Opinion: Energy Lesson from South Africa

December 23. 2011 - January 12. 2012 Issue No. 78 www.prishtinainsight.com Price € 1

Bosnian Victims NEWS Mayor’s Heap Praise on Son Owns Jolie’s Wartime Luxury Drama Resort Angelina Jolie’s directori- > page 3 al debut In the Land of Blood and Honey about NEWS the 1992-1995 war in Serb Bosnia, has won plaudits Brothers Arrested from the likes of corre- on Weapons Charges spondent Christiane Amanpour who attended > page 5 its red carpet premiere in NEIGHBOURHOOD New York City last week. Hunt for Bodies But another group of Dutch Buried in critics whose voice Jolie values have also given Srebrenica overwhelmingly positive > page 11 reviews. See Page 15 FEATURE Balkan Capitals Vie for New Year’s Cleared Bank Governor to Eve Crown > page 14 Sue for Compensation INSIDE PRISHTINA The lawyer of Hashim Rexhepi, the former governor of the , has told Prishtina Insight that his Students Drag client intends to sue for compensation after the high-profile corruption case against him collapsed. According to the judgment, outside the building to film the by Prishtina Insight had already Prishtina By Petrit Collaku obtained by Prishtina Insight, police action. cast serious doubt on the case Buses Gallo also reserves some harsh Under the supervision of the against Rexhepi and Himaj, reveal- awyer Rame Gashi has words for the prosecution. He EU’s rule-of-law mission in ing major mistakes in the prosecu- Into 21st revealed that former CBK argues that the prosecution had Kosovo, EULEX, tion’s case and serious breaches of LChief Hashim Rexhepi will Century seek compensation for the damage “completely misunderstood” some swooped on Rexhepi, the head of the defendant’s human rights. to his client’s reputation and earn- of the offences the former gover- the supervision department, Himaj was cleared of all wrong- > page 18 ings, if EULEX prosecution fails to nor was being accused of, had Shkendije Himaj, and the former doing this summer and returned overturn the judge’s decision to made factual errors and, for one supervisor of insurance compa- to her job, without ever having dismiss the case against him. count, had not presented a “single nies, Ibish Mazreku. been charged. The comments came after piece of evidence”. It was one of the most high-pro- An indictment was then filed EULEX judge Gianfranco Gallo Rexhepi, the first governor of file corruption arrests to have against Rexhepi and Mazreku in Kosovo’s only English-language ruled that the prosecution had pre- independent Kosovo’s Central been carried out by EULEX and August after the most serious newspaper is available: sented evidence that Rexhepi’s Bank, was arrested in spectacular Kosovo Police. Today, however, the charges were removed. behaviour had been inappropriate, fashion on July 23, 2010, as a case stands in tatters. Delivered to but not illegal. throng of reporters was on hand An investigation earlier this year continues page 2 Your Door

Prishtina Insight Honoured For Kosovo Pushes Controversial From Newsstands Anti-Corruption Investigation Energy Sale across Kosovo

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Kosovo’s government has invited four Sent To Network in Prishtina was honoured with prequalified foreign companies to submit Your Inbox two awards from the Association of bids to buy Kosovo’s distribution network Professional Journalists of Kosovo, the by February 28, 2012. United Nations Development Programme, One of Kosovo’s largest privatizations is From UNDP, and the Anti-Corruption Agency. moving to conclusion, despite the ques- our partners The awards were given on world anti-cor- tions raised by civil society and the opposi- news ruption day, December 9... page 2 business tion about the inexperience... page 7 see page 16 for more info

is supported by: 2 Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 news Cleared Bank Governor to Sue for Compensation

from page 1 sion he benefited directly from. which is a breach of international While Rexhepi has been cleared, standards of justice. But the case against Rexhepi Mazreku will face charges of abus- This emerged only in a hearing was dismissed by EULEX judge ing his official position by receiv- on October 20 about renewing Gianfranco Gallo last week ing 36,000 euro from an insurance Rexhepi’s pre-trial detention, three because of lack of evidence. company during the time he was months after Rexhepi was arrested A copy of the judgment, responsible for supervising it. and detained. obtained by this newspaper, con- EULEX told Prishtina Insight The judges’ panel closed the firms that the prosecution’s case that it had filed an appeal which hearing after the prosecution remained thin on evidence and, at will be looked at in the New Year. promised to produce new, named times, inaccurate. “For some of the counts the rea- evidence the following day. Out of the five counts, Gallo soning for the dismissal was based The new documents, branded as ruled that in three Rexhepi’s on the consideration that, even “crucial” by the judge, were in fact actions did not constitute criminal though the former Governor handed over that same day outside behaviour. The judge argued that undertook some inappropriate the court and were not provided to the allegations that Rexhepi had actions, his conduct was not the defence. Despite this, the judge been “trading in influence” linked to the exertion of any offi- extended Rexhepi’s detention for a showed the prosecution had “com- cial power or authority and there- month. pletely misunderstood” the mean- fore no abuse of official position The defence then appealed and, ing of the offence. The two other could have occurred,” a spokes- in a hearing on October 26, EULEX courts were dismissed because of woman said. judges ruled that anonymous mate- lack of evidence. “In other counts the judge did rial should not have been used. Regarding the second charge – not find sufficient evidence to sup- Hashim Rexhepi is led away in handcuffs from the Central Bank. They also accepted that the failure that Rexhepi had misused his posi- port a well-grounded suspicion had all risked the wrath of senior linked to the Central Bank. This to present the new evidence to the tion to exert pressure on a private that the defendant committed members of the country’s political allegation was dropped in later defence breached the European bank to sponsor the Prishtina’s other criminal offences indicated elite in the preceding months. legal documents, which instead Convention on Human Rights. The basketball club – the judge found in the indictment. Governor Rexhepi had rebuffed named his son as a part owner of charges based on the anonymous that the prosecution had made “The independent prosecution attempts by the then Minister of the firm. letters were then removed, but mistakes in their “factual recon- is crucial in every democratic soci- Economy, Ahmet Shala, to reverse It was also asserted that Rexhepi were later reinstated. struction” of events. ety.” a decision not to license an insur- was president of Prishtina Andrea Capussela, who headed The judge confirmed that the ance company with unusual ori- Football Club, and that the club the financial office of the sponsorship was agreed before A Flawed Case? gins, for example. had benefited from a donation International Civilian Office, ICO, Rexhepi was appointed to the Bank supervision head Himaj made by a bank, Bank for has been a supporter Rexhepi board of the club. A BIRN investigation, published had launched a programme to Business, after Rexhepi allegedly throughout the case. The prosecution had charged in April, revealed that Central reform the insurance industry, put pressure on it. In a comment for the Prishtina Rexhepi with using his influence Bank Governor Rexhepi was including major changes to the In fact, he was a board member daily Zeri he wrote that the as governor of the bank to allow forced from his post on the basis of highly profitable vehicle border of the city’s basketball club, an charges appeared to have been part the insurance company Dardania charges that were full of errors - insurance scheme, controlled by error noted in later legal docu- of a political campaign to oust to write off the amount of nearly 2 and following a concerted cam- Gani Thaci, brother to Prime ments by the prosecution, who Rexhepi. million Deutsche Marks of debt. paign against him by Kosovo’s Minister Hashim Thaci. blamed it on incorrect information “What is certain is that EULEX But the judge found that the political elite. The investigation and raids were received from the Central Bank. prosecutors and judges have assertion that Rexhepi had bene- According to legal documents approved by an EU pre-trial judge, Another allegation suggested arrested and detained, for four fited from this was not backed up obtained by Prishtina Insight, the based on a charge sheet that that Rexhepi received seaside prop- months, an innocent based on by a “single piece of evidence”. case against Rexhepi, Himaj and reveals basic errors and unverified erty in as a bribe from the charges and evidence that haven’t The judge however criticised the others was littered with errors facts, according to evidence that insurance firm, Dardania. But no withstood proper judicial scruti- Rexhepi’s action on a number of and partly based on anonymous Prishtina Insight has seen. evidence was produced concerning ny,” he wrote. accounts claiming that while his letters, a procedure that breaches According to Rexhepi, EULEX his acquisition of real estate in “The mistakes they committed actions may not have been illegal, basic principles of the rule of law. had not translated all the case evi- Albania. Rexhepi meanwhile pro- are so serious, some charges were they were certainly inappropriate. The raids also followed mount- dence from Albanian into English vided the court with official simply absurd, and some were He had, for example, seemingly ing pressure on the bank from the before approving the arrests and records from Albania showing that based only on anonymous letters, put pressure on the Association of government and a campaign to dis- raids. EULEX has declined to con- neither he nor his sons own land and so many – in those four Insurance Companies to employ credit Rexhepi. One senior diplo- firm whether this was true. there. months, the judges issued at least members of family or friends, and mat has described it as a well- Allegations in initial court docu- Overall, of the eight charges six rulings ordering Mr. Rexhepi to had agreed a loan with a bank just orchestrated media campaign, led ments against Rexhepi asserted levied against the defendants, stay in jail – that they can only be weeks after agreeing to relax its by government circles. Not per- that he was a shareholder of a firm three charges of bribery were ascribed to either gross negligence restrictions for lending – a deci- haps coincidentally, those arrested that had profited from contracts based only on anonymous letters, or bad faith.” Prishtina Insight Honoured For Anti-Corruption Investigation In the fifth edition of the anti-corruption prize in journalism, BIRN journalists have again grabbed two awards. The organisation won the first prize for an online investigation and second prize for television reporting. Nations Development Programme, The article was originally pub- will be a motivation to continue Albanian news portal Gazeta Jeta UNDP, and the Anti-Corruption lished in Prishtina Insight in with further research. ne Kosove first on October 16, 2011. Agency. January. The first prize for the best televi- For the printed press, the first By Prishtina Insight The awards were given on world Shengjyl Osmani, who received sion piece was won by RTK jour- prize was awarded to Selvije anti-corruption day, December 9. the award on behalf of the team of nalist Arta Avdiu, while the sec- Bajrami of Zeri, while the second The award for the best news por- the newspaper, said the anti-cor- ond prize went to BIRN’s Kastriot prize went to Parim Olluri of Koha he Balkan Investigative tals article went to BIRN's website ruption prize is extremely impor- Jahaj for a Justice in Kosovo Ditore. Reporting Network in Gazeta Jeta ne Kosove for its story tant to BIRN. report about the suspicious pri- BIRN had won best print article TPrishtina was honoured “Prishtina pays 30 times more for “This award proves our hard vatisation of a factory. for a piece published in Prishtina with two awards from the Fire Engine”. The authors were work in the research against cor- The initial story “Kosovo Insight and best television article, Association of Professional Lawrence Marzouk, Petrit Çollaku ruption,” said Osmani. Factory Sale Broke Privatization for a report on Life in Kosovo, in Journalists of Kosovo, the United and Shengjyl Osmani. Osmani added that this award Rules” was published on BIRN’s 2010.

Y M C +381 38 602042, +377 44 243367, +386 49 243367 K news Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 3 Mayor’s Son Owns Luxury Resort Editor’s Word A holiday complex on the edge of Prishtina, offering ten villas with saunas and Jacuzzis, is Student Politics owned by the son of Lipjan mayor and powerful political figure, Shukri Buja, an investigation has revealed.

