Tag: Kosovo

The Minister, Vlora Çitaku, also discussed the Progress Report for Kosovo for the year 2013. 

“If we fail this test, the European future of Kosovo will be hit in the worst way possible”, said the Minister of European Integration, Vlora Çitaku, in the interview given for Life in Kosovo, where she also discussed the local election that will be held on November 3, 2013. She qualifies these elections as very important for Kosovo and its European future. 

“The elections of November 3 are not a written condition for the Stabilization-Association Agreement, but it is classified as the main condition of this agreement. It is the basic criterion that we should fulfill if we want to move forward whether with the Stabilization-Association Agreement, the Visa liberalization process, or any other process that is connected to the integration of Kosovo in international mechanisms”, said the minister Çitaku. 

According to Çitaku, these elections should be flawless. During the interview Mrs. Çitaku also declared that the Progress Report for Kosovo is the exact scan of the overall current state of the country. 

“This report is the diagnostics of the real state of the country in all the institutions. In this progress is not only measured the government performance, but also measures the performance of other institutions”, said Mrs. Citaku. 
The report was received by the Kosovo institution two days ago and it clearly states all the challenges faced and the progress achieved by Kosovo. “The fulfillment of the short term criteria for the initiation of negotiations for the Stabilization-Association Agreement is one of the progresses of Kosovo mentioned in this report, whereas the most challenging part is the rule of law in Kosovo”, said Mrs. Çitaku. 

The minister Citaku also complained about the ministers who do not attend the parliament sessions and the meetings of the parliamentary commissions in order to answer the questions of members of the parliament. She also mentioned that the criticisms for the election reforms are a big challenge. 

The minister Çitaku also talked about the fight against corruption, organized crimes, public administration reforms and their impacts in the judiciary.

Çitaku is the head of the Negotiation Team in the Stabilization-Association Agreement; the team which has had two meeting until now.

To discuss about this issue Life in Kosovo has invited: Leonora Kryeziu, executive director of Pristina Institute for Political Studies; Agron Demi, executive director of GAP institute; Hajrullah Çeku, executive director of the nongovernmental organization “Ec Ma Ndryshe”; and Arbana Xharra, editor-in-chief of the daily “Zëri”.

Agron Demi mentioned that there are many mayors that govern a municipality but they do not actually live in that municipality. Therefore, they (the candidates) cannot see all the problems that occur in their municipality. Many of the candidates that are running for mayor do not know the problems that they will have to face. When you ask the candidates for the problems of the municipality they usually deal with the basic one such as roads and sewages. There is no plan on how to improve the governance.

In addition, Leonora Kryeziu said that a specific issue that we dealt with in the institution is the energy management, more specifically energy efficiency. Every candidate that is running for mayor should have as one of the priorities the energy efficiency.
In addition, Arbana Xharra added that a critical thing is that a few candidates have legal problems and yet they run for mayor. People that are involved in scandals, corruption and crimes run for mayor in some municipalities. The awareness among voters should be raised and they should not vote a candidate just because they promised to hire one of the family members or that his/her business will benefit during this candidate’s mandate.

Moreover, Hajrullah Ceku’s organization has drafted a guide for citizens on how a candidate that is running for Prizren should be. Hajrullah Ceku said that none of the candidates that run for Prizren fulfils all the criteria in this guide. One of the problems is that the mayors do not differ from each other; they all use the same platform. If the mayor does not state in the beginning for which town h/she is running for mayor, the citizen cannot tell which town it is because they all have the same platform.

It was also mentioned that in 2010 GAP institute evaluated if the promises that were done during the election campaign were being kept. Mr. Demi pointed out that many of the promises were not kept and they even seemed ridiculous.

Finally, some of the ideas that were given to the candidates were: to lower the number of administrative staff. There are many people that work in administrative issues but they are not qualified to work there; the parties to be more prepared for the elections. In the last minutes the parties changed the names of the candidates; to deal with the water supply; new job creations; to create a new environment for small and medium enterprises.

The first issue discussed was the case of Egypt and the recognition of Kosovo by Egypt. Since Egypt is in a sort of crisis because the president Morsi was overthrown, the new leading party could bring problems to the recognition of Kosovo. However, minister assures that there are no such implications since he has visited Egypt after the conflict and the situation towards Kosovo is stable.

