The training was provided to officials of the Municipality of Peja/Pec, including assembly members and other officials, to address various forms of extremism and terrorism, with a focus on the strategic goals set out in the Strategy.
Present were Labinot Leposhtica, the Legal Office and Monitoring Coordinator at BIRN Kosovo and a member of the Working Group for the National Strategy for Preventing and Countering Terrorism, and Milot Sfishta, an official from the Department for Reintegration of Repatriated Persons and Integration of Foreigners at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Labinot Leposhtica emphasized the crucial role of local communities in combating extremism and terrorism and stressed the immediate need for the Strategy to be implemented at the regional level. Milot Sfishta provided an overview of the current situation regarding returnees and the work undertaken by the institutions. Speakers emphasized that local authorities play a vital role in achieving the Strategy’s goals and that their involvement is crucial to preventing violent extremism.
During the training, the participants were very active in discussing various cases, such as political terrorism, many attacks that occurred in the past years in Kosovo towards critical infrastructure, such as the Iber-Lepenc case, the Badovci Lake, and other cases, such as Banjska and the fragility of the overall security situation, which requires attention of all, regardless of political parties.
The participants were very familiar with violent extremism cases and people involved in the past, when they joined foreign fights. Underlying ideologies and economic factors were two of the main reasons why they joined the war in Syria. Moreover, participants reached a shared agreement on the urgent need for further action, particularly focused on youth. There was a growing concern that young people may be influenced by incidents that have occurred in the region in recent years, highlighting the importance of using their roles and elected representatives within the Peja/Pec community to more actively address and prevent such developments.
27 participants attended the event, out of whom 12 were women.
The training was part of the Resilient and Inclusive Community Programme, funded by the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), through the Advocacy Training and Resource Center (ATRC), and implemented by BIRN Kosovo.