By Lawrence Marzouk

By Prishtina Insight ’ve never seen myself as a cheerleader for Hashim Thaci’s government, or any other politician or political Iparty for that matter. he son of Shukri Buja, mayor of I tend to avoid straying too far into murky realms of Lipjan, earns just 9,600 euro a party politics. After all, we all know that it’s often about Tyear from playing football for mudslinging, point-scoring and pointless posturing. the local football team. As a result, I have kept quiet about the criticism of But Prishtina Insight has discov- the current -Kosovo negotiations, which the oppo- ered that Valon Buja, who is in his sition, and Vetevendosje in particular, have been busy twenties, is also the owner of a new luxury holiday complex, including undermining. It’s just politics, I have thought to myself. ten villas offering saunas and The reason I’ve decided to enter this particular arena Jacuzzis. now is it appears a decent swathe of the population Villa Pauna was, according to the agrees with the anti-dialogue brigade. Ministry of Trade, registered in I find this quite troubling. For me, it comes down to July this year and is owned and whether Kosovo is willing to fudge issues on, for exam- managed by Buja. ple, the B in IBM referring to border or boundary and According to the business’s web- give the country a decent chance to prosper, or whether site the villa complex is located next it wants to take a principled, unwavering stance on to the Prishtina-Ferizaj highway, in everything to do with state symbols - and stagnate. Bujan, where the mayor comes Admittedly, I come to this argument without having regular annual statements,” said cultural land in Lipjan. from. experienced the trauma of the terrible 90s. Agron Behrami, Head of Division of This socially owned enterprise, The Mayor of Lipjan is legally not But I base my position on my heartfelt desire for allowed to be the head of this pri- Assets, Supervision and Gifts at according to Buja, cost him 48,000 Kosovo to thrive as a state and for its population to vate business while he has a public ACA. euro and was purchased through a become richer, happier and eventually to join the position, according to the law on the Buja is obliged, according to loan taken by NLB Bank and from European Union. Prevention of Conflict of Interest. Behrami, to declare to the agency income through the trade of con- Buja has refused to answer the source of this wealth despite the struction material. And as far as I can see the only way to achieve that is Prishtina Insight’s question on the fact that it's registered in his son’s Another of his properties is a to enter into constructive, sometimes messy and complex’s ownership and whether he name. depot of construction material cov- ambiguous, talks with Belgrade, which will allow has reported the opening of this busi- Meanwhile, in the form of his ering 18 acres and worth 50,000 euro. Kosovo to start becoming a “normal” country. ness to the Anti-Corruption Agency declaration of assets in 2011, Buja He also has agricultural land cover- This means sitting alongside its neighbours in region- as one of his or his son’s properties, has noted that he receives a salary ing 95 acres as well as a cafeteria in al forums, having an international dialling code and, and how much money was invested of 13,200 euro as mayor of Lipjan Ferizaj, which is worth 60,000 euro. perhaps most importantly, exporting through Serbia to in this private company. and benefits from more than 30,000 His wife owns an apartment in give Kosovo’s businesses a chance of competing in the “A senior state official is obliged euro a year in rent from properties. Prishtina which is 134 square lucrative EU market. Buja has also purchased 15 acres meters and which is worth 104 thou- to declare their property from Simply saying that Kosovo should not deal with through the privatization of agri- sand euro. March of 2010 in the form of the Serbia until it recognises Kosovo’s independence is rem- iniscent of student politics – it is diplomacy as playact- ing. Wahhabists Suspected of Swastika I can understand why, as a principle, this is not a bad position to take. After all, Serbia should recognise Kosovo as independent and stop trying to strangle this Attack on Jewish Cemetery young state in the cradle. Serbia’s current political lead- ers have put their own careers ahead of quickly resolv- tion was widely condemned as cow- ing the information. After the verifi- ing this issue and prioritising the well-being of 2 mil- ardly act. cation process, we will find out lion people. They are, after all, only delaying the Police intelligence gathered sug- whether the testimonies we received, inevitable. By Fatmir Aliu gest that two bearded men were are backed up or not,” Kelani said. But being on the side of the righteous is not a guaran- involved in the act, on November 29. The Jewish cemetery has been neg- tee of getting what you deserve. They were described as the Wahhabi lected for many years. During the The opposition’s approach, in my view, vastly overes- followers, who differ from main- summer, American and Kosovo stu- timates Kosovo hand in this game of cards. osovo Police suspects that Whether you like it or not, Kosovo needs Serbia’s members of a Muslim sect des- stream Muslims through their dents restored it by clearing the Kecrated the Jewish cemetery in extremist views. waste deposited in and outside the cooperation much more than Serbia needs Kosovo. the capital Prishtina one month ago. Major Baki Kelani, Kosovo Police graveyard. Serbia’s leaders would be more than happy to let the Dozens of tombstones of Jewish spokesperson, told Prishtina Insight The German Embassy to Kosovo issue of Kosovo fester without resolution, if it were not families from the region who per- on Thursday that no suspects have has engaged a special company to for the EU. Belgrade has little to gain in the normalisa- ished during World War II were been arrested yet. clean off the Nazi swastika from the tion of relations with a new, Albanian-led Kosovo. sprayed with swastikas. The desecra- “We are in the process of confirm- tombs. Exports to Kosovo are worth around 5 per cent of Serbia’s total - not negligible but not big enough to real- ly worry Belgrade if Prishtina imposed another block- ade. INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT “ADEM JASHARI” The only reason Serbia is ceding any ground on Kosovo is because of pressure being placed on it by the EU. If Kosovo does not cooperate with this process, the EU will lose its leverage over Belgrade and Kosovo’s hopes of visa liberalisation or ever joining the EU will evapo- rate. This is the stark reality, whether you like it or not. So Kosovo can say yes to student politics and tell the EU and Serbia it’s not interested in compromises. But if it does, Kosovo will have only itself to blame when it finds itself increasingly isolated. Or Kosovo can continue its first real foray into the world of diplomacy, which will mean dealing with unpleasant issues and equally unpleasant characters, but leading the country towards a brighter future. And, from my soapbox, I would like to wish you a very WE ARE OPEN FOR ALL DEPARTING FLIGHTS • CALL US ON 038 594422 happy New Year and that brighter future in 2012. 4 Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 news Rebellion Stirs in Government Heartland

Residents of Polac, , are taking to the streets to protest at the lack of investment in the village, which has changed little since Albanian nationalist hero Hasan Prishtina was born there in 1873.

By Prishtina Insight

illagers, angry that the authorities have failed to Vprovide Polac with even basic infrastructure, took to the streets on October 24. But the peaceful protest in this rural cor- ner of Kosovo was then broken up by a special police unit, resulting in dozens of arrests and allega- tions of police brutality. Most of the 8,000 inhabitants of Polac, a village in Skenderaj municipality, complain that the authorities have failed to finish a project to asphalt the main road for the past seven years - while nearby town and sur- rounding hamlets have enjoyed major infrastructure investments during the rule of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci’s government. Skenderaj, and the wider Drenica region, is the heartland of the and its political offshoot the ment stronghold, have also failed are no longer here. Some 70 fami- said. Protests Turns Violent Democratic Party of Kosovo, to win the village any favours. lies have moved out of the vil- But Fadil Nura, Deputy Mayor, On October 24, citizens of Hasan PDK, of PM Thaci. Poet Halil Xani, a resident of lage.” says he has no funds for this proj- Prishtina’s birthplace protested at PDK have such a strong hold on the village, says that nothing has Residents say that for the last ect: “The process of expropriation the seven years of delays. The the area that in many villages it changed in terms of infrastruc- seven years not a single kilometre and planning requires funds that demonstration ended in violence received 100 per cent of votes in ture for the village in generations. of road has been repaired. Back the municipality does not have. and with nine arrests. recent elections. “I wonder why this happens,” then the road was paved with This road is not a priority due to Valdet Xani, Hilmi Xani and But residents of Polac feel that said Xani. “Since its[the PDK’s stones and expropriation of land the budget.” Basri Xani, three cousins who had they have missed out on the establishment, most of us have was carried out. Nura said Polac residents who joined the protest and were arrest- spending spree which has seen voted for PDK.” “I don’t know how the deputy claim he built a road to his village ed, said they were shocked by the tens of million of euros spent on Xani added that residents were mayor [Fadil Nura] isn’t ashamed despite it being used by relatively police’s conduct. the area, despite their support for so keen to see an asphalted road to say that this is a non-priority little traffic were “misinformed.” “I was just passing by and they PDK. that they have not requested com- road, when he asphalted his road Hajriz Koci also said that “the just arrested me. I didn’t know Besides the dirt road that needs pensation for the land which has in his village of Prellavc, while at process of expropriation has been anything and they even sprayed to be asphalted, Polac also lacks been expropriated by the state in least two or three thousand cars neglected by the ministry of me in the eyes. Until I was at the sewers, water, a decent size school order to build the new road. use our road,” said Qazim Xani. transport for six years now”. police station I couldn’t see any- and a designated rubbish dump. “Prekazi, Krushevci and “We went to complain but they Minister of Infrastructure thing,” said Valdet Xani. Protests, a rarity in this govern- Morina are not as big as Polac,” told us nothing: not whether they Fehmi Mujota insists that the he said, naming nearby villages. would take on the job or not, but problem of expropriation delayed “I don’t understand why the spe- “But they don’t have any dirt they did tell us that even the the process because at the time cial unit of the police had to come, roads.” Ministry must confirm decisions there was no law on expropria- they arrested me while I was going “As for the water, they say through them,” continued Xani. tion. home,” said Basri Xani. The Police Commander of www.prishtinainsight.com they’ve done something but the Hajriz Koci, member of the “The Ministry of Infrastructure pipes are empty, while we carry local municipal assembly and a has taken for all the necessary Skenderaj, Basri Durmishi says the citizens have a right to protest, Publisher: water with a tractor,” he said. Polac resident, said that the road decisions for the Polac project to Xani says that for many reasons will be built soon. The road “will be completed in the first half of but that they should do this in a BIRN the residents of Polac are leaving be finished very soon because we 2012. I assure the local authorities calm and peaceful manner. Balkan Investigative Reporting Network the village. “From my neighbour- have been talking with the chair- that the project will be completed “Public order and calm were dis- hood of 25 families, 88 members man [Mayor Sami Lushtaku]”, he as planned,” said Mujota. turbed by a group of protestors, Mensa e Studenteve, first floor around 25 persons. To start with 10000, Prishtina they offended, threatened and then attacked the police,” said Kosovo Durmishi, also adding that a wit- Phone: +381 (0) 38 24 33 58 ness confessed that he used vio- Fax: +381 (0) 38 22 44 98 lence against the police. [email protected] “There was no violence towards the people, violence was used in a Editor-in-Chief: proportional way towards persons Lawrence Marzouk who used force against officials,” said Durmishi. [email protected] Durmishi argues the large num- Editorial Team: ber of policemen and special unit Ana Petruseva, Gordana Igric, forces were used to ensure the sit- Jeta Xharra, Marcus Tanner, uation did not escalate. Deputy Mayor Fadil Nura said Petrit Collaku, Shengjyl Osmani, that “measures undertaken by the Artan Mustafa and Kanarina Shehu. police have been correct as no citi- zen has the right to prevent any- Marketing, Sales & Distribution: one’s freedom of movement”. [email protected] Minister Mujota added that “there was no need to protest as a Design & Layout: “Rrjeti” means for this problem to be Arben Grajqevci solved”. Y Municipality officials promised M Printing: Lindi Printing Center that the road will be finished very C soon, but the citizens of Polac Copyright © BIRN K remain sceptical. news Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 5 Health is Divisive Matter in Tense North Kosovo In the ethnically mixed Serb-Albanian villages around Mitrovica, life runs on parallel lines - and that includes going to the doctor. The small clinic runs from 9am mono-ethnic kindergartens and to 1pm. When someone from the primary schools. village gets really ill, they have to Unlike the rest of Kosovo, the By Fatmir Aliu go another five kilometres to the majority population in this slice hospital in the northern, Serb- of northern Kosovo is made up of run, part of Mitrovica. Serbs, who reject the authority of Some 500 metres further down the Albanian-led government in n the northern Kosovo village the road from Suhadoll, or Suvi Prishtina, which declared inde- of Suhodoll, which Serbs call Do, in the direction of Zubin pendence in 2008. They consider ISuvi Do, near Mitrovica, Potok, is the Albanian village of northern Kosovo part of Serbia Albanians and Serbs lead separate lives, praying, going to school and Gushavc. proper. socializing totally apart from one The local people have their own Tensions have worsened since another. small clinic here, which the July when the Kosovo govern- This segregation extends to the Kosovo government built in 2006. ment attempted to take control of life and death matter of health. It, too, serves only one communi- the border with Serbia. Neither side consults the other ty. Local Serbs then started erect- A health centre in northern Kosovo run by local ethnic Albanians community’s doctors, even if the A nurse from the health centre ing multiple roadblocks on the “other” community’s health cen- could not recall a time when a main highways leading to the tre is much closer to their own local Serb had ever come in and contested border with Serbia, homes. sought help. some of which remain in place. Radmila and Dusica Simic, two Besides the residents in NATO peacekeepers in KFOR older Serb women residents of Gushavc, the medics here have have been trying for months to Suvi Do, have never visited their their hands full in treating dismantle the roadblocks, which local Albanian doctors, though patients from the other nearby impede its access to the military the Albanian-run clinic in nearby Albanian villages of Vinarce, base at the border. Gushavc actually is closer to them Suhodoll and Vidimiric. Over 50 KFOR soldiers and then the Serb-run clinic in Gornji “They have their clinic, and we Serbs have been injured in the Suvi Do. have ours,” the nurse explained. clashes, during several opera- “All 40 Serb households in Suvi She said the Albanian and Serb tions to remove the barricades. Do go to that [Serb] clinic. I can’t doctors from the two separate None of this makes it any easi- recall any of our villagers going health institutions did not cooper- er for the Albanian minority liv- to the Albanian doctor in ate, and even if they ran short of ing in northern Kosovo under Gushavc, nor that any people drugs, she doubted whether they local Serbian control. from the other side have come to would try to get them from the The Kosovo government recent- consult our doctors,” Radmila, other side. ly tried to implement a Serbs prefer to visit clinics run by their community, Prishtina Insight was told aged 70, said. “If they [Serbs] need drugs they “returnees” project in Suhodoll, The Serb-run health centre in can go to the northern [Mitrovica] rebuilding some of the houses of left alone, the tensions would dis- he has had very little communica- the village is financed by the hospital and if our [Albanian] expelled Albanians in the neigh- appear. tion with his Serb co-villagers. Serbian government in Belgrade, patients need them they go to the bourhood. Murtezaj lives under the same “Right now, no one knows how and the doctors rotate on a weekly southern hospital. This is how Especially in the light of recent roof as 10 other members of his this mess with the barricades will basis. it’s been since the end of the war tensions, the move was seen as a family, right next to the village’s end up,” he said. “They change all the time. We and I don’t see it changing,” she provocation by the local Serbs. Serb Orthodox Church. “We rarely see Kosovo Albanian never know whom are we going to said. Fifty-nine year-old Kosovo He was among the first police officers, and we have to do meet when we visit because it’s Besides parallel health centres, Albanian Hysen Murtezaj, who Albanians to return to the neigh- the night watch ourselves, in case unusual to see the same doctor for the Albanians and Serbs in this lives in what he calls Suhodoll, bourhood after the Kosovo con- someone crazy enough would over a week,” Dusica noted. part of Kosovo have their own says that if the two parties were flict ended, in 2001, but since then think of attacking us,” he added. Kosovo Serb Brothers Arrested on Weapons Charges Brothers accused by KFOR of organising barricades and violence in the Serb-run northern Kosovo arrested in Serbia.

