9.9.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

10.09.2007 /

USA drohen Serbien

State Department kündigt offiziell Unterstützung für Abspaltung des Kosovo an. Belgrad behält sich Truppenentsendung in die Provinz vor. EU uneinig

Graffiti in Mitrovica: »Freies Kosovo«, garantiert von Coca Cola und Washington Foto: AP

»Unser Land ist mit einer direkten Drohung durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika konfrontiert, wonach die US-Regierung illegal die einseitige Unabhängigkeit der Provinz Kosovo und Metohien anerkennen wird«, schrieb der serbische Premier Vojislav Kostunica am Sonnabend in einem Brandbrief an die Mitglieder des UN-Sicherheitsrates. Damit habe die Supermacht »direkt Serbiens Souveränität und territoriale Integrität beschädigt«. Am gleichen Tag vorausgegangen war die Ankündigung des Balkan-Beauftragten des US-Außenministeriums, Kurt Volker, daß die US-Regierung eine Ausrufung des Kosovo zu einem eigenen Staat auch ohne UN-Mandat anerkennen würde. Damit, so Kostunica weiter, »kündigen die USA an, daß sie die UN-Resolution 1244 und die UN-Charta auf brutalste Weise verletzen wollen«.

Andeutungen in diese Richtung hatte es in den letzten Monaten immer wieder aus Washington gegeben, aber niemals in dieser Deutlichkeit. Tatsächlich ist die Mißachtung der UN durch die Bush-Administration damit noch schamloser geworden. Zwar wurde auch Jugoslawien 1999 und der Irak 2003 ohne Mandat des Sicherheitsrates, also völkerrechtswidrig, überfallen. Aber ein offener Bruch vorheriger UN-Resolutionen wurde in diesen Fällen vermieden. In bezug auf das Kosovo aber gibt es die von Kostunica erwähnte Sicherheitsratsresolution 1244 vom Sommer 1999, die die Kampfhandlungen zwischen der NATO und Jugoslawien offiziell abschloß. In dieser auch von den USA unterstützten Entschließung wurde das Kosovo zwar einer UN-Verwaltung unterstellt, aber gleichzeitig seine weitere Zugehörigkeit zum Gesamtstaat – damals Jugoslawien, heute dessen Rechtsnachfolger Serbien– verfügt.

Dusan Prorokovic, der für Kosovo zuständige Staatssekretär in der serbischen Regierung, hatte bereits Mitte vergangener Woche klargemacht, wie Belgrad auf die völkerrechtswidrige Amputation seiner Südprovinz reagieren würde: durch »die mögliche Entsendung serbischer Truppen in die Provinz, die Abriegelung der Grenzen und ein Handelsembargo«. Prorokovic argumentierte nach dem Völkerrecht: Falls die UN-Resolution 1244 durch die einseitige Proklamation eines neuen Staates Kosovo annulliert würde, falle auch das mit dieser Resolution verbundene Militärabkommen von Kumanovo, in dem Belgrad gegenüber der NATO den Abzug seiner Truppen aus der umkämpften Region zugestimmt hat.

Die EU-Außenminister fanden auf ihrer Tagung am Wochenende im portugiesischen Viana do Castelo keine Antwort auf die Zuspitzung der Situa­tion…………….

Junge Welt

 Die Amerikaner brauchen halt in Europa ein schwarzes Loch ohne Gesetz und Kontrolle damit man Geschäfte wie den Drogen- und Waffenhandel ungestört in Europa abwickeln kann.

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9.9.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