According to Enver Hoxhaj, the agreement between Prishtina and Beograd is beneficial and it is a step forwards the improvement of mutual relationships. Regarding the case of the ex-ambassador Lulzim Peci, the ministry of foreign affairs has a sensitive approach by saying that his decision to claim his resignation in the media was unprofessional. Moreover, Hoxhaj adds that the ex-ambassador had attended meetings that were not arranged by the ministry of foreign affairs.

Kosovo is now a part of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development which is a very important organization. Members of this organization that voted for the acceptance of the Republic of Kosovo were even the member countries that did not recognize the independence of Kosovo. In this organization Kosovo is registered strictly as the Republic of Kosovo without the footnote.

Minister Hoxhaj has been lobbying in different countries, not only for the recognition of Kosovo, but also for further investments. However, the issue of privatizing big companies of Kosovo has not brought the recognition of some countries; i.e. Greece. In reply to this, Hoxhaj adds: “I can assure that in a near future Greece, Rumania, and Slovakia will move towards the decision of recognizing the Republic of Kosovo.”

Part of this interview was reportage done by one of BIRN journalist regarding the deviations in the road of Kijeve.

To discuss about this issue Life in Kosovo invited some domestic and international anthropologists such as Karolin Llojtllof and Robert Pihler, anthropologist from Austria; Nebi Bardoshi, anthropologist from Albania; Eli Krasniqi and Tahir Latifi, anthropologists from Kosovo; and Ariana Qosaj- Mustafa, lawyer from Kosovo.

Berit Beker and Xhenet Rajnek were the two anthropologists that came to Kosovo, during ‘80ties to write books on how big Albanian families in Kosovo function. They learned Albanian and lived with the big Albanian families in Opoja and Isniq.

After 30 years, two anthropologists are following their steps of these researchers. Eli Krasiqi and Tahir Latifi have decided to live in Opoja and Isniq in order to find out if the life of big Albanian families in Kosovo has changed. This project’s purpose is to analyze the changes that happened in these families after 30 years.

Both anthropologists said that the families are much smaller nowadays, but there are not many changes. Even though in other European countries members of the families no longer live all together, in Kosovo there are still villages and regions such as Opoja and Isniq where members of the families live all together.

Kosovo still remains a patriarchal country where the man of the house still has the last word in decision making. Women, in many parts of Kosovo, are economically dependent on their husbands; therefore, these women think that they do not have the right to make decisions. Ariana Qosaj- Mustafa thinks that as soon as women in Kosovo start to work and they are no longer economically dependent on their husbands, they will be able to take decision for themselves and their families.

Moreover, Caroline Lojtllof said that in the pas a lot of Kosovo citizens migrated and left their wives and children in Kosovo for years. Nowadays men do not leave their wives and children at home because of the different circumstances. If they want to migrate and work somewhere else, they take their wife and their children and go together.

In June 25, 2013, Vetevendosje boycotted and disrupted a regular Assembly session about the ratification of Prishtina-Belgrade agreement. To show discontent about this agreement, Vetevendosje activists organized a protest in front of the assembly. Some activists threw rocks at the police cars after the police intervened to end the protests.

When asked about the protests Kurti added: “First, Vetevendosje is highly against ratifying the agreement and just knowing that there are deputies that will vote in favor of it was the peek for us as activists. Second, we were attacked violently by the police during the protest so we just had to throw rocks, even though this act is not appreciated by any of the activists.”

Agron Bajrami, Editor-in-Chief of Koha Ditore, added that even though Vetevendosje is against the ratification it is highly responsible for the activists’ actions: “Vetevendosje has the aim of refusing the parliament’s decision, but those kinds of acts that were ignited mostly because of a small number of protesters are not acceptable,” he added.

Mufail Limani, Director of Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK), also participating in the debate. According to Limani, Vetevendosje does not know what it wants from Kosovo, and what they are asking for does not follow the democratic ideologies of the country. He also emphasized that the movement was too inappropriate in its early stages to be turned into a political party. Kurti replied that Vetevendosje is not a political party, but a political movement.

Vetevendosje has a reputation of refusing to better relations with Serbs, while Kurti adds that this is not the case – and Vetevendosje is only asking for Serbia to apologize to Kosovo.

Edona Lluka, President of APJK, gave her analysis on the current situation between Vetevendosje and citizens, saying that Vetevendosje had much more supporters when they were not involved in politics, and were just considered an activist group. Lluka asked Kurti how Vetevendosje is planning to convince citizens that they should democratically rule a country when they use violent measures to achieve their aims and do not have good relations with the other political parties.