ing force in Kosovo, KFOR, Erhard Drews, recently identified Zvonko Veselinovic as the main coordinator of recent riots on bor- By Bojana Barlovac der crossings between Kosovo and Serbia. KFOR officials said they were relieved to hear that Veselinovic was being investigat- vonko Veselinovic, 31, and his brother ed. "I can only say that we in KFOR are sat- Zarko, 26, from Mitrovica in northern isfied [though] we do not want to comment ZKosovo were arrested on Tuesday on further as the case is not under KFOR juris- Mt on suspicion of involvement diction," KFOR spokesperson Uwe Nowicki in criminal activities, Serbia's prosecu- told Serbian broadcaster RTS on Tuesday tor’s office said. night. The brothers were in company of their Veselinovic was well known as a so-called two friends and all four were taken to the “bridge watcher”. These are groups of police station in Kraljevo. Serbs who patrol the main bridge in An investigating judge ordered the Mitrovica dividing the town between Serb detention of the two brothers for 48 hours and Albanian sectors. while police investigated suspicions that According to local media reports, Zvonko Veselinovic was arrested in Serbia. It is not yet clear whether he will be sent to Kosovo for trial. they were involved in producing and trans- Veselinovic was involved in smuggling oil Y porting weapons and explosive devices. into Kosovo. Prosecutors for the European smuggling and tax evasion charges. and a less powerful ethnic Albanian coun- M This has now been extended for 30 days. Union mission in Kosovo, EULEX, have In October, a New York Times on smug- terpart, Mentor Beqiri, as figures involved C The Commander of the NATO peacekeep- issued a warrant seeking his arrest on gling in Kosovo referred both to Veselinovic in the illegal trade. K 6 Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 review of the year Review of the Year Rumblings in the north New government, conflict over the presidency and escalating troubles in the Serb-run north dominated the year.

The troubled election stretched into 2011 The moment Kosovo's first female president was picked by three men. PTK's embattled CEO fell on his sword in December. Politics and the presidency: osovo’s political year began new assembly convene to elect Court. On March 28, the Court kered deal between Prime electoral reforms take effect. in January with re-votes in Thaci for a second term as Prime ruled that the election of Pacolli, Minister Thaci, Pacolli and the Because of his general election Kthree municipalities on Minister as leader of a new coali- who holds dual Kosovo and Swiss head of the opposition campaign promise to raise the January 9 and in a fourth, in tion. passports, violated the constitu- Democratic League of Kosovo, 70,000 civil service salaries by an Mitrovica, on January 23. This comprised the Serb tion. LDK, . average of 30 per cent, the coun- The votes were held in connec- Independent Liberal Party, SLS This was because an opposition The signatories to the deal also try failed to meet IMF conditions tion with fraud complaints con- and the Coalition for a New boycott at the session that elected agreed to carry out electoral and for a 106 million euro stand-by cerning the results of the Kosovo, led by ’s him contained fewer lawmakers constitutional reforms, allowing arrangement and so on June 1 lost December 2010 general election, Kosovo New Alliance, AKR, the for the vote than the Constitution the President to be elected by that potential access to macro- in which Hashim Thaci’s Justice Party and non-Serb requires. Pacolli resigned imme- direct vote, rather than by parlia- financial assistance. Democratic Party of Kosovo, minorities gathered in the 6+ diately. ment, as is the case today. As a result of delays caused by PDK, came first with 32 per cent Parliamentary Group. Kosovo’s institutions became The parties agreed to enact the election, the 2011 budget was of the vote. The same assembly elected fully functional only on April 8, these reforms within nine only adopted on March 31. This For the first two months of the AKR head Behgjet Pacolli after was elected months, hold presidential elec- paved the way for the privatiza- year the country continued to be President of Kosovo. The election with 80 votes. Kosovo’s first tions six months after that, and tion of the country’s most prof- run by Thaci’s outgoing govern- was subsequently challenged woman head the state was a com- hold new general elections no itable public company, the Post ment. Only on February 22 did the before Kosovo’s Constitutional promise candidate in a US-bro- more than 18 months after the and Telecom of Kosovo, PTK. War crimes trials:

n May, the first serious arrests for war crimes occurred. Four former commanders of the IKosovo Liberation Army, KLA, including Sabit Geci, were later found guilty of killing and tortur- ing civilians in northern Albania at the Kukes and Cahan detention facilities. In August they were jailed for a total of 40 years. The EU rule-of-law mission, EULEX, initiated another high profile war-crimes case on March 16, and charged 10 former KLA fighters with various war crimes against the civilians and prisoners of war in 1999. The moment Borko met Edita. The best known suspect, Fatmir Limaj, a former transport minister and parliamentary deputy for Dialogue with Serbia: Thacis’ ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, was arrested on September 22 and is still on trial. n March Kosovo and Serbia also entered into Limaj's trials and tribulations featured prominently in 2011. EU-mediated “technical dialogue” with a view Troubled north: Ito normalizing day-to-day relations while both countries move towards European integration. eanwhile the volatile a result, NATO peacekeepers outraged response from local reached an agreement on the British diplomat Robert Cooper was appointed northern part of the in KFOR and EULEX police Serbs, resulting in the injury management of the border EU Envoy for the talks, which resulted in five deals, Mcountry saw growing have had to use helicopters to of at least 50 peacekeepers and under an ambivalent acronym mainly on trade, freedom of movement, cadastral violence throughout the year. reach the crossings at Gates 1 70 protesters. of IBM. registry and university diplomas. While Prishtina Tensions escalated at the and 31, as they can no longer In the light of the situation IBM, Integrated Border implemented its obligations in the talks, Serbia end of July when the govern- access the borders on high- in northern Kosovo, Serbia Management, is an EU- had by the year’s end executed only the trade agree- ment imposed a ban on ways blocked by 18 barri- broke off participation in dia- designed blueprint for han- ment. Serbian goods in retaliation cades. logue with Kosovo at the end of dling handle customs and On April 1, a census was held in Kosovo, 30 years for a Serbian blockade of KFOR attempts to remove September. It later returned to immigration in the Balkans. after the last complete and reliable count. Kosovo products imposed in the barricades prompted an the negotiating table and But the Kosovo-Serbia deal Preliminary results showed that Kosovo was home 2008, when Kosovo declared does not spell out that the to 1,733,872 people excluding the northern Serb- independence. agreement is in fact based on ruled part of the country, where most people boy- Prime Minister Thaci then the IBM model. Instead it says cotted the count. ordered deployment of special both parties agreed to “inte- The construction of the Vermice-Merdare high- police on the Serbian border grated management for cross- way was the main capital investment of the year. A at gates 1 and 31, at Bernjak ing points”. Owing to this 38-kilometre section of the road, which will eventu- and Jarinje, resulting in ambiguity, both parties ally cross the country from the Albanian to the clashes and the death of a claimed victory for their own Serbian border, opened in November. Running from Kosovo police officer. point of view. Vermica on the Albanian border to close to the Northern Serbs who reject Northern Serbs have since town of Suhareka, it cost 330 million euro. Kosovo’s independence, rejected implementation of strongly opposed the deploy- the agreement, which means ment of the Kosovo Albanian Kosovo and Serbia customs customs and police on the bor- and police operating under one der, seeing it as a means for roof. As a result road block- Prishtina to take over their ades continued in the north territory, which is under the and several thousand Serbs de facto rule of Serbia. petitioned Moscow seeking After the clashes began on Y Russian citizenship, to which July 25, Serbs began manning M they got a negative answer. barricades on the roads lead- C The first section of the highway was opened in 2011. ing to the disputed border. As By Fatmir Aliu K 2011 was also the year of the barricade in Kosovo's north business Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 7 Kosovo Pushes Controversial Energy Sale

Kosovo is close to selling off its energy distribution network, currently part of the KEK, amid concerns raised by civil society and the opposition.

nies for the privatisation of the dis- er of the project implementation had dealt with widespread cases of interest,” he added. tribution and supply sector in unit, said that the process had been power theft. According to him, uncertainty Kosovo are Limak of Turkey; transparent and that the Ministry But Fllanza Hoxha insisted that remains regarding the format of By Florina Hajdini Calik, also from Turkey; TAIB of Economic Development had the arguments for the sale remain the privatisation of distribution from Turkey and Bahrain, and held a conference where he pre- strong. “The goal is to reduce loss- and supply, and the assumptions Elsewedy, an Egyptian company. sented the KEDS Business Model es and increase the efficiency of are not clear about which model osovo’s government has “These companies have no track and the social and environmental the company”, Hoxha said, adding this privatisation is following. invited four prequalified Kforeign companies to sub- record in managing electricity dis- impact. that “private companies work bet- Visar , a regional mit bids to buy Kosovo’s distribu- tribution companies,” a group of Regarding prices, officials say ter than public ones”. expert on privatisation practices, tion network by February 28, 2012. ten NGOs declared on November that energy is a regulated business, Izet Mustafa, from the said the approach used by the gov- One of Kosovo’s largest privati- 29. According to these organiza- so the price of energy will not be Independent Energetic Union of ernment for the privatisation of sations is moving to conclusion, tions, the privatisation of the dis- set by the privatised KEDS but by Kosovo, SPEK, said that “the gov- KEK is unique in the region. despite the questions raised by tribution network also violates the the energy regulator. ernment’s approach is wrong; it is “The whole process has been civil society and the opposition standards of the International This, however, has been ques- trying to release its burden from carried out without a special law about the inexperience of the non- Finance Corporation, the consult- tioned by the former Minister of energy management”. on privatisation of the energy sec- EU bidders, the potential for price ants employed by the government. Energy, Justina Shiroka-Pula. At a Mustafa said the union had been tor that clearly defines the meth- rises, the environmental and These require “proper social and conference organised on the pri- ignored during the decision-mak- ods and procedures of this compli- social effects of the sale, the fate of environmental assessments, trans- vatisation she said she expected ing process for the privatisation, cated process,” he said. workers and the debts of Kosovo’s parency of the project, and inform- prices to increase. and KEK’s employees were left in Kelmendi said the lack of a law Electricity Distribution and ing employees of their status after The privatised company will no the dark about potential job losses. on privatisation of this sector left Supply, KEDS. privatisation”. The NGOs claim longer receive subsidies from the But Hoxha said that there was it unclear what percentage of the The government insists that pri- that the process has not been trans- government, which has poured nothing for employees to worry company’s stock for distribution vatisation of the distribution sec- parent or ethical. 500 million euro into KEK since about. She said: “All employees of and supply had been offered to for- tor, KEDS, is needed to reduce The NGOs had sought informa- the end of the conflict. All subsi- KEK will be transferred from the eign investors. commercial and technical energy tion of the bids put forward by the dies will end by 2013, according to current public KEDS to the private “The government expects the losses as well as increase the effi- competing firms, but the coordina- the plan. KEDS.” consultants to determine the poli- ciency of the sector. Currently up tor of the tender has refused to Officials also say that the com- Bernard Atlan, from the IFC, cies, procedures and model of pri- to 40 per cent of energy is being open up the business plans pre- pany’s debt, approximately 400 added that the government has vatisation, including the setting of lost and KEK depends on the sup- sented by the respective compa- million, will not be annulled and been given some advice that can- stocks given of state ownership,” port of a large subsidy provided by nies. will remain as debt, although not be made public on how to han- he noted. the government. The business model for the exactly how the debt will be dle the issue of northern “This approach must change future of KEDS has also not been retained has yet to be decided. Mitrovica, which alone is respon- and our government must first Expertise questioned: made public. “The business model sible for 4 per cent of the compa- determine by law the whole proce- is simply super-confidential and Poor preparation: ny’s total energy losses. dure.” A number of nongovernmental we do not know why civil society is Naim Hoxha, economic expert But Besim Beqaj, the Minister of organizations believe privatisa- insisting stubbornly on this sub- Nezir Sinani, a civil society from the Riinvest Insitutute, said Economic Development, said that tion of the distribution and supply ject,” a government official activist who has worked as a the privatisation of the energy sec- the privatisation of KEK distribu- sector is being carried out as part involved in the privatisation told researcher for think-tank KIPRED, tor in Kosovo was at a critical tion met EU standards. of a privatisation “drive”, with lit- Prishtina Insight. claimed that the government con- stage. “This process has been char- Speaking about the possibility tle thought as to how private com- Civil society groups say publica- sultants IFC entered this project acterised consistently with uncer- of prices going up, Beqaj repeated panies will be able to manage this tion of this data is very important without analyzing how the distri- tainty and non-transparency,” said that the Energy Regulatory project. “for the Kosovo public to be aware bution sector should be privatized. Hoxha said. Office is the body that determining Y Civil society groups have also of the basic details about the pri- According to him, the govern- “Decisions need to be passed prices, and it does not answer to the M questioned the quality of the bid- vatisation of the energy network”. ment could have avoided the pri- and monitored by parliament as a government but to the Kosovo C ders. The four pre-qualified compa- However, Fllanza Hoxha, manag- vatisation altogether if the courts representative body of public Assembly. K 8 Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 neighbourhood news Eurozone Crisis Hits Romania’s Embattled Middle Class Uncertainty about the future of the single currency makes many Romanians concerned for their financial future.

