13.4.2010 by HoisseBig.

| 13 April 2010 | Nidzara Ahmetasevic

Ahmet Zulic

Ahmet Zulic, a former inmate of the Manjaca detention camp in Bosnia, was the first prosecution witness to testify against Radovan Karadzic, as the trial of the wartime Bosnian Serb leader resumed today.Karadzic appeared in the courtroom with Marko Sladojevic, a member of the defense team.

Shown a video from Manjaca camp by the prosecution, Zulic recognised himself among the inmates.

“That is me, there, under that cross in a white t-shirt, second on the right side,” Zulic explained, while watching a video of a group of inmates sitting on the floor in one big room.

Manjaca

As Zulic explained, he was captured in the area of Sanski Most in June 1992. He was first detained and tortured in garages in Betonirka. From there he was transferred, along with a group of inmates, to the Manjaca camp. They were transferred in the back of a truck covered by heavy tarpaulin. Some of them died on the way to Manjaca, he said.

“It was hot and we could not breathe… I have to drink my own urine since I was thirsty,” Zulic said.

At Manjaca he was kept until October when he left in a convoy organised by the International Red Cross. While at the camp, he was severely beaten, and said that he continues to suffer today as a result.

“I am physically invalid. But I also suffer in a different way. I know that I will feel even this from today when I come home. Every time I told about it, I am going through it again, and again and again.”

Ahmet Zulic was the first witness to face Karadzic in the courtroom. Before he was questioned, Judge O Kwon apologised to him for the fact that he had to come to the Hague three times before finally taking the stand due to postponements.

Karadzic addressed him as “Respected Mr Witness” as he stood to cross-examine.

“There are many questions we will agree easily upon so that you do not have to come again here… What the defence wants is only the truth and nothing but the truth. You have given your testimony in many cases before this court. I would not say that you are the favourite witness for the other side, but I see they invite you a lot,” Karadzic started, but was stopped by the Prosecution and Chamber who instructed him not to comment on witnesses but to ask questions.

The Chamber had to warn him several times during cross-examination regarding the relevance of his questions and the way in which he asked them………………

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/27308/

Geschrieben in Geschichte - History, Balkan (Englisch) | Keine Kommentare »

13.4.2010 by CrniLabudovi.

Kosovo Minister’s Friends Flourish from Road Bonanza

Pristina | 08 April 2010 | By Lawrence Marzouk and Petrit Collaku

Bos-Hrv-Srp Shqip

A recently completed road in Kosovo, near Battlava Lake

A number of lucrative building contracts appear to have gone to friends and relatives of Fatmir Limaj – and to companies whose experience in the field appears to be limited. Companies associated with Kosovo’s Transport Minister, Fatmir Limaj, are among those that made big profits from Kosovo’s huge road-building programme in the past two years.

An investigation by BIRN’s Balkan Insight has uncovered that some firms, handed multi-million euro road-building contracts, also appear to have had little experience in the relevant field.

Balkan Insight has also established that two multi-million euro tenders issued to a friend of Limaj’s ought to have been disqualified, as the firms failed to provide the necessary documentation.

Balkan Insight has looked at every significant road tender issued by the Ministry of Transport and Post-Telecommunications since 2007. Using this information, from Kosovo’s official register of businesses, we have compiled a list naming the firms that won the 50 most lucrative contracts, the value of the tenders, the owners of the winning firms, the dates of the companies’ creation and the size of their workforces.

Transport ministry official Endrit Shala has dismissed the list as the work of an “intelligence agency”, however, and has claimed its publication formed part of a campaign to discredit Limaj.

The same official said he had records of the movements of Balkan Investigative Reporting Network journalists, the people they had met and the documents they had collected. When asked to explain the statement, he declined to elaborate.

The Ministry of Transport did agree to open its files on tenders to Balkan Insight, although it later refused to allow the newspaper to look at the offers submitted by companies.

We asked for an interview with Minister Limaj, but he declined. Instead, Endrit Shala, chief of cabinet at the ministry and Limaj’s right-hand man, said the minister had played no part in tenders awarded to his friends. He added that given Kosovo’s small size, it was no surprise that “somebody knows someone”.

