer talked about the number of accidents. 32 accidents happened during 2013 and 37 people died during these accidents. The number of accidents is higher during winter; therefore Kosovo Police did an operative plan where the police will control the citizens if they have all the winter equipment for their vehicle. During the clip Kosovo Police controls a few vehicles where some of the drivers found driving faster than they were supposed to drive and some did not have the winter equipments for their vehicle.

Kosovo Cadastral Agency

The Kosovo Cadastral Agency paid a private company to translate and print two necessary manuals for the work of this institution. However, the materials were translated within the agency before it made the deal with the private contractor. Still, funds provided by the World Bank were transferred to the private company as a translation payment. The owner of the company itself claims that printing materials were delivered in Albanian. Murat Meha, head  of the Kosovo Cadastral Agency, is again criticized for abuses of funds that the institution has received from the World Bank. Meha was also accused earlier by former employees of the Kosovo Cadastral Agency because he had not taken measures to prevent breaches of contracts with private companies engaged in the project of Reconstruction of Cadastral Information.

Dukagjin Venhari, former translator in KCA, provided documents to “Jeta ne Kosove” showing that he had been contracted to translate both manuals and was paid by the Norwegian Embassy. He also has the translated manuals with the name of his as the translator, and the name of Murat Meha as the editor.  Meha denies to have ever contracted Venhari to translate the manuals, but Venhari showed the e-mails where he has clearly asked him to translate the manuals. The World Bank gave 5,922 euros for the translation from the private contractor.

The company “Consulting MM” won a tender worth 8,000 euros from the Ministry of Agriculture and was founded in 2008 by Meha, confirmed the Business Registration Agency. Initially, according ARBK, Meha was the owner and the authorized person of the company, but in 2010 would be appointed to another person in both positions. However, the contact number on the business certificate of the company was Meha’s phone number.

Problems in the Health Sector

Luljeta Cocaj from Prizren, on May 2 this year, was operated on the Regional Hospital of Prizren for removal of stone in the right kidney. After the operation, it the stone has not been removed. Fatos Shukriu, the doctor who had operated her, says that such cases occur in medicine. But Cocaj says that before the operation the doctor visited the room and he has not mentioned possible complications that might occur during surgery.

The doctor accepts that the stone was not removed by saying: “No, unfortunately. Despite the attempts of the whole team, assistants, surgery lasted about four hours; we could not remove the stone. There was quite complicated, the patient has a kidney anomaly, “he says. Anomaly, according to doctors, means that the kidney was tired and the continuation of the operation was jeopardized. The family knew about the complications, and her uncle signed the surgery official contract before the operation.

Accidents in the Railways

Every year accidents involving deaf people from crossing the railway in Drenas occur. The solution of this problem is not considered to be close. In the last two years, six people have died and 12 others have been seriously injured in this railway, including a 12-year-old boy who lost his leg.  The mayor of Drenas said that he sees no issues with the rail service, saying it’s the safest mode of transportation. The main problem is that people are not being aware that the rails are not walkways. There should be a higher cooperation between all the municipalities in Kosovo. However, the office of the country’s railways said that this is not true since they are obligated by the law to cooperate with one another and that there have been no complaints by the municipality of Drenas.

A Kosovar Civil Society Report to the United Nations declared that there are approximately 20,000 women were raped in Kosovo during the war and continue to face disastrous psychological and social effects. As a result, Vetevendosje proposed that the women raped during the war should be treated as victims of war, legally. This proposal was supported by 33 deputies, and rejected by 29.

The proposal to amend the law of veterans has triggered controversy, mainly by deputes in the opposition. On the other hand, it had offended the women, states KRCT, an organization that deals with these treatment. Moreover, Linda Gucia, sociologist and a part of this organization, said that after talking in person with the victims they feel offended by the neglect of deputes towards the seriousness of this issue.

Blerta Veliu, PDK deputy, was one of the deputies that rejected the proposal. Answering the question why she voted against she said: “From the region I come from, Drenica, is the place where most of the abuses took place. There is not any deputy that would vote against a law for the abused women because it would be immoral. The reason why I voted against is that what happened to these women differs from any war crime in Kosovo; therefore, they should be treated separately and a new law especially for them should be created.”