According to a study by the Soros Foundation Romania, around 65 per cent of Romanians say they By Marian Chiriac have been directly affected by one or more of these problems specific to the economic crisis: unemploy- namaria Nitulescu was just ment or enforced leave for a time, a in her early twenties when fall in income or the partial or total Athe high inflation of the loss of investments. 1990s scarred many Romanians. By comparison in June 2009 only Now a 43-year-old running a busi- 39 per cent of Romanians said they ness in chemical products distri- had been affected by the economic bution, she fears the break-up of crisis. the eurozone could turn her sav- The number of Romanians who ings and her retirement plans into nothing. lost part of their investments has Debt and the single currency cri- also increased since 2009. Then, sis in are directly influenc- only 5 per cent of respondents com- ing Romania. A member of the plained about this, while in 2011 European Union but not part of the some 8 per cent of respondents said single currency area, many people they had lost investments. worry that the shocks may extend “The economic crisis is strongly well beyond the eurozone. hitting people, mainly those from This businesswoman who earns the emerging middle class. around 1,500 euro per month - good “Their dreams of a decent life are now vanishing as they risk not money according to Romanian Middle Class Romanians are feeling the pinch. standards - is now looking how to only to loss of savings or assets but also are losing confidence in capi- put her money into safe hands. As a result, the cost of mortgages European banks, saying he hopes Analysts say that whatever criti- talism and democracy,” says sociol- “I have some savings of less than taken out in foreign currencies has Romania will not have to pay for cisms people and the President ogist Alfred Bulai. 30,000 euros. I worked hard for soared and thousands of people their “greed, imprudence and lack make of foreign banks, the fact is Romanians are starting to lose them but now I’m worried about face demands for the repossession of responsibility”. that Romania will remain depend- faith in banks also. They are still my money and the problems we’re of their properties because they Basescu said European banks ent on foreign banks. not draining their savings accounts facing,” Nitulescu said. cannot keep up with the monthly made huge profits in the country “Romania's savings-income ratio because they are out of work, or “What to do: buy Swiss Francs, a loans. and it would be “a lack of fair play” is not enough to spur economic face rising taxes, but they are small property, gold - or empty my Some borrowers say the banks if they now left the country's econo- growth [alone],” economic analyst struggling hard to repay mortgages bank accounts?” misled them and encouraged to my short of credit during the crisis. Daniel Oanta says. taken out in foreign currencies. Nitulescu belongs to a club that take out foreign currency loans His statement comes after “The consequence of our EU Romanians are among the hard- has become more exclusive in without warning them of the dan- Austria’s Central Bank presented a accession was an overheated est hit Europeans by the rising recent years – Romania’s middle gers. set of measures to prevent growth rate that has led to a major value of the euro or Swiss franc, a class. While the government says the Austrian subsidiaries in Central macro-economic imbalance,” he currency that was a popular option She has a business, owns an risks involved in taking out loans and Eastern Europe from lending adds. with banks offering loans in recent apartment, a brightly coloured in foreign currencies in Romania more than 1.1 times the local “First our access to foreign capi- years. economy car, spends an annual hol- remain “reasonable”, banks have deposits raised by subsidiaries. tal was eased, which promoted In total banks have granted loans iday in Italy or Turkey and shops started to offer some solutions for Three banks, Erste Group Bank, unhealthy economic growth to Romanians worth about 3.2 bil- each week at an Ikea furniture crisis-hit households, dropping Raiffeisen Bank International and because it was based on excessive lion Swiss francs alone, according store or at one of the hypermarkets interest rates a fraction, or allow- UniCredit SpA’s Bank Austria, consumption. to official data. outside Bucharest. ing temporary “holidays” in repay- have already accepted the meas- “And after a while drastic correc- But changes in the exchange rate Less than 20 per cent of ments. ures. tive measures were required, have adversely affected many bor- Romania’s adult urban population Polls say that most Romanians Over 30 per cent of Romania's which led to recession and low rowers as the Romanian leu has is middle class, defined as people want the power of corporations banking sector is in Austrian growth. So, first we filled up our fallen by 100 per cent in value earning more than 500 euros a and banks reduced. The country’s hands. 22 per cent is Greek-owned, tank with petrol and hit the gas against the Swiss franc since 2008, month. And their number has top officials more or less agree. and Portuguese, Italian and French pedal but when it came to driving when borrowing in francs looked a shrunk in the last two years and President Traian Basescu recent- banks are also present in the coun- at a normal speed we experienced relatively cheap deal. the near future does not look rosy. ly levied harsh criticism against try. a fiasco.” Airport Records Double-Digit Growth Albania’s Mother Teresa International Airport, TIA, regis- tered a 16.7 per cent increase in passenger traffic in the first nine months of 2011, with 1.4 million passengers passing through its gates.

Andrea Gebbeken, Chief Executive Officer of TIA. “Although 2012 will not be an By Besar Likmeta easy year, we are nevertheless optimistic and confident that we will manage the challenges,” she added. During the first nine months he airport also recorded of 2011, the airlines carrying 17,652 air traffic move- most passengers to and from Tments, an increase of 9 Tirana were Belleair, with 45.8 per cent compared with the per cent, Albanian Airlines, on same period last year. 10 per cent and Alitalia, with 8.5 “This year has been very suc- per cent. cessful and has built on the suc- Y Currently, 13 airlines fly in to cess of previous years… linked M and out of Tirana, connecting directly with Albania’s visa lib- C the Albanian capital directly eralization [with the EU],” said K with 30 destinations. Albania's only airport is growing strongly. neighbourhood news Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 9 Serbia's EU Slap Unlikely to Swing Election The blow to Serbia’s EU hopes may not be as decisive - or damaging to the main political parties - as it first seemed.

President Boris Tadic struck a sanguine note, saying the country By Gordana Andric, would move on. Belgrade “Serbia can look Europe in the eyes, as we have fulfilled all that we said we would and that the espite the dismay at European Commission had asked Serbia’s failure to advance from us,” he told reporters. He its bid for EU membership, D urged EU leaders to ask them- the setback may only have a mar- selves whether they had hon- ginal impact on the popularity of oured their promises. the major parties heading into elections. So far, one minister has Most voters have already chosen resigned over Brussels’ decision. whom they will support and why, Bozidar Djelic, Serbia’s deputy according to analysts interviewed. prime minister and the top offi- On polling day, they say, concerns cial in charge of European inte- over the economy and public serv- gration, stepped down from his ices will outweigh the hazy goal of post, telling reporters Belgrade EU entry. had been treated unfairly. Moreover, Brussels may review When EU officials meet next Serbia’s candidacy again next spring to review Serbia’s candi- February, in which case a decision dacy they are mainly expected to could still be made in Belgrade’s assess progress over Kosovo, favour in time for the April vote. whose independence is opposed For the time being, the EU move by Belgrade. appears to have hit the govern- For its EU bid to be accepted, ment hardest. Leaders of the Belgrade must demonstrate Democratic Party have spoken progress in striking deals with openly of their disappointment, Prishtina over border manage- while the opposition has accused ment and regional co-operation. them of fumbling with Serbia’s It must also show it has done its future. best to support the NATO peace- At its meeting on December 9, Serbia's failure to get candidate status may not impact on the election results, analysts have cautioned. keeping mission in Kosovo. EU leaders postponed a decision The opposition Liberal on whether to recognise Serbia as poverty, employment, living stan- Research, said official candidate ship, citing Belgrade’s support Democratic Party responded to an official candidate for entry. dards and corruption. status would have given Belgrade a for the Serb minority in Kosovo Brussels’ move by telling the gov- While praising Belgrade’s In his view, smaller parties – bigger share of funds from the as the stumbling block. ernment it must devise a new progress towards meeting key cri- such as the explicitly anti-EU 2014 EU budget. However, he said, Nevertheless, pro-European strategy or call an immediate teria, they called for more flexibil- Radicals or the pro-EU Liberal “we can still get that support”. circles in Belgrade had awaited election. ity in the deadlock over Kosovo. Democrats – were more likely to Miroslav Zdravkovic, an analyst the EU’s December summit with The party’s staunchly pro-EU Earlier this year, Serbia handed make capital from the EU’s deci- and editor of the Makroekonomija bated breath and were disap- leader, Cedomir Jovanovic, said over war crimes suspect Ratko sion than the mainstream ones. website, pointed out that Serbia pointed by its outcome. the government needed to recon- Mladic to The Hague tribunal, “Their voters will reinforce had this year attracted more Activists from the governing cile its stance over northern thereby meeting a long-standing their views and conclude they investment than EU member Democratic Party had banked on Kosovo with its efforts to join the EU demand. However, its bid hit have been supporting the right pol- Slovenia and EU member-to-be obtaining EU candidacy as their bloc. the rocks this summer after clash- icy,” he said. Croatia. main card in the forthcoming Aleksandar Vucic, deputy es between NATO peacekeepers Djordje Vukovic, from the “If investors believe the Serbian elections. Their social network- leader of the Serbian Progressive and the Serbian minority in Centre for Free Elections and economy will expand, they’ll ing pages registered disappoint- Party, the largest opposition Kosovo hardened the rancour Democracy, an NGO that monitors come. For them, economic process- ment at the news from Brussels. group, also said it was time for a between Belgrade and Prishtina. elections, said the EU move was es are far more important than the “I’m so sad and my heart is bro- snap poll. But while Serbia’s government unlikely to have harmed the stand- EU integration process,” he said. ken,” wrote Jelena Milinovic, a “The best thing for Serbia and said Brussels’ latest decision ing of the mainstream parties. Tensions over Kosovo, he added, leader of the party’s youth wing, its citizens would be if the gov- would strengthen its domestic “Maybe [an EU] decision [on could tarnish Serbia’s appeal for on her Facebook profile. She ernment left as soon as possible,” opponents, analysts told Prishtina Serbian candidacy] in March will investors far more than its failure questioned whether the denial of he told reporters. Insight that the latest blow to the have some influence,” he said. to gain candidate status. candidate status reflected a cen- Government officials dis- country’s EU hopes is unlikely to While approval for Serbia’s can- tre-right bias within the current missed calls for an early election. be a decisive factor in next didacy would have bolstered Calls for Early Elections EU. The Democratic party’s vice spring’s elections. investors’ faith, experts believe Although members of the gov- president, Dusan Petrovic, said Zoran Stojiljkovic, a politics pro- the setback is unlikely to influence Germany warned Serbia sever- ernment have not been quite as polls were out of the question fessor at Belgrade University, said the economy. al months ago that it had fallen vocal, most saw the EU decision while the governing coalition Serbian voters were not as worried Sasa Djogovic, an economist short of its obligations to be con- as an unfair reflection of Serbia’s still enjoyed a parliamentary about the EU as they were about from the Institute for Market sidered a candidate for member- efforts to join the bloc. majority. TV Anchors’ Suspension Prompts Croatian Protests Croatian NGOs and politicians protest after TV anchor suspended over airing of controversial broadcast about wartime Vukovar. director Josip Popovac, suspend- “I remind you,” Dedakovic says its people to show the world how Vukovar because it seemed logi- ed him publicly. in the phone conversation, “ destructive Serbian forces could cal to us to publish it on that day On November 18 this year, the there are two thousand children be while attacking Croatia. specifically.” By Boris Pavelic twentieth anniversary of the fall in the city, what are we going to Righ- wing Croatian politi- Sprajc added that the Tudjman- of the eastern Croatian city of do with them?” cians responded angrily to the Dedakovic conversation had Vukovar into the hands of for- Tudjman replied that “any HTV piece, with a Croatian TV already been published six years GOs, politicians and intel- mer Yugoslav Army and Serbian kind of withdrawal is out of journalist receiving death previously, and no complaints lectuals staged a protest in forces in 1991, HTV broadcast an question”. threats and demands for his had been forthcoming. Nthe Croatian capital Zagreb investigative piece in which an The HTV piece rekindled an removal from the station. Following Sprajc’s suspension and issued complaints after a news HTV journalist aired a recorded old controversy as to whether As a result, the HTV pro- protests followed. Former anchor on Croatian Television’s telephone conversations between Tudjman and the then Croatian gramme council launched an Croatian president Stjepan Mesic Sunday evening news was sus- then Croatian president Franjo government sacrificed Vukovar investigation into the piece, and stated that “HTV should be a pub- pended on Tuesday, December 20, Tudjman, who was in Zagreb, for such aims as the internation- criticized Zoran Sprajc, who had lic information service, not the over a controversy caused by the and then commander of Croatian al recognition of Croatia. Ever allowed broadcasting of it. polygon for paranoid construc- broadcasting of a TV piece about forces in Vukovar, army since the fall of Vukovar on 18th On Sunday, prior to his suspen- tions of frustrated personali- the fall of the town of Vukovar in brigadier Mile Dedakovic. November 1991, a bitter contro- sion, he responded to this criti- ties". 1991. In that conversation, Tudjman versy has continued over cism sharply and publicly on-air, A group of reputable intellec- News anchor Zoran Sprajc's refuses Dedakovic's requests to whether Vukovar could or could- saying that “we published the tuals and writers requested “the superiors at HTV, editor in chief withdraw civilians and children n't be defended, and if Tudjman controversial piece on the immediate replacement of HTV Bruno Kovacevic and HTV's from Vukovar. decided to sacrifice the city and anniversary of the fall of chief editor Bruno Kovacevic”. 10 Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 neighbourhood Hunt for Bodies Dutch Buried in When Hava Muhic gave birth to a stillborn girl in Srebrenica in July 1995, Dutch soldiers took the body away. Years on, the search for her grave - and others - is ongoing.