“Beim UNO-Tribunal in Den Haag enttäuscht der als Zeuge der Anklage geladene frühere serbische Geheimdienstchef”, schreibt taz-Autor Roland Hofwiler und referiert: “Statt über ›direkte Kontakte‹ zwischen dem Freischärler Zeljko Raznjatovic, genannt Arkan, die Raubkatze, zu dem serbischen Herrscher zu berichten - wie mit der Anklage abgesprochen - verwies Markovic allein darauf, man habe sich hin und wieder mit dem Freischärlerführer getroffen, ›um ihn in die Schranken zu weisen‹. Milosevic wie er hätten Arkan immer wieder deutlich zu verstehen gegeben, er habe nur so lange deren Unterstützung, wie seine Einheiten wie ›wahre Soldaten‹ kämpften. Und daran habe sich Arkan gehalten. Alle ihm unterstellten Gräuelgeschichten hätten andere erfunden, um das Serbentum zu diskreditieren. Diese Aussage Markovics kam für die UNO-Ankläger wie ein Schock, denn sie spielte dem mutmaßlichen Kriegsverbrecher Milosevic direkt in die Hände …”
Markovic sagte demnach aus, worüber er aussagen sollte, nämlich über direkte Kontakte zwischen Arkan und Milosevic. Aber was er sagte, schockierte die Anklage. Es spielte dem Angeklagten in die Hände, meint Hofwiler schon in der Überschrift “Der Zeuge enttäuscht”. Mich schockiert, dass Hofwiler für ausgemacht hält, was das Gericht doch erst herausfinden soll, nämlich die Schuld des Angeklagten.
Deshalb klicke ich ein Weltblatt an, Le Monde: Von “Eklat” spricht auch diese Zeitung und resümiert teilweise wie Hofwiler. Außerdem: Markovic hätte laut eigener Aussage nicht die geringste Andeutung von einem “Hufeisenplan” vernommen, dessen Ziel die Vertreibung der Albaner aus dem Kosovo durch serbische Kräfte gewesen sei. Das stimmt doch - denke ich - mit Äußerungen des deutschen Generals Heinz Loquai überein, der seinerzeit die Begründung des NATO-Krieges gegen Jugoslawien angezweifelt hatte. Le Monde aber lässt den Prozessvertreter von Human Rights Watch zu Wort kommen - und Richard Dicker sagt, er halte die Aussagen von Markovic für wenig glaubwürdig. Da steht also der Eindruck eines Menschenrechtswächters gegen die Aussage eines deutschen Generals. Letzterer wurde zwar entlassen, aber sein Vorgesetzter, der Verteidigungsminister Scharping, inzwischen auch.
Ich gehe spaßeshalber auf die Internetseite der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), die vermeldet, Markovic habe sich “vor dem UNO-Kriegsverbrechertribunal von einer schriftlichen Erklärung distanziert, die er früher in Belgrad unterzeichnet hatte. Markovic, der zur Befragung aus seiner Untersuchungshaft in Belgrad nach Den Haag überstellt wurde, erklärte, er habe das Papier zwar unterschrieben, den Inhalt jedoch nicht gelesen. Ihm sei der Vorschlag unterbreitet worden, eine neue Identität anzunehmen und sich ins Ausland abzusetzen. Als Gegenleistung sei verlangt worden, Milosevic zu belasten; andernfalls müsse er mit ernsthaften Konsequenzen rechnen.”
So würde sich der Schock der Ankläger erklären: Markovic unterschreibt, was man ihm im Knast hinhält, besinnt sich aber eines andern, sobald Roland Hofwiler von der taz zuhört, nämlich vor dem Haager Tribunal. Leider verzichtet die taz darauf zu erklären, warum Anklageerwartung und Zeugenaussage einander widersprechen.
Oder hat sich die Neue Zürcher verhört?
Ian Black, der Berichterstatter des englischen Guardian, weiß auch nur Richard Dicker von Human Rights Watch zu zitieren: Die Verbindung zwischen offenbar begangenen Taten und dem mutmaßlich obersten Täter Milosevic sei der “schwierigere Teil” der Beweisführung. Von Rade Markovics Sinneswandel zwischen Belgrader Gefängnisverhör und Haager Aussage kein Wort.
Schließlich die BBC: Die damalige Aussage, so wird Markovic durch die Briten wiedergegeben, sei ihm von den Anklägern verdreht worden. Außerdem habe man ihm einen Deal angeboten, damit er falsch aussage.
Also hat die Neue Zürcher richtig gehört - und der Guardian unterschlägt einen himmelschreienden Vorwurf gegen die Haager Justiz, die sich die Menschenrechte auf die Augenbinde geschrieben hat. Von Roland Hofwiler gar nicht zu reden.
Ich bin enttäuscht, schließlich kann ich nicht selbst in Den Haag sitzen und den Prozess verfolgen. Folglich schicke ich der taz ein Beschwerde-Chat, das sich gewaschen hat und muss feststellen, dass Andreas Hauß, Generaldirektor der Firma medienanalyse-international (eine gute Internetseite), auf der gleichen Chat-Seite reklamiert: “Der Belastungszeuge ›enttäuschte‹ - wen? Vielleicht die taz-Journalisten? Die nicht berichten über die unwesentliche Kleinigkeit, dass Markovic von Folter sprach, mit der ihm die Aussage contra Milosevic abgepresst wurde iehe http://emperors-clothes.com/milo/rade.htm. Warum konnte Carla del Ponte davon ausgehen, dass ausgerechnet der Geheimdienstchef gegen Milosevic aussagen würde? Aber egal, ob Markovic bzgl. der Folter lügt oder nicht - warum wird nicht darüber berichtet, dass er das sagte? Etwa weil die Aussage stimmig erscheinen könnte?”
Laut Emperor´s clothes hat Markovic von Folter gesprochen. Ausführlich wird berichtet, was NZZ und BBC nur vorsichtig andeuten: Vor seiner Verbringung nach Den Haag saß Markovic 17 Monate in einem Belgrader Gefängnis. Seine Zeugenaussage vor dem Tribunal lautet - er wurde während der Haft gefoltert, damit er gegen seinen früheren Chef aussagt. Markovic erklärt dazu vor den Haager Richtern, bei ihm seien eines Tages Serbiens Innenminister Mihailovic und dessen Geheimpolizeichef Petrovic mit einem Polizei-Trupp aufgetaucht. Sie hätten ihn aus der Zelle geholt, um ihm bei einem privaten Essen im Austausch gegen eine falsche Zeugenaussage eine neue Identität, ein Leben in Luxus und ein Ende der Folter zu versprechen.
Emperor´s clothes weiter: Geschockt davon, dass Markovic sich ihm entzog, habe Ankläger Jeffrey Nice, Carla Del Pontes Stellvertreter, Richter Richard May darum gebeten, Markovic zu stoppen. Und der tat es, unterbrach Milosevic, der gerade Markovic befragte und meinte: “Da wir über das Kosovo reden”, sei das Thema einer Folterung von Markovic, die das Ziel hatte, ihn zur Falschaussage über Milosevics Rolle im Kosovo zu veranlassen, “irrelevant”. - Keiner, weder die Agenturen AP und AFP, noch Guardian, Welt, Süddeutsche oder Frankfurter Rundschau haben darüber geschrieben - alle schwiegen. Und die alternative taz fügte noch einen Touch Menschenrechtsüberwachung aus eigener Fabrikation hinzu.