“The tender process of the Ministry of Transport is very transparent. We respect all of the rules and procedures of the procurement rules of Kosovo,” Shala said.

Limaj, a former high-ranking member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, was tried but cleared of all charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, ICTY, in 2005. One of the most popular politicians in the governing Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, he has been dogged by unsubstantiated accusations of corruption.

Our investigation established that Limaj’s ministry awarded two large contracts to a close friend, Habib Morina, and handed the second-largest contract to date for a road-building project, worth 11 million euro, to another friend, his relative, Colonel Haxhi Shala.

Morina told Balkan Insight his relationship had played no role in the tender processes while Col Shala said he was no longer an employee of the company, Delia Group, which won the contract……………..

But our research shows that more than one-third of the winning tenders were issued to firms that only registered after Limaj took up his position.

Given the poor state of roads at the time, the minister’s dynamism and “no-nonsense” approach has attracted plaudits. An anti-corruption NGO, Cohu, in July 2008 noted that he had “undertaken great efforts to build new roads”.

………………..

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/investigations/27171/

Kosovo Minister Limaj Calls for Better Road Quality
Pristina | 14 April 2010 | Lawrence Marzouk

Fatmir Limaj
Fatmir Limaj
Kosovo’s Minister of Transport Fatmir Limaj has called on road builders to improve the quality of, and commitment to, their work.

The comments were made to the Association of Road Builders yesterday, following the signing of the €700 million deal to build Kosovo’s first highway, which will link the Albanian and Serbian borders.

The statement also follows a Balkan Investigative Reporting Network investigation into road building in Kosovo.

Limaj said: “I assure you that you will continue to have my support and I will continue to protect your interests, but in the meantime you must continue to improve the quality and commitment to your work.

“You know that we are criticised by everyone over why we have invested so much in roads. We do not intend to stop.

“We know why we are doing this. Everyone knows that without a strong road infrastructure there is no economic development.”

Since taking over the position of transport minister in late 2007, Limaj has embarked on a huge road building programme which has won him praise for improving the country’s poor infrastructure but also led to criticism about corruption and the poor quality of some of the work.

BIRN’s investigation, published last Thursday, revealed that three multimillion euro road tenders were awarded to friends or relatives of the minister.

Limaj has not commented on potential conflicts of interest, but his advisor Endrit Shala said that the tender processes had been carried out properly and that the minister had played no part in the decisions.

But the research also found that in two out of the three tenders, key documents appeared not to have been submitted by the winning firms. Not supplying the necessary documentation usually leads to disqualification of a bid.

The ministry has failed to provide an explanation of how the firms secured the tenders despite the missing documentation.

Limaj told the road builders that 40 per cent of work on the highway, to be built by US-Turkish consortium Bechtel Enka, would be sub-contracted to Kosovo firms……..

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/27340/

Geschrieben in Economy - Wirtschaft | 1 Kommentar »

13.4.2010 by CrniLabudovi.

Intensifikohen punimet për sheshin “Skënderbej”, do të ndryshojë dhe lëvizja e makinave

E martë, 13 Prill 2010 06:45

nga Korrieri OnLine

Serioziteti me të cilin Bashkia e Tiranës ka nisur punën për rivitalizimin e sheshit “Skënderbej”, si një nga projektet më të rëndësishme dhe më ambicioze të ndërmarra deri më sot, duket qartë edhe në intensitetin me të cilin janë duke u kryer punimet në terren.

Pas fazës fillestare të punimeve që u fokusua në zonën përreth monumentit të Heroit tonë Kombëtar, tashmë ka nisur faza e dytë e punimeve, që zgjeron ndjeshëm hapësirën e kantierit. Në këtë fazë është parashikuar që të fillojnë punimet për kanalizimet dhe galerinë që do të hapet përpara Pallatit të Kulturës. Do të fillojnë punimet në galerinë lindje –perëndim dhe konkretisht në pjesën që nis përpara Bankës së Shqipërisë e deri në fillimin e rrugës “Luigj Gurakuqi” dhe po ashtu ka filluar realizimi i punimeve të projektit në zonën e lulishtes pas monumentit të Skënderbeut………………….

http://www.korrieri.com

Geschrieben in Kosovo-Albanien (Albanian) | Keine Kommentare »