took away an estimated 8,100 marker. Despite the sign, the Bosnian Muslim men and boys to names of the dead appear nowhere nearby locations and executed in the documents. One body is By Eldin Hadzovic and them. identified as 70-year-old Behara Zvezdana Vukojevic To prevent discovery of the Delilovic. killings – ruled an act of genocide Three of the others are said to by the International Criminal be two men aged 70 and 75, a 20- ormer Dutch UN peacekeep- Tribunal for the former year-old woman, and a baby boy ers and survivors of the July Yugoslavia, ICTY, and the who was born and deceased on F1995 Srebrenica massacre International Court of Justice – July 13, 1995. One painful detail allege that during the fall of the Bosnian Serb forces later from the officer’s report is also UN-declared “safe haven”, Dutch exhumed the bodies from the pri- included: at the same moment as soldiers buried at least five adults mary mass-grave sites where they mass murder is in progress all and one baby in a grave inside the had buried them, using heavy around Srebrenica, a Dutch sol- Dutch UN compound in Potocari. earth-moving equipment that dier reported losing 300 Hava Muhic, a Bosnian Muslim broke many of the bodies into Deutschmarks. woman who gave birth to a still- pieces. They reburied the disartic- But these documents were not born baby girl as the Srebrenica ulated remains across the Podrinje given to Maat before at least one of enclave fell to Bosnian Serb forces region of eastern Bosnia in dozens several Open Government Act Sixteen years later, as both for- of so-called secondary mass requests he was to file had been mer Dutch soldiers and graves. turned down. Srebrenica survivors and relatives Now former Dutch UN peace- “Whenever there is a suspicion recall what happened and look for Hava Muhic's baby was buried by Dutch soldiers. keepers, responsible for protecting that Second World War veterans answers, the whereabouts of the air mobile brigade but instead got The experiences of Dutch sol- the Srebrenica enclave, say that are lying somewhere, no effort is alleged grave are still unknown. sent to Bosnia as a medic. His diers like Anakotta, Eggink and some bodies, including those of at spared, and a painstaking investi- “The nurse said she was still- father, a veteran of the erstwhile Maat are typical of soldiers from least two babies, were buried with- gation is done to trace them,” he born. The umbilical cord was Royal Dutch Indonesian Army, the under-gunned unit, caught in the confines of the UN base in remarks. “Now that we’re talking twisted around her neck, and it was worried about him. between increasingly aggressive Potocari, outside Srebrenica. about some buried Bosnians, the suffocated her,” recalls Hava “It scared him that as a UN sol- Bosnian Serb tactics around the Former Dutch peacekeeper opposite happens. Nothing.” Muhic, a Bosnian Muslim woman dier you get sent on a humanitari- enclave, and increasingly desper- Dave Maat, from Goes in Holland, Maat was just 19 when he joined who gave birth to a stillborn baby an mission, right in between two ate manoeuvres by the defenders now 35 and a law student, says that the 600-odd Dutch UN peacekeep- girl as the Srebrenica enclave fell adversaries. He figured there in Srebrenica to stop them from Muhic’s baby was not the only one ers in Srebrenica in early 1995. to Bosnian Serb forces. wouldn’t be much we could do if leaving. buried at the Potocari base. “We went to Bosnia to help peo- “ I was inconsolable,” she says the conflict broke out. Turns out At the beginning of March 1995, Experiencing Post-Traumatic ple,” he remembers. “Not to fight. 16 years later, “ but so weak I my father was right.” the Serbs tried to expel the Dutch, Stress Disorder, or PTSD, after I liked that idea. But we were sit- couldn’t even grieve. I fell uncon- In April 1993, a year into the war and only allow piecemeal food serving in Bosnia, in June 2009 ting on the Titanic with those peo- scious,” she explains. Two Dutch in Bosnia, UN Security Council transports to trickle through. The Maat filed a damages claim to the ple. All we could do was move the soldiers took away the tiny body in Resolution 819 demanded that Bosnian Muslims started harass- Dutch government called a WOB, furniture around.” a cardboard box. Srebrenica and its surroundings ing the Dutch, according to or Wet Openbaar Bestuur, an Open Dutch soldier Joeri Eggink from “They took the baby with them, be treated as an area safe from Eggink. Government Act procedure. Steenwijk was 22 and in good spir- and said they were going to bury attack and hostilities “by all par- “They tried everything to pro- He was given officers’ reports its when he arrived in Bosnia. her. I didn’t even get a chance to ties”. voke the Serbs, so that we’d have to and fact sheets, in which eight Until, in his first week in the see her,” says Muhic, who was By early 1995 some 50,000 inter- intervene. As Karremans said: anonymous soldiers stated that snowy, starving enclave of then 24. nally displaced Bosnian Muslims ‘No good guys, no bad guys’. The between five and nine adults and Srebrenica, he got shot at. It took It was July 11, 1995, when the had crowded into the town, with one was no worse than the other.” at least one baby were buried in a him less than a fortnight to come UN-declared "safe-haven" of little or no food, poor and scant Relations deteriorated fast. To mass grave on the compound in to the conclusion that it was going Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia was accommodation, and the opera- avoid being annoyed by begging Potocari. to prove difficult to help the inhab- overrun by Bosnian Serb forces tionally lacklustre Dutch UNPRO- children, Dutch soldiers made T- The mass grave was reportedly itants of the enclave. led by General Ratko Mladic. The FOR battalion, commanded by shirts saying “nema bonbon” — no marked with red and white tape Twenty-four-year-old Adje victors separated Muslim women Lieutenant-Colonel Tom candy. And they chalked the walls with a wooden sign showing the Anakotta, from Hoogeveen, from the men, and subsequently Karremans to protect them. of their base with graffiti that names of the deceased in black felt dreamt of being part of the Dutch read: “No teeth? Moustache? Smell like shit? Bosnian girl!” A young Bosnian man carrying his dead father home in his arms was inexplicably spat on by Dutch soldiers near the gate of their base, recalls Anakotta. He himself was on guard one day near the Dutch soldiers’ rub- bish-dump. Four children came scavenging. It was forbidden for them to be on UN grounds, and moreover the children were in an area visible to Serb gunners. Anakotta warned the children repeatedly. They didn’t listen. Suddenly Anakotta’s sergeant walked up and pulled out a Glock 9mm pistol, cocked it and pointed it at the chil- dren. “He started screaming real loud and waving that Glock around. Those kids were totally in a panic,” Anakotta says. “Especially the little girl with blond curls, I can still remember the look on her face.” “I called out: ‘Sergeant, what are you doing? We can’t do that!’ — ‘Shut your mouth, I know what I’m doing!’ — He kept on cursing. The Y children ran away crying. Later I M noticed he’d been using my Glock C to threaten those children.” K Potential sites of graves with the former UN compound in Srebrenica. neighbourhood Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 11 Srebrenica

Meanwhile, Hava Muhic was 21 “It looked like a flood wave,” he when war broke out in 1992, living says. That night he went to help near Srebrenica with her two-year- out in the Dutch base set in a for- old son Aldin and husband, mer battery factory compound in Hajrudin, a furniture maker. As Potocari, five kilometers from the violence increased, the family Srebrenica. The situation was des- fled into the surrounding woods. perate. One woman grabbed hold There they lived for roughly six of him. months in makeshift shelters. But “She pushed a baby into my when it got too cold, they returned arms,” he says. “I couldn’t speak to Srebrenica, where living condi- very good ‘Muslim’, but from her tions quickly deteriorated, with gestures I could tell she didn’t little food, water or electricity. want her baby to grow up in this “Of course it was unintentional, world.” but at the end of 1994 I got preg- A doctor was brought in, who nant,” Muhic says. “We assumed declared the child dead. A bewil- the war would be over soon. And dered Eggink wandered through we were protected by UN troops, the hall with a dead baby in his weren’t we? arms, and went outside, where he At least that’s what we thought. saw a large hole dug in the ground, There was no food, no vegetables, a couple of metres deep, allegedly no fruit, no vitamins and no medi- some 25 metres long, according to Adje Anakotta near the possible mass grave in Srbrenica. cine. Nothing I needed during my other Dutch soldiers, with a couple pregnancy. If I was lucky I’d eat of bodies already in it. By July 16, Dave Maat was sud- reburied by overzealous Serbs, in a burial site. Using DNA-assisted one meal per day, a sort of mash Eggink stood at the edge of the denly starting to understand what grave they’d dug for other victims. identification techniques that now we made from grain. It was cattle grave, and carefully crept into it, had transpired in Srebrenica. Information was also available set world standards, the ICMP’s feed, really.” looking for a corner in which to “A corpse lay in the middle of from the Dutch: a report by the Sarajevo laboratory has identified What they didn’t know was that bury the baby. “What happened the road. And I saw still more peo- Dutch Institute for War the disarticulated remains of an Srebrenica was totally surround- after that, I don’t know any more. ple lying there. Dozens of them. Documentation mentions an astonishing 6,641 Srebrenica vic- ed, and that General Ratko Mladic I’d lost my way.” Dark red bloodstains on the pave- “emergency grave”, as the Dutch tims, recovered from dozens of sec- was determined to overrun the Meanwhile the Serbs were ment, and an unbelievable stink.” Ministry of Defence calls it. But no ondary mass graves. enclave. At 5am on July 10, 1995, entering the enclave of Srebrenica The enclave appeared totally information about it was dissemi- The MPI is a functioning state- Dave Maat was awakened by one of from all sides. empty. “All the people were gone, nated in 1995. level institution that follows up on his colleagues. “We were completely surround- taken away. It was a ghost town. I “To whom should we have hundreds and hundreds of reports “All hell’s broken loose! The ed,” Eggink recalls. After stand- felt I’d been left high and dry. We passed along that information? It of burial sites and with ICMP’s Serbs are shooting with anti-air- ing guard for a couple of hours, he were fucked.” was war,” a Dutch Defence technical assistance exhumes craft shells!” turned back towards the camp in Fourteen years after the fall of Ministry spokesperson said. But them. Gunner Joeri Eggink was sitting Potocari. the enclave, the first meeting when Maat collaborated in 2011 in “Although the suspected mass in an armoured vehicle in “There were 40,000 Muslims on between Dutch soldiers and surviv- a Dutch TV broadcast, the Defence grave location within the UN Srebrenica, with just a few dozen one road stumbling over each ing relatives of the Srebrenica vic- Minister, Hans Hillen, promised Potočari base was searched by the men in six armoured vehicles, other, all wanting to go forward. tims took place. Anakotta his full cooperation. BiH Missing Persons Institute on expected to hold off some of the They were in a panic, screaming described hearing the hate in their “Two weeks later,” says Maat, “ I several occasions, no mortal thousands of advancing Serbs. and crying.” voices that day. got the coordinates and photos of remains have been found,» says “Suicide,” he remembered, Meanwhile the Serbs were tak- “Their voices were very low. the grave.” ICMP spokesperson Jasmin adding that Bosnian Muslims sud- ing all Muslim men of fighting age They threw everything out that But at the designated spot, there Agovic in Sarajevo. denly gathered, threatening to out of the crowd. They had to hand had troubled them for all those was nothing. The Dutch MOD say “ In September 2011 ICMP open fire on the Dutch if they in their passports and other years. ‘Why did you people drink that they “combed through our responded to MPI’s request for retreated. A very pregnant Muhic papers. Eggink asked the Serbs and dance with Mladic? Why did archives and passed along the pos- assistance, but, however, a large- you receive citations of honour?’ sible location. After the fall of the was also standing in the market what was the point of this. The scale excavation involving ICMP’s We couldn’t possibly answer all enclave, many graves were square. answer sounded plausible at the forensic experts ended without their questions. ‘We’re here to lis- removed by the Bosnian Serbs. “We couldn’t stay in Srebrenica time: “We’re trying to pick out the results too. Should more informa- ten to you,’ was all I said.” Whether that’s what happened because of the Serbian advance. war criminals.” tion emerge, ICMP will again The troubled Anakotta and Maat with this grave, is speculation. People were panicking, and I could Inside the Potocari base Hava respond to relevant authorities’ decided to do what they could to The fact is that at the original loca- have been giving birth at any Muhic had given birth. But the requests and will provide its help: they aim to find out the exact tion there’s nothing left.” moment.” baby she brought into the world expert assistance for the proper location of the alleged grave at the After the TV broadcast, a Dutch At around 2am, Muhic’s con- wasn’t breathing and was taken recovery of mortal remains and tractions started and people away by two Dutch soldiers in a UNPROFOR base, to see who was soldier told Maat that he was their DNA-led identification.” moved en masse toward the cardboard box who said they buried there. assigned with a colleague to build Meanwhile Hava Muhic has left Dutchbat base in Potocari, near would bury it. By 2011 they had found another three or four green wooden cross- the country, and only gets piece- Srebrenica, in hope of protection. “A half hour after my delivery Dutch soldier who had taken a pic- es, which he saw placed on the meal information about the grave Muhic and her husband were they sent me away. I was weak, I ture of the grave, and are tracking filled-in grave, later noticing that when she’s visiting Bosnia. She among them. It was to be the last was still bleeding, I didn’t know down the driver of the bulldozer they had been removed from the obtained citizenship after being time she saw him. where my little son was, and I’d that excavated the grave. There graves’ location, at a secluded spot granted asylum in France, and “I still remember very well: the just lost my little daughter.” seem to them to be many unan- behind the headquarters, near a now works as a chambermaid in a apples in the orchard were still Muhic needed help. So a woman swered questions. silo. hotel in the south of France. All green and sour, but there was she knew put her on a truck to be Why do the names of the vic- Maat and Anakotta’s hunt con- she wants is to know where her nothing else to eat. My husband transported to safety. There she tims, once written on a sign, seem tinues. Along with Nedzad plucked a few and gave them to me. bumped into her cousin, Tima now hard to find? And why was the Handzic, another member of stillborn child was buried. “Take good care of yourself and Hasanovic. grave moved? The reason cited by Drinski Talas, and other Dutch sol- “Now I feel that I must consider our child,” he told me. “I didn’t “If she were an animal they’d some sources — prevention of diers, they searched various possi- the possibility of a court case, know those were the last words I’d surely have treated her better,” panic among the Bosnian Muslims ble locations within 600 metres of because I have the right to know ever hear from him.” Tima recalls. “To be deported in a — is unlikely, according to Hasan the site, finding nothing except the where the bones of my child are. Her husband, two brothers and truck right after giving birth! She Nuhanovic, who was an inter- plastic tape used to mark the grave. My child was taken away from me his father tried to escape the Serb was bodily and spiritually broken; preter for the Dutch battalion. Handzic feels frustrated, not before I even got a chance to see blockade through the forest: in she was covered in blood and birth “The mass murder was already knowing whom to blame. The her,” she says. vain. Years later the organization fluid.” in full progress. The panic among Dutch, he thinks, have dropped the “There was a woman who, half in Bosnia that tracks and identi- Muhic’s father, meanwhile, was the local population couldn’t have ball; organizations charged with an hour after me, delivered a fies missing persons using DNA- lucky. The Serbs let a couple of been higher at that moment.” tracking missing persons, such as healthy daughter. She’s 16 now. assisted technology found part of buses of men through, in order to Mesud Mustafic, 34, is the chair- the Missing Persons Institute for Sometimes I dream that my daugh- his skeleton, while the remains of convince the other Muslim men to man of ‘Drinski Talas’ or Drina BiH, or MPI, and The International ter is alive and grown up. Then I his father and one brother have surrender, and her father found Wave, one of the many associa- Commission on Missing Persons, wake up, and I cry.” been found, identified and buried; her son in Tuzla. tions of Srebrenica survivors. He or ICMP, have let things slide, he The authors are BIRN Summer those of the other brother and her “I’ll never forget the moment I was involved in the hunt for the thinks, as they have had informa- school for investigative reporting husband are still missing. saw my father again. He asked me: grave site on the Dutchbat base. tion about the whereabouts of the trainees. This article was support- On the morning of the 11th ‘Where is your belly? Where is That the mass grave still can’t be grave since 2009. ed by Scoop, a Danish organiza- Eggink saw what he thought were your child?’ Before I collapsed, I found doesn’t seem strange to him. The truth stands very much to tion that encourages investigative thousands of Serbian infantrymen could just about answer: ‘I don’t He assumes that the remains of the contrary. Both MPI and ICMP journalism and by the Dutch week- coming down the mountains. know. I’ve lost everything.” the people in the mass grave were have searched assiduously for the ly HP / De Tijd. 12 Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 feature