Freitag

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9.9.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

09.09.2007 18:13 Uhr
Trennlinie
Europas Machtprobe
Nur die EU hat genügend Gewicht, um im Kosovo-Streit eine Katastrophe zu verhindern - auch nur nur dann, wenn Europa die USA davon abhält, dem Kosovo weiter Zusagen zu machen, die einer einvernehmlichen Lösung im Weg stehen.
Von Martin Winter

Viel Zeit bleibt nicht. In drei Monaten muss die Troika aus den USA, Russland und der EU den Vereinten Nationen Bericht erstatten, ob es eine gütliche Einigung über die Zukunft des Kosovo gibt. Die Chancen dafür sind schlecht, solange sich die verfeindeten Serben und Kosovaren in der Illusion wiegen dürfen, dass ihre jeweiligen Paten in Moskau respektive in Washington schon für sie sorgen werden - und solange sie spekulieren können, dass die Europäer auseinanderbrechen, wenn sie vor eine harte Entscheidung gestellt werden.

Sympathische Scheu vor brutaler Machtpolitik

Ein bisschen Realismus könnte sich einstellen, wenn die Europäische Union politisch einig auftritt und die Führungsrolle übernimmt. Denn am Ende sind es nicht die Amerikaner oder die Russen, sondern die Europäer, die dem Kosovo und Serbien politisch und finanziell in eine sichere Zukunft helfen müssen. Die gute Nachricht ist, dass die EU diesen Zusammenhang unter dem Druck der drohenden politischen Katastrophe auf dem Balkan begriffen hat. Die Außenminister haben eine seltene Eintracht und Entschlossenheit demonstriert.

Die schlechte Nachricht: Die EU scheint immer noch nicht so recht zu wissen, wie sie die langfristige Abhängigkeit des Balkans von Europa kurzfristig in einen politischen Geländegewinn umsetzen kann.

Die EU hat eine sympathische Scheu vor brutaler Machtpolitik. Doch in diesem Fall bleibt ihr keine andere Wahl. Die Aussicht auf eine künftige Mitgliedschaft in der EU hat weder bei Serben noch bei den Kosovo-Albanern wirklich etwas bewegt. Sie wird bereits als feste Zusage abgebucht, für die kein Preis mehr zu entrichten ist.

Anlass für vorsichtige Hoffnung

Wenn Europa Erfolg haben will, dann muss es jetzt drohen: Wer sich nicht friedlich einigt, der verliert die europäische Perspektive und kriegt kein Geld mehr. Zwar gibt es keine Garantie, dass dadurch ausreichend Nachdenklichkeit in Belgrad und in Pristina ausgelöst wird. Aber die Drohung ist das letzte Instrument der Europäer. Wenn sie es nicht nutzen, trifft sie der Vorwurf, nicht alles versucht zu haben, eine neue Balkan-Krise abzuwenden.

Eine minimale Chance wird es auch nur dann geben, wenn Europa die USA davon abhält, dem Kosovo weiter Zusagen zu machen, die einer einvernehmlichen Lösung im Weg stehen. Moskau ist von Deutschland überredet worden, an den Beratungen teilzunehmen - so entstand die Troika. Das ändert für sich genommen noch nichts an der russischen Haltung. Aber die Entscheidung gibt Anlass für vorsichtige Hoffnung, weil Wladimir Putin zu einer friedlichen Lösung offensichtlich noch bereit ist.

Basis für Verhandlungen

Viele in Europa behaupten, Russen und Serben würden eine einseitige Unabhängigkeitserklärung des Kosovo schon akzeptieren, wenn der Westen das neue Land anerkennt. Doch wer so argumentiert übersieht, dass der Fall Serbien/Kosovo Teil einer seit 1989 anhaltenden Neuordnung von Grenzen und politischen Kräften in Europa und Vorderasien ist. Der Ausgang dieses großen Ordnungsprozesses wird nicht zuletzt auf dem Balkan entschieden.

Europäische Uneinigkeit und eine einseitige Anerkennungspolitik haben die furchtbaren Balkan-Kriege der 90er Jahre mit befeuert. Die Europäer einigten sich nicht zuletzt deshalb darauf, dass Grenzen nur noch im Einvernehmen der Beteiligten oder durch Beschluss des Sicherheitsrates der Vereinten Nationen verändert werden dürfen.

Politisch befürwortet die EU vernünftigerweise die Unabhängigkeit des Kosovo von Serbien. Zugleich muss sie aus übergeordneten geopolitischen Gründen auf dem Prinzip der friedlichen Einigung beharren. Beides bis Dezember einvernehmlich zusammenzuführen, dürfte schwerlich gelingen. Aber wenn die EU einig bleibt, dann könnte sie neues Nachdenken auslösen und die Basis für Verhandlungen auch jenseits der gesetzten Frist schaffen.