Alma Lama, MP of Vetevendosje, said that according to Kosovar Civil Society these women wanted explicitly not to be treated separately from other the victims of war. “It is the category that suffered the most; it is a crime against the human beings, but mostly these women suffer from our own society because they are stigmatized and humiliated.”

Sami Kurteshi, Ombudsperson of Kosovo, when asked whether Kosovar society is ready to treat these women the way they should be and not be stigmatized, said: “This society is not ready for a lot of issues. But one of the major problems is that we are not ready to face the truth.”

In regards to the budget for these women, whereas veterans are entitled to money from the state, the women raped during the war are not. Blerta Veliu says that there is no firm decision on the budget, but assures that these women will get money. Moreover, she says that “since there is no decision on the budget we cannot promise these women a new law because we are doing a second crime – lying to them.”

Regarding the stigmatization and trivialization of this issue Linda Gucia added: “the proposal for this law firstly went to the health commission and then to the financial commission, which trivialized this issue even more. This issue is a matter of security, and should be addressed to the law and security commission.”

The conflict in Syria is an ongoing civil war that has been detrimental to thousands of lives. The war is between two parts: forces loyal to the Syrian Ba’ath Party government and those seeking to overthrow it. These two groups belong to different Islam sects; however, this is not a religious war but it is a war to decide the distribution of power. The conflict began on 15 March 2011 by popular protests that spread across Syria. These demonstrations were part of a larger movement known as the Arab Spring. The protesters demanded the resignation of President Bashar Al Assad, whose family have lead Syria since 1971.

According to a United Nations report, made public on May 15 this year, the death toll from the war there is 80 thousand people. 10 thousand have died only in February this year. There is a significant number of Kosovars who have joined the war in Syria.

“Life in Kosovo” interviewed a Kosovar, who had been a part of the Syrian war but had since returned because of injury. He claims that the main reason for going to this war was mainly because of religion (jihad). There have been many reports in the media about whether Kosovars that join the war in Syria are paid or there is an Islamic organization that organizes them. In relation to this, the interviewee adds: “We do not take any amount of money. I have also read some newspaper articles that talk about places, addresses and mosques which organize the Kosovars who want to join the war. But these are just big lies and misinformation. If someone wants to go the front line is open and no one can stop them. There is no need for the organization”.

Former Middle East correspondent for Rilindja, Nehat Islami, said that in Syria there are Albanians who are part of the war because they are Syrian citizens who have gone before and after 1912. “They are Syrian Albanian descent,” Islami said.

There are more than 2 million refugees who hope to get back to their homes but there is no fine decision upon their fate. Haki Abazi, of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, said that this is a very difficult and complex process. The fate of these people does not depend on them but on the ones who are fighting the war. Mr Abazi also adds that these people have lived in dictatorship for many years and they deserve to become democratic. There are a lot of conflicts of interest involved in this war, for example Russia, Egypt etc. Ajni Sinani, professor of Islamic studies, claimed that the Islamic Medias are constantly asking the population to remain strong and destroy the totalitarian regime.

Regarding the protests in Turkey, they started as a result of the urban development plan of Istanbul. Gent Gjikolli, University of Ankara and researcher at KIPRED, in relation to Turkey added: “Turkey is economically developed, also in other sectors such as health, education etc. But the problem is freedom. All the Turkish population has the right to have access to these areas.”

According to Haki Abazi, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the main problem with Turkey is the expansionist external policy since it wants to take the leading place in the vacuum created in the Middle East. He also explained that Turkey wants to become a presidential country but the clash is between the two agendas: the one from the president Erdogan and the one from the army line, since there is no fine agenda to show the exact requests that Turkey wants.

Arab – Turkish Springs are a product of the unsatisfied population who want more freedom as citizens. The war in Syria is still going on, as well as the protests in Turkey.

All political parties had to declare their finance reports in the Central Election Commission by March 31, 2013. In Kosovo, there are 56 political parties registered and obliged to report their finances in CEC. “Life in Kosovo” has analyzed the finance reports of the biggest five political parties in Kosovo. The main findings from these analysis were: concealment of documents in relation to the political parties, not filing the financiers and the refusal of the financial officials to declare their finances.

Miradije Mavriqi, of the CEC, declared that the financial reports of the political parties need to get audited first; she explains that the reports from the year 2012 are not yet audited since the political parties had the deadline to submit the reports until March 2013. Once the auditor has the data, it audits and sees whether anything is missing; afterwards it sends a notification to the political parties asking for the additional documents missing and they have five days to complete the required documents.