Kosovo Turns Blind Eye to Illegal Mosques Kosovo’s municipal authorities continue to ignore the growing number of illegally built mosques, which now total more than a hundred.

Kosovo’s Islamic community gle illegal mosque has been tack- rebuilt on the same site. centre,” he said. “The best place said Prizren is home to the highest led since the end of the 1999 con- Muhamet Gashi, acting director to build a big mosque remains number of mosques in the country, flict. of inspections, said that given the near Prishtina University, in front By Besiana Xharra 77. “The reason I didn’t want to city’s overall problems with illegal of the Albanology Institute. If the municipal figures are destroy any of these illegal build- construction, mosques were not a “This is the best place but we accurate, this would put the num- ings is because such buildings are priority. haven't agreed yet with municipal- ber of illegal mosques in considered sacred and of benefit “We have no plans right now to ity. We are now waiting for another n illegal construction boom Prizren at 54. to citizens,” Gjakova mayor Pal destroy any illegal mosques as we answer from them, but until now that has carpeted Kosovo’s Director of urban planning Lekaj said. are awaiting approval of a law on nothing has happened.” Acities and villages with Sadik Paçarizi said: “Of all The director of urban planning how to handle illegal buildings, Behxhet Shala, director of the unlicensed buildings is not con- religious objects, such as in Peja, Gazmend Muhaxhirim, and then all illegal buildings, Council for Human Rights, says fined to homes and shops. Catholic or Orthodox church- said he had no figures about illegal together with mosques, will be the reason why Kosovo mayors A survey of Kosovo municipali- es, mosques are those that constructions but admitted that reviewed,” Gashi said. have not tackled illegal mosques is ties by Prishtina Insight has violate the law most. About some mosques had been built “Prishtina municipality has that it could be construed as an revealed that more than 100 70 per cent of mosques in the without permits. given permission for the restora- attack on religious freedom. mosques have been built without municipality have no build- “Some illegal mosques were tion of mosques, but not for new He added that the skeletal planning permission in the past ing permit.” built since the war but recently ones,” he added. Orthodox church in the park sur- ten years. He added that a plan had builders have started to seek per- The issue is particular sensitive rounding Prishtina University has To date, action has been taken been drawn up to knock down mission from the municipality,” he in Prishtina as the Islamic com- also not been touched since con- against just one illegal mosque the illegal mosques but had said. munity this year has protested struction began in the mid-1990s. and local authorities told been shelved pending a “At the moment we are already about the municipality’s failure to “If that illegal church had been Prishtina Insight they are hesi- resolution of the broad- dealing with several such applica- find what they consider a suitable destroyed immediately after the tant about committing them- er problems of illegal tions.” spot for a new city-centre mosque. [1999] war, it would have set an selves to removing such build- builds in the city. Officials at Ferizaj and They complain that their situa- example for other illegal buildings ings in the future. Gjilan mayor Qemajl Mitrovica declined to comment on tion is markedly different to that and for the BIK too,” Shala said. The Islamic Community of Mustafa admits that in his the issue. of the city’s small Catholic com- “Now it is difficult to deal with Kosovo, BIK, through various municipality almost all munity. The city hall offered them them.” funding channels, has been mosques built since the Not a priority in Prishtina: a prime location for a new cathe- According to him, however, this reconstructing 113 war-dam- war lack building permits. dral, which opened last year. issue must be addressed at some aged mosques, as well build- But he said that since he Prishtina municipality told Muhamet Gashi said that the point. ing as 155 new places of wor- became mayor in 2007 the Prishtina Insight that it had municipality had already issued Sabri Bajgora of the BIK admits ship, since 1999. situation had improved. destroyed one unplanned mosque the BIK a permit to build on a that mosques have been built with- An investigation by Prishtina “From the time I became four years ago while it was still large plot on the edge of the city out planning permission. Insight can reveal that almost all mayor, this phenomenon has under construction. centre. But the BIK has so far “To be honest, mostly in vil- have been erected illegally. stopped because we have Despite this action, rejected this. lages, some mosques are built “We have repaired or rebuilt made an agreement with BIK another illegal “The issue has stalled. We don't without permission from munici- 113 of those [mosques] 218 on this issue,” he said. “Now mosque have any other places to offer, so palities. But no mosque is built destroyed during the war,” says they apply for permits was we haven’t made any further without our permission,” he said. Sabri Bajgora of the BIK. before starting to build progress,” said Gashi Bahri Sejdiu, head of the BIK “Besides those, we have also any new mosque,” Sabri Bajgora said their for Prishtina, also admits that built another 155 news mosques Mustafa added. demands for a city-centre location most mosques in the city centre by the end of 2010, and are cur- He confirmed had nothing to do with the posi- have no building permit, but rently building another 20.” that no illegally tion of the new cathedral; it was a blames the municipality for the Prishtina Insight has built mosque question of ease of access. omission. researched the situation in had been “The site [offered] near “Most Prishtina mosques have Kosovo’s seven largest munici- destroyed, the PTK [Post and been built without permission palities: Prishtina, Prizren, however. Telecommunications] is not because the municipality sits on Ferizaj, Peja, Gjakova, Gjilan In the good because it is a small site such requests for months,” Sejdiu and Mitrovica. western and is not in the said. Each town or city hall city of acknowledged that illegal Gjakova, mosques have been erected not a under their jurisdiction, espe- sin- Mosques in Numbers cially in rural areas, though some refused to provide exact According to the BIK, Kosovo figures. has 660 mosques. Of these, 607 Prizren, city of illegal are active, 25 are being built and 28 are inactive. minarets: This figures were collected in December 2010, and a further 20 Prizren is fabled for its mosques have been under con- ancient Ottoman architec- ture, but is now becoming struction this year. better known for its sky- line of garish illegal Prizren – 77 mosques minarets that have been Ferizaj – 61 mosques springing up since 1999. Prishtina – 53 mosques The city council told Gjilan – 37 mosques Y Prishtina Insight that 70 Gjakova – 34 mosques M per cent of the mosques in Mitrovica – 17 mosques C the city had no planning Peja – 26 mosques K permission. One of the many news mosques which have sprung up in Prishtina since the war. feature Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 13 Handfuls Remember Serbia’s Forgotten Holocaust Small size of recent commemorative gathering in Belgrade highlights the degree to which the mass extermination of Jews in Belgrade 70 years ago has been erased from memory. A ten-to-15 minute ride was enough to fumi- plaque adds: “This monument is dedicated to gate and kill the people locked in the back them, and also to the victims to the notorious through the simple means of diverting the Ustasha camp in Jasenovac.” Jewish prisoner in Jasenovac. By Siri Sollie exhaust pipe to the sealed compartment. Today, the few recent attempts made to erect The Nazis used these trucks to transport the a proper memorial to the Jews of Belgrade “Representatives from the business sector in women and children from the Semlin camp in appear to have stalled. New Belgrade decided to rent out the area of bout 40 people gathered outside the April 1942 to Jajinci, on the outskirts of “The politicians talk and say that they sup- the planned centre to a private owner who former Jewish bureau of the police, Belgrade. Dead on arrival from suffocation, port the idea of creating a memorial centre, built a coffee shop there,” Matic told Prishtina Aknown as the Judenreferat in the bodies were then buried in mass graves. but in the end it is only talk,” Rena Raedler Insight. “It was illegal and the move was dis- Belgrade’s George Washington Street on As early as May 1942, the Nazis claimed that said on December 8. puted for several years, but the café is still December 8, to mark the passage of 70 years Serbia was “Judenfrei”, or “free of Jews”, one She is one of the initiators of a new memo- working.” since the mass deportation of Serbian Jews of the first nations in Europe to receive this rial project, “Visit to Staro Sajmiste”, which Asked why he thinks there is no memorial to the largest German-run concentration grim designation. attempts to set the history of the camp centre, Matic pointed to “silent obstruction” camp in Southeast Europe. By then about 80 per cent of the pre-war straight. on the part of business. “That land is extreme- That day in 1941, thousands of Jewish Jewish population of Serbia of about 33,000 One person who did try to make a memori- ly valuable and someone will earn a lot of women and children stood there awaiting had been eliminated. al centre and museum at the site four years money if they build [another] shopping mall transfer to Judenlager Semlin, which later Staro Sajmiste is only a stone’s throw from ago was Veran Matic, editor-in-chief of the there”. became the Staro Sajmiste [“old trade fair”] the centre of Belgrade and few now know it leading independent TV and radio station, “Our memory is mostly shaped to serve a in what is now New Belgrade. was a Nazi concentration camp. One of B92. political function and if it doesn’t, there is no One was Aleksandar Lebl, a Holocaust sur- Serbia’s biggest shopping malls, Usce, sits “My idea was to open a Museum of one to stand firmly behind the implementa- vivor. “I lost my mother, my grandmother, my today on top of the site. Tolerance, a memorial education centre that tion of that idea,” he added. father and sisters - basically all of my family Parties and concerts until recently took would include all the existing stored objects He did succeed, however, in producing a perished in the Holocaust,” he told Prishtina place in the building that served as the camp from the camp,” he said. “The other facilities documentary for B92 in 2009 about the histo- Insight. infirmary. Today, the old camp barracks and would be used for lectures, and first and fore- ry of Staro Sajmiste and the Holocaust in Lebl was invited to talk at the gathering other buildings still remain, functioning as most, for students.” Serbia. where he emphasized the importance of not homes for a sports club and a couple of restau- Matic said the idea was to create a centre One of the three creators of the movie, forgetting the crimes that the Nazis committed rants. that would form part of a network of similar Srdjan Mitrovic, told Prishtina Insight that against Jews during Second World War. Thanks to the historical revisionism of the memorial centres around the world, but it had he was disappointed by the lack of attention But commemorations like this are rare in political authorities, what went on there has fallen through due to lack of backing. the topic received after the film was broad- Serbia, which has buried the tragic events of been virtually erased from popular memory. “When I suggested the plan to President cast. 1941 regarding Jews to a footnote in history. The Yugoslav Communists who took over [Boris] Tadic he fully supported the project,” “I wanted to spend years of my life bring- Although “Jewish camp Semlin” was the the country after the war rewrote the story of he recalled. The Mayor of Belgrade, Dragan ing the truth about the Holocaust out in the biggest such camp in Southeast Europe, few Staro Sajmiste to fit former leader Josip Tito’s Djilas, initiated a commission to determinate open, but after a couple of years I started to Serbs are aware that it is in fact a former ideology about “brotherhood and unity”. ownership of the site and find solutions on lose enthusiasm,” he told Prishtina Insight. Holocaust site. The communists preferred to talk about the how to resolve issues, Matic added. “We were standing at the same place, and if For decades, Serbia’s political elite, both for- common suffering of all opponents of But local businesses were less keen. we were going anywhere it was backwards.” mer Communists and Slobodan Milosevic’s Fascism rather than single out particular eth- nationalists, marginalized the suffering of nic groups as victims. marketing Jews in Serbia during the Second World War. “Jewish victims of the Holocaust were, for Today’s democratic, multi-party govern- the most part, subsumed under the category ment shows more little interest in uncovering of ‘victims of fascism’, and remembered only the real truth behind these dark and contro- in the context of the broader memorialisation versial deeds. of the People’s Liberation War and Anti- After the fall of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Fascist resistance”, British psychology lectur- From December that year until May 1942, the er Jovan Byford wrote in 2008. occupying Nazis imprisoned about 7,000 Byford, the author of books and publica- women and children in the camp. tions on Balkan and Jewish-related issues, On that winter morning in 1941, the remain- runs the website “Semlin Judenlager in ing Jews of Belgrade were told to leave their Serbian Public Memory” and is currently col- homes and possessions behind and show up at lecting testimonies of Yugoslav survivors of the former Jewish Police. the Holocaust. “They had no idea of the horror awaiting During the nationalist regime of Milosevic, them,” the historian, Milan Koljanin, said at Staro Sajmiste obtained a new role in Serbian the commemoration on Thursday. history as a place where Serbs suffered at the No Jewish men were present that day. They hands of Croatia’s Fascist Ustashe. had already been taken away and executed The pro-Axis Ustashe movement took over between July and November 1941 at a camp Croatia in 1941 after which Croatia’s borders called Topovske Sume. were expanded to include the area of the A woman who was only six at the time told Semlin Judenlage in what is now New Prishtina Insight that her mother later per- Belgrade. ished alongside many others in the Nazi “gas “People started to say that it had been a trucks” in which almost of the Jewish women Croatian camp during the war,” Lebl recalled and children ended their lives. to Prishtina Insight. In fact, de facto control of The gas trucks, officially called “de-lousing this border zone was exercised by the German trucks”, were a recent German invention and military authorities. could hold as many as 