(SZ vom 10.9.2007

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9.9.2007 by Lupo.

Der Brief vom 24. Juli 2007, wo der UN General Sekretär Ban Ki-Moon, direkt über den korrupten M.Athassari informiert wurde.vom US Council des Kosovo.

http://www.savekosovo.org/documents/LettertoBanKimoon.pdf

Die UN, welche nur wie bewiesen ein Interesse hat ihre eigenen kriminellen Strukturen und Geschäfte im Kosovo zu vertuschen, antwortet nicht. Und immer wieder die Kriminellen aus dem Georg Soros ICG und deren Mafiöse Geschäfte, den Kosovo auszubeuten. siehe auch Hashim Thaci und die SPD - FES.

Hier der Original GIS Bericht, über den korrupten M.Athassari im Kosovo!

http://www.savekosovo.org/documents/DailyJul1007.pdf

Extract from Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis
July 10, 2007 Confidential © 2007 Global Information System, ISSA3
Kosovo under the KLA, and George Soros had already developed commercial
Also:
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, November 13, 2006: Kosovo Inches
Closer to a Form of Independence Under US and UN Pressure.
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, January 31, 2007: Arms Smuggling
Routes Enhance Extremist Capabilities in South-West Balkans; Albanian
Separatists Expected to Mobilize in Spring if Kosovo Does Not Get
Independence.
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, February 2, 2007: As Ahtisaari Plan
Delineates Essentially Independent Kosovo, Jihadists Move to Expand Ops in
FYROM, Greece, Serbia. And associated text: Main Points of UN Ahtisaari
Plan for Kosovo.
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, February 16, 2007: Kosovo
Independence Demands Parallel the 1938 Sudetenland Scenario.
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis, February 28, 2007: Kosovo Albanian
Power Struggles and Attendant Factors Overwhelm UNMIK Capacities as
Major Violence Looms.

The original article in Fokus Daily: http://www.fokus.ba/vidi.php?rub=2&vijest=1649 Republished
one day later here:
http://www.novosti.co.yu/code/navigate.p…265&datum=2007-
06-25

Kosovo: On the Best National Interest that Money Can Buy: Martti Ahtisaari

www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=6192

siehe auch

http://balkanblog.org/?s=athassari

Albanian Mafia and Western Corruption
Something is Rotten in the State of Finland

Recent article by Banja Luka’s daily Fokus citing parts of report by the German Intelligence Service (BND) according to which former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari has taken more than 50 million dollars bribe from Albanian mafia, mostly in cash, to propose severing of the Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province, has been almost entirely ignored by the Western mainstream media and officials.

President of the Serbian Parliament Oliver Dulic has called for inquiry into the allegations. While Ahtisaari’s office has offered no evidence to disprove the claims, his Vienna-based employee Remi Dourlot appeared to have suffered a small nervous breakdown when merely asked about the charges.

The deafening silence on the one hand and the uncontrolled emotional outbursts on the other are rather puzzling, since the BND report — parts of which Fokus revealed — offers a lot of very concrete, detailed information that could easily be dismantled if false, as Ahtisaari’s Vienna spokesman angrily claims.

Part of the report says that portion of $50-plus M., amounting to 2 million Euros, was transfered to the Finn’s personal bank account directly from one of the accounts controlled by a well known Albanian mafia boss based in Switzerland Behgjet Pacolli, who has declared his intention to become the “independent Kosovo’s president” and is using the immense wealth accumulated through money laundering and suspicious business contracts to bribe officials from Washington to Brussels and beyond, in order to secure Albanian seizure of the southern Serbian province.
Washington Drowning in Corruption

…money corruption poses a deadly threat to the American democracy. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), for one, feared the U.S. Constitution would in time “fail …because of the corruption of the people, in a general sense.” For his part, President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) thought that corruption in high places would follow as “all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

The question that remains to answer is whether the American democracy can be saved from the ambient corruption, or whether it is already too late. Indeed, has the United States fallen into a chasm of corruption so deep that it cannot recover from it? (Decadence, Waste, Corruption in the New American Empire by Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay, Global Research)

Back in 2005, Dutch documentary “The Brooklyn Connection” has offered an insight into massive corruption of the top U.S. politicians making themselves available for sale among the various foreign-interest groups. It has revealed that Albanian supporters of the terrorist KLA have been financing the campaigns of American presidential candidates, including John Kerry and Wesley Clark, and steering American foreign policy through Senate and Congress in a way that advances their private agenda.

“With money, you can do amazing things in this country,” delighted Albanian weapons smuggler based in Brooklyn Florin Krasniqi told the filmmakers. “Senators and congressmen are looking for donations, and if you raise the money they need for their campaigns, they pay you back.”

According to the Friday article by the Banja Luka daily, the latest proof that the purchase of Ahtisaari’s proposal is only a tip of the iceberg, since Albanian mafia holds a number of the U.S. Senators and Congressmen in its pockets, comes from the above mentioned Pacolli himself who openly admits having 60 of the top U.S. lawmakers on his payroll in Washington alone.