In the website of CEC, the annual financial reports, not the audited reports, are only from the year 2011. According to Mavriqi, there is a law that states that the reports should be audited then posted in the website; however, the reports from the year 2011 were posted even though they were not audited.

Leon Malazogu, D4D – a NGO that deals with the elections, said that: “Finances of political parties are poorly managed by the law; there are no specific requests mentioned in the law.” Additionally, he said that CEC staff consists of members of political parties and expecting political parties to fine themselves is ridiculous. There is no detailed report to show how the public money is spent, and the documents provided are not enough to provide any analysis upon the spending.

Basri Musmurati, of PDK, claimed that his party is transparent and is ready to provide financial records to NGOs and other organisations.  However, he acknowledged that there might be shortcomings in the documentation since there are delays and other internal problems related to the finances.

The law states that in every political party the head and another responsible person should have exact data for the finances. Flutura Kusari, Legal Advisor at BIRN, claimed that GazetaJNK has tried numerous times to contact the responsible person for finances in PDK but never received an answer.

LDK has declared only two donors even though it is one of the biggest parties in Kosovo. In relation to this, Lutfi Zharku – LDK, said that they do have only two donors and they do not need for any additional donor since they have the public money, 900,000 euros, which is sufficient enough to cover their spending and projects relating Kosovo.

Haki Shatri, AAK, also claimed that they only have two donors and emphasizes that the public money is enough for their activities. He encourages the civil society to out more emphasis in this issue since there is lack of rule of law. He also adds that the public money that was given to the Serbian party, a small party in Kosovo related to these three parties, has never claimed their spending.

In conclusion, each amount of money received and spent from the public parties should be declared and transparent to the public. There are many inconveniences in the finances of the public parties. On one hand, the representatives of the political parties claim that they are very transparent and organized in the way they spend the money. CEC claims that there is no publishing of the reports since they have lack of auditing personnel; the reports should be audited first and then published. On the other hand, the civil society and BIRN claim that there is lack of transparency and the public money is not spent in the best way.

In April 2012 a law was implemented that states when donors give money to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Kosovo it is legal for NGOs to ‘transform’ the money in stocks or shares of personal private persons. According to the Law on Freedom of Association in NGOs, the capital microfinance NGOs that are in case of dissolution or closure should be distributed to other NGOs operating with similar objectives. As a result, the constitutional court has decided to prohibit microfinance institutions registered as NGOs to turn capital gain as NGOs in investment capital for commercial purposes.

The decision of the constitutional court to abolish this law brought a lot of consent to the Civil Society. Driton Selmanaj, Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) says that this law had violated three articles of the Constitution of Kosovo: Article 44 (the freedom of association), Article 46 (freedom of property) and Article 10 (economy).

Korab Sejdiu, a lawyer representing microfinance NGOs, says that this law has been misinterpreted because the objectives of these NGOs were not the way they were deduced. “We had a very strong case where we set our main objectives, but the court did not even take them into consideration,” said Sejdiu.

This law was voted and approved by the Assembly, and the reasoning of Naser Osmani, MP (Democratic League of Kosovo), was that according to him it was a better law than the previous one. However, he adds: “Civil Society has done a good job into being vigilant towards this issue and that they sent their complaints to Ombudsperson. The abolishment of this law is a good sign because it shows that institutions are collaborating and are supervising the work [potential flaws] of each other. The Parliament is not infallible.”

The attempts to create this kind of law have started since 2004, and the transparency has been low. Lulzim Rafuna, minister of Finance, reasons this by saying: “this problem was inherited by UNMIK times. In year 1999 and 2004, these organizations were regulated by UNMIK rules and these rules were abolished in year 2008.” According to him, the purpose of this law was to only touch one category of microfinance NGOs and it does not oblige these institutions to become corporations. However, Selmanaj add that this law has destroyed the main purpose of NGOs which is that they are non-profitable and the money they accumulate should be used in benefit of the society, not private benefits.

In conclusion, the law that allowed microfinance institutions registered as NGOs to turn capital gain as NGOs in investment capital for commercial purposes was abolished. There is still a debate taking place towards this issue, and “Life in Kosovo” will follow the proceedings.