100 persons. At the beginning of the war, mainly Jews were imprisoned there. But after May 1942, by when most Jews had been killed or had fled, the camp changed its purpose and became a work camp for political prisoners of all nationalities. This fact was exploited by the Milosevic government, which sought to concentrate attention on Serb victimization during the war. “Semlin was commonly referred to as part of the network of Ustasha death camps and as a place from where Serbian prisoners were sent to Jasenovac [in southern Croatia] to be slaughtered,” Byford noted in 2008. In 1995 the Milosevic regime erected a new Y memorial plaque, this time further away from M the actual site, on which it is written: “Most A monument to the dead of the Jasenovac concen- C tration camp. victims were Serbs, Jews or Gypsies.” The K 14 Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 travel Balkan Capitals Vie for New Year’s Eve Crown Prishtina may know a think a two about wild New Year’s parties, but if you are after a touch of class or a change of scene there are a number of great destinations accessible by short flight or drive. Belgraders and their guests warm on the cold night. In true Christmas spirit, beverages will be By Gordana Andric served in white mugs and the pro- ceeds will go to buy New Year’s gifts for newborn children. If the drinks and a bit of charity Belgrade: A White Night for don’t warm the hearts of party- a White Town goers, entrance to most Belgrade bars and clubs will be free, or at least cheaper, after midnight. Every year thousands of for- Advice to visitors? Pick a place eigners celebrate New Year’s Eve and enjoy the party. in Belgrade. The capital’s tourist organisation recently announced that they are expecting at least Ljubljana’s Frost Class 15,000 guests for the holidays. Located only an hour’s drive The city has invested in making from the Adriatic Sea and even it a night to remember. Lavish less from several skiing resorts, street lighting will be turned on in Ljubljana is a good choice for peo- the central streets on December 19. Zagreb offers plenty of shopping options for those seeking some winter shop therapy. ple planning to spend more than The lights, in 3,500 different just New Year’s Eve on a break. enjoy. will be decorated in different at the city’s Vorosmarty Square shapes, have cost City Hall about After welcoming 2012 in the city, A children’s programme starts ways, as each winning company is opened on November 300,000 euro. they can relax at the seaside, at Presern Square on the same day. free to choose how to illuminate 18 and will run until December 30. But the holiday season will have beside the waters of Lake Bled or Every afternoon until December the street it got. As in previous years, the fair is started long before the lights go on one of Slovenia’s many moun- 30 it will offer programmes with The main events will be organ- open from 10am to 8pm every day. on. On December 9 fireworks tains. puppets, magicians, music and ised on four squares: Jelacic, Along with a chance to buy tradi- marked the opening of a skating Although Ljubljana is a modern dance. Zrinjevac, Britanski and the tional Hungarian or artisan craft rink on Nikola Pasic Square. European city, with about 300,000 On the New Year’s Eve, there is a Square of the Victims of Fascism. items and Christmas delicacies, Until the end of January, the citizens, it is less of a metropolis live music on three of Ljubljana’s A Christmas fair will be held in visitors can meet Santa, take a rink will also host about 40 differ- than a cosy town. squares, Presern, Pogacarjev and the streets around the central glimpse at how craftsmen and ent programmes for children. Holiday season in the city starts Mestni, and one minute after mid- square, Ban Jelacic, during the cooks work their magic and taste The rink is open every day from in early December. night, the sky above Ljubljana will whole of December and until different spiced drinks and tradi- 9am to 11pm and both skating and According to tradition, children be lit up with a splendid fireworks January 5th. tional Hungarian Christmas food. the shows are free. receive gifts from St. Nicholas on display. Here visitors can buy Christmas The square is lit up by the Peace The main New Year’s Eve event the eve of his name day, December gifts, sweets, craft items and sou- Light, brought from the Church of will be in front of the Serbian 6. Another Slovenian tradition is a Zagreb Twinkles Pretty venirs. the Nativity in Parliament building. From Christmas concert on December 24 Street musicians will perform Bethlehem. This light symbolis- 9pm until dawn, guests will be when some of the country’s top Zagreb offers fair play of festivi- each evening until New Year’s Eve es peace and is intended to point able to hear bands Galija, Plavi musicians perform for free. ties: As a number of Croatian and from 5pm to 7.30pm in the central out the importance of charity. orkestar and Van Gog, as well as Two days later, on December international brands have been Tkalciceva Street and its sur- Although the fair is very popu- singer Sergej Cetkovic. Fireworks 26th, the Slovenian counterpart of competing to organise the city’s roundings. lar, what makes Budapest’s New and a waltz will entertain at mid- Santa Claus, Grandpa Frost, street lighting this year, this This is an opportunity to hear Year’s offer special are its New night. arrives in the city along with his Christmas Zagreb may be one of Croatian and international carols, Year’s Eve Danube cruises. Traders at wooden stalls that white Lipizzaner horses and snow- the most beautifully illuminated old Zagreb ballads and get yourself Numerous tourist agencies offer will be set up on Republic Square men. The Grandpa Frost proces- cities in the region. in the Christmas mood. Nativity romantic riverboat trips down the will offer mulled wine, coffee, hot sion is something that children all Numerous streets and buildings scenes with vivid scenery on Danube. At a price of about chocolate and other stuff to keep Kapitol will be another popular 150 euro, guests will have four attraction. The plays will be per- hours of cruising, dining, wining formed three times daily on and music. Midnight on one of the December 25, 26, 27, 31 and on cruisers really is something. At January 1 and 6. that moment the city is lit up with Numerous Croatian pop musi- thousands of lights, the glare from cians will perform at the place the fireworks reflects on the with the best view over Zagreb, waters of the Danube - and in Gradec Walk, every night until the most cases the music is quite New Year. good. Along with concerts, there will If this is too romantic for your be numerous open-air perform- stomach, there is live music at ances and costume parties here. three different locations in the The central event of New Year’s city, at Vorosmarty and Nyugati Eve will be a concert by the New squares and Oktogon. Gypsies at Ban Jelacic Square. The Fireworks will explode at mid- band’s founder, Chico Bouchikhi, night at all three locations. is a co-founder of the famous Gypsy Kings, so the sound will be familiar to most people. For all the best of Prishtina nightlife turn to page 17 for Budapest’s River Romance our rundown of where to The Hungarian capital has been throw some shapes as you in the Christmas mood for almost a month already. see out 2011. The traditional Christmas Fair

In the article, Lone Gay Bar’s Closure Leaves Kosovo Gays Bereft, published in the last edition, we incorrectly quoted Sarah Maliqi, LGBT activist, sug- gesting that civil rights group working in the field lacked skills. She had, in fact, been referring to public institutions. Y Correction: Her quote should have read: “Not much has been done in awareness-raising in public security institutions, and there are many cases when public officials have no professional back- M ground and understanding of the rights of sexual minorities, and often, their behaviour results in mistreatment of LGBT persons.” C We are happy to correct this mistake, which was due to an editing error, and apologise for any confusion. K feature Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 15 Bosnian Victims Heap Praise on Jolie’s Wartime Drama Controversial film is deemed so lifelike that one former war victim says she threw up after seeing it.

a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations, for bringing the pain and suffering of an estimated By Valerie Hopkins 20,000-50,000 women victims of rape back into the spotlight 16 years after the conflict in Bosnia ended. ngelina Jolie’s directorial “Angelina has touched our debut In the Land of Blood souls,” she said. Aand Honey about the 1992- The movie centers on the rela- 1995 war in Bosnia, has won plau- tionship between a young couple, Angelina Jolie on a trip to meet the war widows of the Bosnian war. dits from the likes of correspon- Ajla, played by Zana Marjanovic, dent Christiane Amanpour who member of her organization who Andric, who was held as a pris- dent in the government of and Danijel, played by Goran attended its red carpet premiere in attended the screening, said she oner by the mainly Bosniak Sarajevo’s controversial decision Kostic, whose romance blossoms at New York City last week. now supports the movie and pro- [Muslim] Bosnian Army, said the to ban the shooting of this film.” the outbreak of the war that later But another group of critics foundly identified with its main film is a must-see, especially for Kulasic acknowledges the fact tears them apart. whose voice Jolie values have also character. young people. that the movie will not be well- Ajla is interned in a concentra- given overwhelmingly positive “I am Ajla,” she told Prishtina “People, especially young people received all over BiH, saying it has tion camp and Danijel becomes her reviews. Insight. “This is what I went and those who did not experience raised an important discussion prison guard. The preview shows through in the rape camp in the war, must watch this film to about the future of ethnically the couple having tense inter- Vlasenica [in eastern Bosnia] in see what war brings, that is, noth- divided Bosnia and Herzegovina. course. 1992.” ing good. They must realize war is “The movie will force us think of It was rumours about the fic- Those who saw the film says that an evil, so that it never happens the future. Do we want our grand- tional captor/captured relation- Angelina well understood not only again,” he said. children to have the same conflict ship that caused such a furor last the wartime conflict but the rich However, other leaders of or a similar conflict because we year, resulting in the revocation of culture of the old Yugoslavia Bosnian Serb victims associations have not resolved these issues?” Jolie’s permit to film in Bosnia. before the war. have asked the government of Velma Saric, founder and direc- Some of those who had been “The story itself was not really a Republika Srpska, RS, Bosnia’s tor of the Center for Post-Conflict against the film, like Murat love story, but it represents the love predominantly Serb entity, to com- Research, told Prishtina Insight Tahirovic, president of the that people had before the war and pletely ban screenings of the she hopes that the movie will con- Association of Concentration the reality before the war, and how movie in the entity. centrate attention on the hard- Camp Survivors, said had they that reality changed during the Branislav Dukic, the President ships that victims of rape, some of known the film would be this good, war,” Elmina Kulasic told of the RS Association of Detainees whom receive no state benefits, they would not have lobbied Prishtina Insight. “The complex told reporters that he is “exasper- still experience. against it. nature of love itself was very well ated by the fact that the Serbs once She recalled a pioneer movie But one of the film’s most vocal presented.” again assigned the role of main from 2006, Grbavica, about a critics, Bakira Hasecic, president Christine Amanpour. Kulasic, a native of the northern villain,” and pledged he and other woman raising a daughter who is of Women Victims of War Bosnian town of Kozarac, was only members of his organization the product of wartime rape, Association, continues to cam- Civilian victims of the war, seven when she was interned in would lobby the RS government to which tackled a taboo issue. paign against the film. including concentration camp sur- the Serb-run Trnopolje detention ban the film. That film “did more than any She was not invited to the vivors and rape survivors who saw camp for over a month. Dukic has not seen the film, but politician to help victims of rape. screening but claims that the pre- the movie on December 8, say Jolie Praise for the film crosses eth- said “the response from Bosniak Only after the movie came out did views solidified the position she has captured the horrors they expe- nic lines. One of the guests at the associations and their enthusiasm our government recognize women took last year, which resulted in rienced during and after the war. screening was Dragisa Andric, a testify that the main message of who suffered sexual violence as Jolie having to film the rest of the “From the moment the film Bosnian Serb who now leads the this film is to re-charge the Serbs civilian victims of war,” she said. movie in Hungary. began, I was back in April 1992, my Association of Prisoners From as the sole culprits for the war.” “[Filmmaker Jasmila] Zbanic’s “From the clips from the movie, life passed through this film com- Visegrad. Rajko Vasic, Executive Secretary movie started the whole discus- and I could not even watch the full pletely,” Enisa Salcinovic, presi- “This is the most difficult film of the RS’s dominant party SNSD sion,” she added. two minutes, what she has done is dent of the women’s section of the that I have seen in my entire life,” said that although he believes the “That is why I believe artistic hard and disgusting,” she told Association of Concentration Andric told Prishtina Insight. film represents “homage to the suf- expression can be stronger than Prishtina Insight. Camp Survivors, told Prishtina “I was barely able to watch it fering of Bosniaks, filmed by workshops, symposiums, and “It became painful to watch, and Insight just after watching the film. until the end. Even a day later, I Hollywood pattern, in which Serbs, other things organized by the still is. I felt like I was beaten, tor- Salcinovic said the movie was so feel like a boxer after the fight, almost without exception, shown international community. tured and raped again, as if I had traumatic, because of its accurate having come out of the ring,” he in the worst light,” the government “It can affect people and create again returned to the camp, as if rendering of her own experience, said. “I am deeply moved by it will not ban the film because his strong reactions. I expect this they’d raped me again. It is shame- that she vomited after seeing it. because many scenes that I lived entity “has outgrown savage movie to do the same,” Saric con- ful!” She conveyed her thanks to Jolie, through myself,” he added. Balkan primitivism that was evi- cluded. However, Sadzida Hadzic, a marketing