“I’m paying a team of 60 men lobbying for Kosovo in Washington, starting from the members of the President George Bush’s Administration, down to the American Senators and Congressmen,” Fokus quotes Pacolli as saying in one of the recent interviews where he also claims to be good friends with the former U.S. president Bill Clinton.

The Albanian Muslim billionaire was at the center of a Kremlin corruption scandal eight years ago, during and after NATO aggression on Serbia, when he was suspected of bribing former Russian president Boris Yeltsin. The scandal involved top Russian officials, including the former Kremlin property chief Pavel Borodin and former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, as well as the leading International Monetary Fond figures, members of the Clinton administration and heads of a number of international banks. Current chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal Carla del Ponte, back then in the role of a Swiss State Prosecutor, stormed Pacolli’s Lugano office of the company “Mabetex” following the request by the Russian State Prosecutor Yurii Skuratov. After over a year of investigations, the Swiss authorities have charged Behgjet Pacolli with money laundering and “criminal association.”……………………

http://byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2007/06/

http://balkanforum.org/thread.php?threadid=1148&hilight=athassari

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9.9.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

U.S. expert: Kosovo is “black hole” in center of Balkans

source: Tanjug

Saturday, 21 April 2007

MOSCOW, April 20 (Tanjug) - If the status of Kosovo and Metohija is resolved according to Martti Ahtisaari’s plan, a single-nation criminal state might emerge in the territory of the province, which would be abandoned by the remainder of the ethnic community members, U.S. expert Michael Radu warned on Friday.

What kind of control is proposed by Ahtisaari’s plan on “controlled independence,” if Kosovo may have its own armed force and government, may participate in the work of international organizations, and is the European Union preparing at all to supervise the activities of the Kosovo authorities, Radu asked in an interview with Vremya Novostei.

“Kosovo, with its semi-educated population and criminal armed formations, is a ‘black hole’ in the center of the Balkans, which reminds me of Chechnya in the 1995-1999 period or Pridnestrovye in the 1990s,” said Radu, who is the co-chairman of the Center on Terrorism and Counterterrorism at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute.

He also said that the Kosovo Albanians officially do not have their own army, after the Liberation Army of Kosovo (OVK) was dissolved in 1999, but he also pointed out that instead, the Kosovo Protection Corps had been set up, which “in reality is a militarized nationalist organization with a criminal background.”

According to Radu, members of the Kosovo Protection Corps are involved in all crimes against humanity, drug and arms trafficking, supplying European brothels with “bodies,” and they have good connections with the Italian mobsters, in Calabria, for instance.

Radu reiterated also that Belgrade had issued an indictment for crimes against humanity against provisional Kosovo Premier Agim Ceku and his fellow OVK fighters, while the Hague tribunal is already processing the war-crime activities of former premier Ramus Haradinaj.

Warning that independence of Kosovo might become a reason for a military conflict and that “Serbia’s armed forces are still the strongest in the Balkans,” Radu explained the US administration’s compliance with requests for independence with the influence of the Albanian lobby on media.

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9.9.2007 by Lupo.

Article published Aug 29, 2007
Kosovo’s grim future

August 29, 2007

By David Binder - Forget about status negotiations for a moment. The near-term outlook for Kosovo is unalterably grim: An economy stuck in misery; a bursting population of young people with “criminality as the sole career choice;” an insupportably high birthrate; a society imbued with corruption and a state dominated by organized crime figures.

These are the conclusions of “Operationalizing of the Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkans,” a 124-page investigation by the Institute for European Policy commissioned by the German Bundeswehr and issued in January. This month the text turned up on a Web log. It is labeled “solely for internal use.” Provided one can plow through the appallingly dense Amtsdeutsch — “German officialese” — that is already evident in the ponderous title, a reader is rewarded with sharp insights about Kosovo.

The authors point out a “grotesque denial of reality by the international community” about Kosovo, coupling that with the warning of “a new wave of unrest that could greatly exceed the level of escalation seen up to now,” The institute authors, Mathias Jopp and Sammi Sandawi, spent six months interviewing 70 experts and mining current literature on Kosovo in preparing the study.

In their analysis, political unrest and guerrilla fighting in the 1990s led to basic changes which they call a “turnabout in Kosovo-Albanian social structures.” The result is a “civil war society in which those inclined to violence, ill-educated and easily influenced people could make huge social leaps in a rapidly constructed soldateska.”

They continued: “It is a Mafia society” based on “capture of the state” by criminal elements. (”State capture” is a term coined in 2000 by a group of World Bank analysts to describe countries where government structures have been seized by corrupt financial oligarchies.

In the authors’ definition, Kosovan organized crime “consists of multimillion-Euro organizations with guerrilla experience and espionage expertise.” They quote a German intelligence service report of “closest ties between leading political decision makers and the dominant criminal class” and name Ramush Haradinaj, Hashim Thachi and Xhavit Haliti as compromised leaders who are “internally protected by parliamentary immunity and abroad by international law.”

The U.N. Mission in Kosovo, they add, “is in many respects an element of the local problem scene.” They describe both UNMIK and KFOR as infiltrated by agents of organized crime who forewarn their ringleaders of any impending raids.