On April 2, 2013 the eight round of negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia regarding the stabilization of relations took place. Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, after this meeting stated that the conflict is deeper than thought. The reason behind this seems to be very clear to Blerim Shala, political coordinator of the negotiations, since according to him there is still tension in the Serbian government and they do not want to reach a common agreement.

Most of the diplomats expected that this will be the final round of negotiations, especially with the presence Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in this meeting. Shala reasons this by saying that he is one of the strongest political figures in Serbia.

When asked about the disagreements between these two countries, Shala said, “The fundamental disagreements are on the case of association, but Ashton is categorical towards this issue since there cannot be any executive power. And the other disagreements are on the justice and the work of police.”

On the other hand, Skender Hyseni, former Foreign minister of Kosovo, answering the question about why this round failed, said that the expectations were too high.

Another issue mentioned in this debate is the case of a chair for Kosovo in the United Nations. Asked of Serbia would accept this, Glauk Konjufca, vice president of the Assembly of Kosovo said, “The main issue towards this case is the price Kosovo has to pay to Serbia in order to be recognized. From previous history, Serbia recognized Bosnia and Hercegovina … This could happen with Kosovo, as well.”

A report from “Justice in Kosovo” was also aired. It concerned the transparency of the dialogue, which is low. “Justice in Kosovo” sent a letter on January 12, 2013 to the office of the Prime Minister to ask for full access in the documents regarding technical and political issues of this dialogue. This request is supported by the law on access to public documents.  However, there was no response. Nevertheless, Blerim Shala said that 95 per cent of the information has been made public.

Prishtina and Belgrade signed an agreement, on April 19, 2013, relating the normalization of relationships between each other. There were various interpretations towards this act: some saying that Kosovo won, some saying that Serbia won on a margin of 14 to 1, and others saying that Serbia has recognized the Republic of Kosovo. This agreement was supposed to a compromise on the interests of both parties.

This agreement is seen as a step forward for Kosovo, but not recognition. This agreement creates association/community of Serb municipalities in Kosovo, which, as a result, gives full power for sectors such as economy, urban planning, health and education. Also, it enables the power to select police leadership for the Northern region, for judges and others; and inserts within the framework of Kosovo the existing structures of Serb security institutions that are a part of the country. It is also guaranteed that neither country would hamper each other’s integration in the European Union.

Oliver Ivanovic, the Serb political representative from Mitrovica, implies that even after this agreement Serbs are afraid of any physical contact with Albanians, due to the prejudices as a result of the negative experiences during the war of 1999. He adds that in order for this agreement to be accepted by Serbs of Mitrovica, it should not be transmitted to them by Prishtina or Brussels, but: “the only party that can be trusted in long-term is the Government of the Republic of Serbia. They have the obligation to explain to people that work [the agreement].”

Part of the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia is also holding local elections in four Northern municipalities which are expected to be organized this year by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE. Ivanovic states that this is not a good idea because less than 10% of the Northern population would vote; hence, degrading the credibility of OSCE. He proposes: “there must be no hurry and next year will probably be the best solution.” OSCE spokesman in Prishtina, Nikola Gaon, told “Life in Kosovo” that the OSCE is familiar with its role in the agreement and that the situation is being monitored; therefore, the elections are supposed to take place on this autumn, 2013.

Nexhmedin Spahiu, analyst from Mitrovica, states that one of the most discussable points on this agreements are the ones which Serbia wants to isolate itself inside the borders of Kosovo. “They want to create institutions that will be for Serbs only, just to isolate themselves inside Kosovo. While according to Ahtisaari’s plan Kosovo is a multiethnic country where everyone has the right to their own ethnicity and there are no institutions that categorize each one of them.”

Naim Rashiti, ICG (International Crisis Group), suggested that the agreement reached on April 19 in Brussels is just an opening step towards other agreements. He analogizes this situation with the one in between east and west Germany in 1970s. t

Also expected to be discussed is Kosovo becoming a member of the Green Card, which includes all the countries of Europe and some other countries of the Mediterranean. Green Card would enable Kosovar citizens to pass the borders without having to pay extra insurance fees for their vehicles. Also, Kosovo would demand its own international bank code which would allow the sending and receiving of the transactions information in a more secure and standardized way. A international dialing code will also be demanded for Kosovo.