Prishtina Insight That He Kosovo, Said the Problem Was the He Said
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Opinion: Can Identity Cleansing be Negotiable? May 6 - 19, 2011 Issue No. 63 www.prishtinainsight.com Price € 1 NEWS Special Albania Asks to Play France Qualification Report: Game in Prishtina Spotlight on > page 3 South Serbia From Sandzak to Southern NEWS Serbia, Belgrade is failing to turn its verbal pledges Heritage Handover into action when it comes to Kosovo Police to guaranteeing ethnic Embitters Serbs Albanians and Bosniaks > page 5 fair levels of state sector employment NEIGHBOURHOOD See Pages 11-15 Blasts Hit Albanian Election Gathering Kosovo’s Smuggled Medicines > page 9 NGO NEWS Pose Threat To Lives Tree-mendous A BIRN investigation can reveal that Kosovo pharmacists are full of drugs that have been illegally imported, jeopardizing Work Turns people’s health and depriving the country of much-needed taxes. Obilic Green tasked with licensing medicines - for use in Kosovo. Stamps forged or absent: By Besiana Xharra often had not authorised the use “The KMA needs to license and sale of key drugs. these necessary drugs so that Drugs can only be legally rugs smuggled into Kosovo, “We sell drugs that aren’t pharmacists aren’t forced to keep imported into Kosovo under a bypassing all safety and licensed because if we don’t, peo- illegal ones,” Bytyqi said. license from the KMA. On arrival Dcustoms measures, make ple may die, because they cannot Shkumbim Deda, another at customs points, importers need up a high proportion of goods sold find a replacement,” he said. “We chemist, agreed. “There are many also to show certificates proving by pharmacists, a BIRN investiga- have no choice,” he added. drugs in Kosovo that are neces- the origin of the products and > page 22 tion has revealed. Kadri Bytyqi, of the sary but not licensed, and if we do detailing the contents. One pharmacist in the capital Pharmacists Association of not stock them, patients suffer,” Customs duty on these imports told Prishtina Insight that he Kosovo, said the problem was the he said. is then collected and a stamp believed that up to 60 per cent of restricted number of licensed Deda cited two common exam- placed on the package, showing the drugs sold in Kosovo were ille- drugs, which did not meet the ples: Natrium Valproate, which is that tax has been paid and the Kosovo’s only English-language gal imports. demands of the market. widely prescribed for epilepsy, product has been checked before it newspaper is available: He said he had little choice but According to him, more than and Farin, used to treat high blood reaches the shelf. to sell them because the Kosovo 300 types of drugs that are essen- pressure. Neither is licensed in Delivered to Medicines Agency, KMA - the body tial for patients are not licensed Kosovo. continues page 2 Your Door Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians Power Plant Delay Blamed From Newsstands Explore Mainstream Media on Meddling Consultants across Kosovo Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian community Minister of Energy in the last adminis- Sent To members will be given the opportunity to tration Justina Shiroka-Pula has broken a Your Inbox speak for themselves about their problems two-year silence to blame delays on decid- in the media in a bespoke project that ing the design and construction of a new includes attending learning centres and power plant on the project’s international From protecting their cultural heritage. transaction advisors. our partners “The project aims to “Ever since the beginning, NGO focus decrease by five per cent... page 22 business the transaction advisors... page 6 see page 16 for more info is supported by: 2 May 6 - 19, 2011 investigation Kosovo Mayor Jailed Kosovo’s Smuggled Medicines Pose Threat To Lives For Extortion from page 1 country, which is not under the control of the Kosovo govern- he mayor of Kosovo’s south- The KMA changed its stamp ment, is the main point of entry. ern municipality of last March, following complaints “Most illegal drugs come in TKacanik, an influential fig- that it had become too easy to from the north, but they also ure in the governing Democratic forge. It has since been replaced enter from Albania and Party of Kosovo, PDK, has been in brief News but Prishtina Insight found Macedonia,” KMA chief inspec- jailed for three years for extortion many products on shelves either tor Ejupi said. and illegal possession of weapons. had no stamp, or only bore the Adriatik Stavileci, spokesman Xhabir Zharku was found guilty of old stamp. for Kosovo Customs, said that the crimes, along with three other Haki Ejupi, the KMA’s chief half the 20 cases of smuggled defendants, at Prishtina’s district inspector of pharmacies, said drugs that they had intercepted court on Thursday. that