Among the negative findings listed are:

n The justice system’s 40,000 uncompleted criminal cases.

n The paucity of corruption-crime investigations: 10-15 annually.

n 400 gas stations (where 150 would suffice), many of which serve as fronts for brothels and money-changing depots.

The study sharply criticizes the United States for “abetting the escape of criminals” in Kosovo as well as “preventing European investigators from working.” This has made Americans “vulnerable to blackmail.” It notes “secret CIA detention centers” at Camp Bondsteel and assails American military training for Kosovo (Albanian) police authorized by the Pentagon.

Concerning the crime scene the authors conclude that “with resolution of the status issue and the successive withdrawal of international forces the criminal figures will come closer than ever to their goal of total control of Kosovo.” Among the dismal findings of the German study are those on the economy:

n Sinking remissions of money from Kosovans working abroad, a primary source of income for many Kosovo families pegged now at 560 million Euros per annum.

n 88 percent of the land now in private ownership, meaning ever more subdividing of plots, usually among brothers, leading to less efficient agriculture.

n A hostile climate for foreign investors, frightened by political instability and the power of Mafia structures.

A central issue in Kosovo is an “inexhaustible supply of young people without a future and therefore ready for violence,” the study says. The only remedy for dealing with this “youth bulge” is to open Northern Europe’s gates to young Kosovans seeking jobs, the authors say.

In anticipation of a transfer of oversight from the UN to the European Union, the authors warn: “[The] EU is in danger of following too strongly in the wake of a failed UN and [disintegrating] under the inherited burden unless they make an open break with practices and methods of UNMIK.”

One of the experts they interviewed put it more bluntly: “EU is inheriting from UNMIK a fireworks store filled with pyromaniacs.” But in their depiction, Kosovans appear beholden to their legend of historic exploitation — such that if they finally achieve independence, all will suddenly be well. In the past Kosovans could and did always blame somebody else for their troubles: Ottomans, Yugoslavs, Serbs.

Now they have begun to blame UNMIK. But what will happen if they have only themselves to blame?

David Binder worked for the New York Times reporting from Germany and the Balkans.

washingtontimes

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9.9.2007 by Lupo.

EU CARPO Reports: 2006 Situation Report on Organised and Economic Crime in South-eastern Europe

Strassburg Juni 2007

CARPO EU Report

CARPO Report EU Albanisch

CARPO Report EU Serbisch-Mazedonisch

September 2007

Organised crime and corruption

Montenegro has an unsavoury reputation as a haven for smuggling and organised crime, and for the corruption of its public officials. Much of this relates to the troubled decade of the 1990s, when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (the rump of the old Yugoslavia consisting of Serbia and Montenegro) was under international sanctions. The collapse of Yugoslavia had brought federal subsidies to a sudden end, leaving Montenegro with a cash crisis. The smuggling of fuel and other goods from Albania became part of its survival strategy, bringing with it a range of social ills that have taken many years to bring under control.

To gain hard-currency earnings, Montenegro engaged in a complex, multinational tax-evasion scheme politely termed the “cigarette transit business”. International smugglers would bring huge shipments of cigarettes bought in Switzerland, Belgium or other Western countries to Montenegro, often by plane to Podgorica airport. The cigarettes were then shipped to the port of Bar and loaded on speedboats for shipment to Italy, where they could be sold on.

The Montenegrin authorities did not deny the existence of the cigarette transit business, but insisted that the whole process was legal until the point when the cigarettes left Montenegrin territory. The fact that they then entered Italy illegally was, according to the Montenegrin government, not its concern. The smugglers paid their transit duties to the Montenegrin government, providing an important source of revenues for the republican budget. As Milo Djukanovic put it in July 2003: “There is no question of smuggling, just transit business which was done in line with the law. The cigarettes that came into Montenegro’s port at Bar had in fact come from the EU, and were re-exported with all the right paperwork.” (IWPR, Balkan Crisis Report, Dukanovic Smuggling Claims Perist)

Italian prosecutors have taken a rather different view. Montenegrin officials have been repeatedly mentioned in Italian police reports. In 1999, Branko Perovic, at the time Montenegro’s Foreign Minister, was forced to resign after being indicted by an Italian court. In October 2002, Naples prosecutor Giovanni Russo requested an arrest warrant for Milo Djukanovic on smuggling charges. The responsible investigative judge, Anna Di Mauro, however, declined to issue a warrant, citing Djukanovic’s sovereign immunity as head of state.

Most recently, in June 2006, two prosecutors from Bari accused Milo Djukanovic and another dozen individuals, of cigarette smuggling and money laundering. They allege that Djukanovic and his associates were much more deeply involved in the smuggling enterprise. Nedjelko Rudovic wrote:

“The prosecutors named Djukanovic as the boss of an enterprise from 1994 to 2002, consisting firstly of mafia members from Puglia, southern Italy, and two Swiss businessmen. A separate investigation has been launched against these two.

The ring allegedly used speedboats to transport cigarettes across the Adriatic from the Montenegrin ports of Bar and Zelenika to Italy. The prosecutors claim the profits were deposited in Swiss bank accounts, and transferred to Montenegro and then Cyprus and Lichtenstein. About 500 million euros allegedly belonging to the group were found in a Cypriot bank account, numbered 03854109703948, ANSA reported. This money was allegedly being laundered through investments in Montenegro.”