Kurti replied that they are not asking for voters, and only want to protect Kosovo from the ratification because it will be a disastrous act: “Even though we do not have good relations with the other parties, time is proving that there are no real political parties in Kosovo,” added Kurti.

Kurti and five other members of Vetevendosje were in Washington DC and met six congressmen and a senator to talk about this issue. They took their stand on the ratification agreement and also on the American ambassador, Tracey Ann Jacobson, who refuses to meet them. Kurti said that they have sent a letters asking the ambassador to join them in Washington to discuss this issue but never received an answer.

On November 3 will be the date of the elections. Kurti said that they are preparing for the local elections and they aim to win the election in most of the municipalities. “The most important part of the local elections are the candidates and we will choose the best alternatives during the summer,” said Kurti.

10 600 children were born in the year 2012 in Prishtina and one of the main issues of the parents is the registration of their children in the kindergartens. The monthly price for a public kindergarten is 50 Euros, while in the private kindergartens it differs from 80 to150 euros per month. There is a tremendous competition for these places which are extremely disproportionatein their number of children.

A parent interviewed by “Life in Kosovo” said that he had a lot of troubles finding a place for his child since there were cases were 30 places were free and in which 300 thousand children were applying. One of the ways to get accepted is by having relatives in the kindergartens.  However, the heads of the kindergartens are categorical regarding the assumption that children are accepted in the kindergartens because they know someone working in the building. They say that there is no truth to that, but interventions from parents are present.

HalimHalili, director of the Municipal Directorate of Education of Pristina; says that the problem relies on the fact that half of the population is not registered – there are only 200 thousand registered, but in fact the numbers are approximately 400 thousand. The problems addressed were about children waiting too long to get accepted, the unavailability of free places and the higher prices in the private kindergartens. Halili in response to this, said: “we do know what people of Pristina undergo but the problem is that there is not enough budget to build new kindergartens. However, we have already worked on two kindergartens “Ajvalia” and “Mat” but because of the limited budget it is impossible to pay the staff, therefore we cannot put them in function.”

MeritaShala, a babyhoodexpert, added: “this is not only the issue of the Ministry of Education. It is a part of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Work and Social Welfare. There should be cooperations between all these departments so that this problem could be solved.” Moreover, she added that the private kindergartens that have not license should be closed immediately because they do not have the appropriate conditions of a kindergarten, i.e. enough garden space.

Defrim Gashi, director of Education Inspection MEST, regarding the licenses said that “the time it takes for a kindergarten to get a license is not that long;it will take them at least one year to get analyzed because there are several standards that kindergartens should accomplish.”

Jehona Xhaferi, kindergarten trainer of teachers, confessed that she has sent her child to a private kindergarten. “I have applied in a public kindergarten, but I was not sure whether my child would be accepted. I was lucky because I knew the head of one private kindergarten and I was aware of the conditions there. My daughter immediately adapted to this new place, so I knew that was the right one.” She also adds that the problem is not only with the free spaces but with the standards of these kindergartens, and she insiststhat the standards must be accomplished so that children would grow properly.

Merita Shala explained a study in babyhood done in Kosovo by Yale University which showed that the number of accepted children is really low, and the prices are one of the highest in the region; while the standard of living in Kosovo is lower in comparison to the other regions.

In conclusion, the number of kindergartens in Prishtina is really low compared to the number of children. The chances of getting accepted are much higher if you know someone in one kindergarten. There is a problem with the standards and the license of some private kindergartens. In order for these problems to be solved there should be more collaboration between all the departments.

The old tobacco law (LAW NO. 02/L-36), adopted in 2011 faced implementing difficulties due to the article 10, paragraph 10.5, which defined division of space for smokers to 30 percent of total public space. As a result, the parliament of Kosovo voted unanimously, except two abstentions, for a new law regarding tobacco where the restrictions would be 100% for smoking in the public areas. The implementation of this law will be taken very seriously since it was strongly supported by the Members of the Parliament. Moreover, many of the diseases present in Kosovo is because of smoking and second-hand smoking.

“The fact that the government of Kosovo has given full support to this law and that the Parliament voted with no votes against, which is rare, shows categorically that state institutions, civil society and community are convinced that it is time to implement it,” says Faik Hoti, communications director at the Health Ministry.