pharmacists selling unli- this year came from Serbia. In July 2006, Zharku, alongside Arsim Kolshi, Besnik Hasani and censed drugs were gambling The bulk of the seizures Nusret Cena, threatened to kill the with people’s lives. “If the medi- occurred in April as part of a winner in the auction of a publicly cine hasn’t been subject to due joint operation conducted by the owned sheep farm unless he with- controls, they are risking KMA and the customs service. drew his bid. patient’s health, because we Following this mass confisca- Products marked with expired (top) and current tax stamps The threatened man did so, allow- don’t know the contents,” he tion of unlicensed products from ing the second highest bidder, said. chemists, many pharmacists by March 31, 2010. products, included Bensedin, Kolshi, to buy the 30 hectares of Ejupi said he suspected many went on strike for two days, But more than a year after the Brufen, Diklofen, Bedoksin, land. people fell ill after taking such demanding that the KMA issue deadline expired, Prishtina Daonil, Deprim, Glibenklamid, When police searched Zharku’s medicines, though official data new licences for goods. Insight found dozens of products Loperamid, Furosemi and property, they found two automat- on this phenomenon is absent. on sale with the old stamps. Metildopa. ic weapons, made in Iran, as well Patients often don’t know that Little seems to have A source in the industry said BIRN has discovered that doc- as explosives and a mortar. they have been sold an unli- changed since April. counterfeit versions of the old tors throughout Kosovo continue Zharku, who was also mayor at the censed product. stamps were still in circulation. to prescribe unlicensed medi- A health ministry official said They were easy to falsify, and cines. time of the offences, has been When Prishtina Insight visited the ministry routinely received were being used on unlicensed “Almost every day patients handed three years of imprison- ten pharmacies recently to check complaints from patients, along- products to make them look offi- come in with doctors’ prescrip- ment on the charge of extortion the stock on sale, we found side samples of poor quality cial. tions, prescribing some unli- and given a fine of 1500 Euro on shelves still full of unregulated drugs. But they were unable to Our spot check on products for censed drug,” Xhin Hoti, a phar- the charge of unlawful possession goods. act on these complaints because sale also showed many unli- macist from Pristina, said. “It all of weapons. Most of these products were the KMA’s testing facility was censed versions on shelves, even starts from the doctors, so we’re not stamped at all, indicating out of action. when licensed alternatives exist. forced to stock such drugs for that they had been smuggled into Medicus Trial Health Minister Ferid Agani One pharmacist said that this our patients.” the country. Others bore old, out- has said that restarting the is because customers are often KMA head Jeton Shala said he Confirmed of-date import stamps. KMA’s laboratory is a priority used to, and ask for, well-known agreed that the issue needed to In a bid to standardise the but has yet to offer a date. Serbian products, many of be discussed but until a solution n appeal panel composed of prices of medicine and curb which are not licensed in Kosovo. was found, illegal drugs would two EULEX judges and one import tax evasion, the health Coming from the north: Unlicensed products included continue to be confiscated. AKosovo judge from ministry issued new import many from Serbia’s state-owned “We will set up a working Prishtina District Court has con- stamps in 2009. No official figures exist on the pharmaceutical giant, Galenika, group tasked with increasing of firmed the indictment against five By law, products with the old, quantity or type of Illegal drugs whose medicines are not licensed drugs,” he said. “But for defendants in the Medicus, organ blue-coloured stamps, which confiscated by Kosovo customs licensed for sale in Kosovo. now we have also increased trafficking case. allowed pharmacists to write in or police. Other drugs found on pharma- inspections in order to confiscate The offences were allegedly com- their own prices, ought to have It is generally believed that cy shelves, which do not appear unlicensed drugs on the mar- mitted in 2008 at the Medicus been removed from the shelves Clinic on the outskirts of the Serb-run far north of the on the KMA’s list of licensed ket.” Prishtina and involved victims from various countries. Four defendants will face charges of trafficking in persons for the purpose of removal of organs and Probe Stalls Into Marty Report organised crime. Three defendants will face a charge of unlawful exercise of medical activity. Two defendants will face a charge of Claims on Kosovo abuse of official position.