One of the accused, former Minister of Finance Miroslav Ivanisevic, maintained that:

“There was a cigarette transit through Montenegro and this business, including the collection of revenues from it for the state of Montenegro, was transacted in keeping with the laws and decisions in effect at the time. Everything was registered and all the legally due payments were collected.”

The cigarette business declined rapidly after the end of the 1990s. A 2006 Situation Report on Organised and Economic Crime in South-eastern Europe by the Council of Europe states in its Montenegro chapter:

“Smuggling of legal goods (cigarettes, oil and oil derivates) has been significantly diminished since the abolition of sanctions and law enforcement efforts since 2000. The smuggling practices have been changed to adjust to new conditions and still manage to resist law enforcement efforts while integrating into European and global smuggling flows and distributions of illegally and legally produced cigarettes. Smuggling channels from Montenegro were mainly intercepted but new routes have been formed going via Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Romania and the ‘former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’.” (p. 96)

The questions of how involved the Montenegrin senior leadership was in the actual smuggling operations remains to be resolved. Another disputed question is how much of the “transit fees” went into private pockets, rather than the republican budget…………………………

ESI

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9.9.2007 by Lupo.

September 2007

Organised crime and corruption

Montenegro has an unsavoury reputation as a haven for smuggling and organised crime, and for the corruption of its public officials. Much of this relates to the troubled decade of the 1990s, when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (the rump of the old Yugoslavia consisting of Serbia and Montenegro) was under international sanctions. The collapse of Yugoslavia had brought federal subsidies to a sudden end, leaving Montenegro with a cash crisis. The smuggling of fuel and other goods from Albania became part of its survival strategy, bringing with it a range of social ills that have taken many years to bring under control.

To gain hard-currency earnings, Montenegro engaged in a complex, multinational tax-evasion scheme politely termed the “cigarette transit business”. International smugglers would bring huge shipments of cigarettes bought in Switzerland, Belgium or other Western countries to Montenegro, often by plane to Podgorica airport. The cigarettes were then shipped to the port of Bar and loaded on speedboats for shipment to Italy, where they could be sold on.

The Montenegrin authorities did not deny the existence of the cigarette transit business, but insisted that the whole process was legal until the point when the cigarettes left Montenegrin territory. The fact that they then entered Italy illegally was, according to the Montenegrin government, not its concern. The smugglers paid their transit duties to the Montenegrin government, providing an important source of revenues for the republican budget. As Milo Djukanovic put it in July 2003: “There is no question of smuggling, just transit business which was done in line with the law. The cigarettes that came into Montenegro’s port at Bar had in fact come from the EU, and were re-exported with all the right paperwork.” (IWPR, Balkan Crisis Report, Dukanovic Smuggling Claims Perist)

Italian prosecutors have taken a rather different view. Montenegrin officials have been repeatedly mentioned in Italian police reports. In 1999, Branko Perovic, at the time Montenegro’s Foreign Minister, was forced to resign after being indicted by an Italian court. In October 2002, Naples prosecutor Giovanni Russo requested an arrest warrant for Milo Djukanovic on smuggling charges. The responsible investigative judge, Anna Di Mauro, however, declined to issue a warrant, citing Djukanovic’s sovereign immunity as head of state.

Most recently, in June 2006, two prosecutors from Bari accused Milo Djukanovic and another dozen individuals, of cigarette smuggling and money laundering. They allege that Djukanovic and his associates were much more deeply involved in the smuggling enterprise. Nedjelko Rudovic wrote:

“The prosecutors named Djukanovic as the boss of an enterprise from 1994 to 2002, consisting firstly of mafia members from Puglia, southern Italy, and two Swiss businessmen. A separate investigation has been launched against these two.

The ring allegedly used speedboats to transport cigarettes across the Adriatic from the Montenegrin ports of Bar and Zelenika to Italy. The prosecutors claim the profits were deposited in Swiss bank accounts, and transferred to Montenegro and then Cyprus and Lichtenstein. About 500 million euros allegedly belonging to the group were found in a Cypriot bank account, numbered 03854109703948, ANSA reported. This money was allegedly being laundered through investments in Montenegro.”

One of the accused, former Minister of Finance Miroslav Ivanisevic, maintained that:

“There was a cigarette transit through Montenegro and this business, including the collection of revenues from it for the state of Montenegro, was transacted in keeping with the laws and decisions in effect at the time. Everything was registered and all the legally due payments were collected.”

The cigarette business declined rapidly after the end of the 1990s. A 2006 Situation Report on Organised and Economic Crime in South-eastern Europe by the Council of Europe states in its Montenegro chapter:

“Smuggling of legal goods (cigarettes, oil and oil derivates) has been significantly diminished since the abolition of sanctions and law enforcement efforts since 2000. The smuggling practices have been changed to adjust to new conditions and still manage to resist law enforcement efforts while integrating into European and global smuggling flows and distributions of illegally and legally produced cigarettes. Smuggling channels from Montenegro were mainly intercepted but new routes have been formed going via Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Romania and the ‘former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’.” (p. 96)

The questions of how involved the Montenegrin senior leadership was in the actual smuggling operations remains to be resolved. Another disputed question is how much of the “transit fees” went into private pockets, rather than the republican budget…………………………

Media, most notably the independent weekly Monitor, the independent daily Vijesti and the opposition-leaning Dan, have repeatedly questioned privatisation deals and raised questions of the origins of wealth of government politicians. The watchdog organisation MANS has published a series of critical reports and case studies on privatisation, corruption in spatial planning and the (lack of) freedom of access to information. To this day, there has not been a single court case involving a senior Montenegrin politician.