In Kosovo, the data collected by the Statistical Office of Kosovo regarding the number of deaths in the period 2006-2011, have concluded that out of 42,831 deaths recorded, 17 thousand of them or 53 percent were deaths from cardiovascular disease – where tobacco enters as one of the main factors. Moreover, more than 50% of children in Kosovo are victims of second-hand smoking.

Relating the inspectors and whether there is a sufficient number of inspectors to cover the numerous bars and restaurants in Kosovo Durak Zyrapi, inspector, adds: “there is a sufficient number, but not sufficient enough, since we have 57 sanitation workers to cover the whole region of Kosovo. Before we were alone in our mission, but now we have the support of many departments, especially the police.”

The sentences regarding the violation of law would be 3000 – 5000 euros for the head of bars and restaurants, 500 euros for the responsible person (manager) of the space, and 50 euros for the smoker. People who would get caught smoking will be asked for their identification card and get fined. Whenever the inspectors or the managers have any problem with any civil regarding smoking then the police, according to the law, have the right to intervene. However, there is a problem with the inspectors during the weekends and after 17 pm, since inspectors finish their shifts.

Even though everyone welcomes this law, Safet Gërxhaliu, Head of the Chamber of Commerce, states that him as a representative of the businesses has a problem with the Article 9.2 which prohibits the exposure of tobacco in every place, there cannot be any visibility of tobacco in shops or other public places. He adds that: “this law goes against the constitution, specifically with the Articles relating the economy and free trade competition. After meeting the minister of Finance, Bedri Hamzaj, now ex-minister has promised to take definite steps and ask the Parliament to reject the Article 9.2, but he never did that.”

Shkumbin Spahija, civil society representative, is against this economic argument made by the Chamber of Commerce. He adds: “Instead of spending 700-1000 euros annually for tobacco and effecting themselves and people around them, these smokers could use this money and buy something else which is beneficial for the economy of Kosovo. There is no loss!”

In summary, his law has been approved and it is expected to be successfully implemented. The businesses are the ones that will be the most effected. The inspectors believe that the implementation of this law will be successful since now they do have the support of the police.

Former Secretary of the Ministry of Health Ilir Tolaj and his two subordinates, Hajrullah Fejza and Arbenita Pajaziti, were sentenced to prison by the Basic Court of Pristina, while his superior Bujar Bukoshi was acquitted. Fejza and Tolaj cannot exercise public office for three years, while Pajaziti was banned for two years exercise of such positions.

Ilir Tolaj was convicted for the offense of official document falsification and complicity in tax evasion. He was acquitted of other charges such as: 12 counts of abuse of official position or authority, a count of bribery, one on tax evasion and one count on obstruction of evidence.Tolaj was sentenced to a total of 18 months and a fine of 1,000 euros. He is prohibited to exercise functions in public administration or public service for three years. Ilir

Tolaj’s house arrest has completed and it is expected the issuance of a new decision.

Arbenita Pajaziti was claimed guilty to two counts of the indictment for falsifying documents, one of them in cooperation. Pajaziti was sentenced to a total of eight months and suspended for a period of 2 years. She is prohibited to exercise functions in public administration or public service for 2 years.

Hajrullah Fejza was pleaded guilty to two counts of the indictment for taking bribes and is free of other charges. Fejza received a total sentence of eight months imprisonment. The defendant is prohibited from exercising the functions of public administration or public service for three years.

Bujar Bukoshi, former Health Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, was acquitted of all charges. He was charged with two counts of the indictment for abuse of official position.

“Bukoshi influenced by Tolaj, in June 2010 had not continued a contract for the supply of drugs JonaMed’it, which was the type “one plus one “, although service of the ministry had prepared documentation for the continuation of the contract,” said the indictment.

The other defendants as Bekim Fusha, Ismet Hyseni, and Zenel Kuqi, were also released from the counts where they were charged of misuse of official position. The three of them carried out tasks and responsibilities related to the procurement of buying medicines for the Ministry of Health. In its reasoning the court said that “we have not found a conflict of interest by selling Exclusive Gjilan license from Arbenita Pajaziti”.

Regarding actions of Tolaj and Bukoshi, in counts they were charged, the court said that “for all actions taken they had justifications, or the court was unable to find a bad action.” The non-continuity of the contract “one plus one”, to which the accused Tolajand Bukoshi, cooperated to not give contract to Jona Med and YessPharm, the court reasoned that “had no obligation to continue the contracts.”