Further documents:

• MANS, Right to Know (Study on the application of the Law on Free Access to Information, November 2006)
• Council of Europe, Situation Report on Organised and Economic Crime in South-eastern Europe (September 2006)
• MANS, Corruption in spatial planning and development (February 2006)
• Center for the Study of Democracy, Smuggling in South East Europe. The Yugoslav Wars and the Development of Regional Criminal Networks in the Balkans (2002)

Articles:

• Vijesti, “EU i SAD znaju za vezu vrha vlasi i criminala” (6 September 2007)
• Nedjeljko Rudovic, “Djukanovic Braced to Ride out Italian Charges”, BIRN (26 June 2007)
• Dragana Nikolic-Solomon, Boris Darmanovic and Hugh Griffiths, “Montenegro: Italy seeks three high-profile arrests” (27 November 2003)
• IWPR, “Djukanovic Smuggling Claims Persist” (23 July 2003)

Websites:

• MANS (Network for the Affirmation of the NGO sector) (mostly in local language only)
• Weekly magazine Monitor (in local language only)
• Daily paper Vijesti (in local language only)
• Daily paper Dan (in local language only

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9.9.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

Viele Kosovo Albaner können mit den simplen UNMIK Pässen, (welche Mafiös im Kosovo für 50 $ verkauft wurden, so das jeder Krminelle sich einen neuen Namen aussuchen konnte) nicht in Europa reisen, denn nur Albanien, Montenegro Mazedonien akzeptieren diese Pässe..

Die Kosovaren werden zugleich erpresst, durch die Kosovo extremen Hartliner und Faschisten, keine Serbischen Dokumente sich zu besorgen, aus einem ganz einfachen Grunde:

Gibt es keine Bevölkerung im Kosovo, welche die Basis der Politischen Verbrecher sind mit Hilfe der UN und der Deutschen Politiker und NATO im Kosovo, hätten die Albanischen Terror und Drogen Verbrecher auch keinerlei Begründung für einen Staat.

Fakt ist das wegen der absoluten Perspektivlosigkeit, einem extrem schlechten Bildungs System und dem von der UN installierten Verbrecher Anden, welche sich dort Politiker nennen, die gesamte Jugend auswandern will.

Kosovo Albanians shun Serbia, but not its passports

1 day ago

BERNICE, Serbia (AFP) — Kosovo Albanians who normally shun anything do with Serbia are applying in their tens of thousands for the former Yugoslav republic’s passports.

The scramble for the travel documents is continuing unabated even as the international community frets about deadlocked Kosovo status talks, and ethnic Albanians’ thinning patience for independence from Serbia.

Thousands of such applications are awaiting processing, as the independence-seeking Albanian majority in the tiny Balkan territory seeks less restricted travel abroad.

Although she admits feeling “bad” about it, 23-year-old Majlinda says she has no option but to apply for a Serbian passport at the same time as wanting Kosovo to become the world’s newest state.

“We want independence but we also want their passports. But I have no choice,” said the Pristina resident.

Majlinda, who refused to provide her surname, brushed off the possibility of being branded a traitor by ethnic Albanian hardliners.

“If they want us to be patriots, let them provide us with Kosovo passports that make life easier for travelling abroad. If they did so, I wouldn’t even think of asking for a Serbian passport,” she said defiantly.

Ethnic Albanians have been fraught with travel problems since Kosovo’s 1998-1999 war, when Serbian forces expelled hundreds of thousands of them from their homes and destroyed their identity documents.

The province has since been managed by the United Nations mission in Kosovo, which has been given the authority to issue locals passports bearing the mission’s “UNMIK” acronym.

More than 40 countries recognise the UNMIK passports, but of neighbouring countries only Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro accept them without restrictions.

For Kosovo Albanians travelling under UNMIK’s name, a simple journey abroad can turn into a wrangle of red-tape left over from the communist era.

Those carrying Serbian passports say they find it easier to obtain visas with the dark-blue travel booklets of the country from which they wish to separate.

Ramadan Shala, a 53-year-old maintenance worker from Pristina, travelled to Gracanica, a Serb-populated enclave near the Kosovan capital, to hand over the necessary documents for his son Rifat’s passport.

“Rifat got asylum in London where he works now, but he has to submit a passport to the British authorities” in order to claim residency, said Shala.

Rifat left Kosovo for Britain two years ago, travelling with an UNMIK passport. But it expired and he has asked his father to get him a Serbian one, believing it would make it easier for him to settle in Britain.

“Rifat will be fired and expelled if he doesn’t get a Serbian passport by the end of this year,” a worried-looking Shala said.

……..

AFP

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