Y M C K 16 Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 Prishtina Insight

Where to pick up Prishtina Insight? Hotel AFA Prishtina Insight has teamed up with these excellent venues to offer a limited number of complimentary copies of Kosovo’s only Located in a quiet neighbourhood just outside the city centre, Hotel English-language newspaper. Grab a copy of the publication and settle down with a drink or a meal to read it. Afa can guarantee guests a peaceful night while being within walking Te Komiteti distance of all the action. The venue Hotel Victory has won a host of awards for its excellent service to customers and But Victory is more than a place to meet and do business. Its doors Te Komiteti’s large trees and a beautifully garden, which offers a good range of facilities, are always open for guests to enjoy the tranquility of our guest surround the small outdoor terrace, give you an impression from an exclusive restaurant and rooms and lobbies, and the finest cuisine in the region. The only of an exclusive place for ordinary people. And this is exactly VIP bar to pretty, tranquil garden. hotel in the region where real plants, original art and fine solid fur- what it is. From brunch to lunch-time snacks and special Rooms start at 45 euro for a single, niture decorate the space and turn it into a homelike environment. evening meals, this and luxury rooms and apartments Hotel Victory is established to offer travelers the most complete, com- restaurant offers dishes are available. The hotel’s rooms are fortable accommodation available in Kosovo and the region. Our pro- comprising quality, varied well appointed and comfortable. fessional staff will offer guests the highest standard of service and ingredients, combined to support, and we will use perfection. Alongside one 15, Rr Ali our resources to greater of Prishtina’s best ‘mod- Kelmendi, lengths to make your stay ern European’ Sunny as complete as possible. menus, you’ll also find a Hill, Hotel Victory good selection of wine, Prishtina Mother Teresa and great sangria and +381 Prishtina, Kosovo cocktails . 38/225 226 Tel: +381 38 543 277 Te Komiteti www. hote- +381 38 543 267 Qamil Hoxha Street lafa. com Email: Prishtina [email protected] +381 38 24 96 63 http://www.hotel-victo- ry.com/

Hotel Prishtina A taste of Napoli in Prishtina. Jinglebells Hotel Prishtina’s 43 charming guest rooms After ten years of making pizza in Napoli, and only with love If your soul is affected by the grey season then pay a and suites are reminiscent of a small hotel in to blame, Fatmir the chef returned to Prishtina. His pizzas, visit to Jinglebells, where you will find all the colours the European tradi- made in a woodburn stove, are definitely genuine napolitanas. that you’ve been missing. tion. You'll immedi- For those who consider pizza to be boring, Fatmir has several Jinglebells is a perfect one-stop-shop for internation- ately feel at home pastas on offer, also a true joy for the taste buds. Napoli has an als offering a selection of books in various languages in our living room, excellent selection of red and white wines or, for the more ambi- and the quickest supply of international newspapers in sipping a glass of tious, one of the town. It also offers souvenirs and gifts, such as local wine in our fine region's best Quint's handicrafts. restaurant sur- raki. Napoli makes rounded by a for delicious lunch, Jinglebells. gallery of paintings dinner or even after- Bookstore by local artists. theatre time out in and more. The hotel offers the centre of Ernest free, fast wifi inter- Prishtina. Koliqi 12, net, complimentary opposite breakfast, confer- Pizzeria Napoli EULEX HQ ence room, swim- off Luan +386(0)49 741 ming pool, sauna Haradinaj, opposite 170 and laundry service. Newborn 044/409-402402

Restorant Brasserie Lura Paddy O’Brien’s CHURCHILL’S PUB

At 450-square-metres Restaurant Lura is as spacious The staff at Paddy O’Brien’s have a saying: “It’s easy to Churchill’s Pub is a plase where you can as you get in Prishtina. It’s also surrounded by the tow- walk in, but very hard to leave.” associate with its unique, casual, cozy and ering trees of Germia and offers a pleasant garden And with its warm atmosphere, fantastic range of friendly atmosphere where you can enjoy an where, in the summer, this eatery prepares food al fres- drinks and excellent food, it is easy to see why. affordable pub style.... That comfortable co. It’s large meeting room is also ideal for that private There have been many attempts to establish a proper atmosphere combined with that special lunch or dinner. Irish pub in Prishtina, but this is the only one to hit the music, the greate range of drinks and the The combined style classical and modern interior spot. chance to get to play a game of pool and dart leaves you with an impression of refined taste. From classic coffees to cocktails, via, of course, board on the second floor. The newly opened restaurant is already famous for its Guinness, you really wont find it difficult to select the A pub where you can go and enjoy Mediterranean specialties, exquisite seafood and fine perfect drink. everynight live music, different ones like selections of Italian, French and Local wines. But that’s A mouth-watering menu of Irish specialties is also on evergreen, tradicional, uplugged and rock. not all, for music lovers, Wednesday, Thursday and offer, spanning from all-day breakfasts to Irish stews at You can also enjoy the happy hour wich Friday night dinners are accompanied by jazz, whereas night. starts ar 20:00-21:00 everynight. on Saturdays local patriots can enjoy live traditional Options include shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash, fish Beers (Peja and Skopje) for only 0,99 Euros, Albanian music. ‘n chips, and whop- Gin Mix and Vodka Mix for only 1,50 Euros. Lura Restaurant ping great burgers. Churchill’s Pub is located in the heart of Str. Nazmi Gaffuri • 10 000 Prishtina • +381 (0)38 763 Thursday is pub Prishtina. 763 ; +386 (0)49 763 763 • www.lurarestaurant.com quiz night, but there Str: Johan V. Hahn, Peyton, Prishtine [email protected] is always something +377 44 728 750 going on at the pub, whether it is sport screenings or just a good shindig. Paddy O’Brien’s Tringe Smajli Street, by the Illyria Hotel Y Prishtina: 045- M 420900 C K By Donjeta Demolli Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 17 in Prishtina Timeout Contact Prishtina Insight if you would like your event to feature or to advertise your venue. Email [email protected]

National Theatre of Kosovo Franca Rame, directed by Kushtrim Koliqi PRISHTINA NIGHTLIFE Saturday, December 24, 2011. DIARY A man proposes to his wife of elimi- From 8 pm nating the concept of martial loyalty Përgjuesi: Stand-up comedy with Mission impossible – Ghost Protocol and creating an “open relationship” Friday, December 23, 2011 Adem Mikullovci on the small stage. in their lives. The woman rejects this and after several attempts of suicide, Every day at 7.30pm and 10 pm Hamam Jazz Bar, Monday, December 26, 2011. she decides to accept her husband’s Blues night with “Wild Bunch Blues” From 8 pm offer because in fact it’s the only way “Wild Bunch Blues” is a rare breed – On an assignment in Budapest to intercept Çifti Martin: A play by Eugene to remain married. The man is a blues band from Macedonia. a courier working for a person of interest Ionesco. Director Bekim Lumi. Cast: happy. He, no longer needs to hide For reservation call them at +377 44 his girlfriends and is released from code-named “Cobalt”, agent Trevor Hanaway Gresa Pallaska and Astrit Kabashi 222 289 or feelings of guilt. Now everything is is killed by an assassin Çifti Martin is an experimental +381 38 222 289 named Moreau. artistic piece built on a single stage democratic and open. Everything Hanaway’s team leader, from the anti-comedy Bald Soprano goes well until the day when the woman finds the love of her life, Peppermint Club, Jane Carter, and newly of Eugene Ionesco. which is what her “modern” hus- Kosovo rap band KAOS is playing at promoted field agent band cannot accept. Peppermint Club. Benji Dunn extract Tuesday, December 27, 2011. For reservation contact 044 - 234-367 Ethan Hunt and Hunt's From 8 pm Cast: Edona Reshitaj and Besart or visit them at www.peppermint- source Bogdan from a Nata e Helverit by Ingmar Vellqist. Sllamniku; Costumes and the setting: ks.com Moscow prison. Hunt is Njomza Luci. Composer: Trimor recruited to lead Carter Director: Altin Basha Dhomi; Choreographer: Bruno Christmas Eve, and Dunn to infiltrate Wednesday and Thursday, Dece- Saqipi; Light; Designer: Skender December 24 the secret Moscow Latifi; Stage manager: Bedri Maloku, Kremlin archives and mber 28 and 29, 2011. From 8 pm Albert Bekteshi and Fadil Gashi, Hamam Jazz Bar locate files identifying Photographer: Arton Humolli. Cobalt. Half ways Music: Toni Kitanovski and Cherkezi through the mission, For more details email; Orchestra [email protected]; someone alerts the Russians to Hunt's team. Cherkezi group has been working [email protected] Although Hunt, Dunn and Carter escape, a together for three years now. Their bomb destroys the Kremlin and Russian agent album Borderlands is a result of the Sidirov accuses Hunt of masterminding the ODA THEATRE creative joining of forces of two attack. seemingly different worlds, a gipsy Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Every Tuesday at 8 pm wedding band on one side and highly Pegg, Paula Patton. educated contemporary musicians Tre Gjermanët e Trashë II (Three well versed in jazz, popular styles Fat Germans II) and classical music on the other. The Adventures of Tin Tin Thanks to this play you will under- Youthful curiosity for widening stand “What did Brigel say when musical horizons and love for music Every day at 3pm and 5 pm he asked for a drink?”; “Why Hans gives their sound an exciting quality didn’t let him drink Mojito?”; and constant freshness of ideas. st “How did Gani experience his 21 Toni Kitanovski is the mastermind “The Adventure of – Tin Tin” Directed by snow?”; “Is Vukashin really and artistic director of the band. Steven Spielberg. Ukshin?”; “Does KFOR-ja still He has appeared with extreme avant- Tintin and Captain work for KFOR or she just loves guardists such as Vinny Golia , jazz Haddock set off on a him?”; “How did Hekuran boil eggs treasure hunt for a legends like Charlie Mariano and sunken ship commanded “Nata e dymbëdhjetë” – Twelth in the middle of the North Pole?”; Greg Hopkins. by Haddock’s ancestor. Night by William Sheakspeare. These and other events you can see But someone else is in Director: in the play “Tre Gjermanët e Bistro Kitchen & Bar search of the ship. Ilir Bokshi Trashë II”. Music by Neki Emria. For bookings Having bought a model Like many of Sheakspeare’s Author: Lirak Celaj; Producer: call +377 45 691 116. ship, the Unicorn, for a comedies, this one focuses on Florent Mehmeti; Roles: Naser pound off a market stall mistaken identity. The leading Rafuna, Adrian Morina, Kushtrim Amelie espresso bar Tin Tin is initially puz- character, Viola, is shipwrecked on Sheremeti, Lirak Celaj, Fisnik A Christmas Party with DJ Dardi, zled that the sinister Mr the shores of Illyria during the Ademi, Ard Islami, Arta Selimi, call for bookings +377 45 691 67 Sakharine should be so opening scenes. She loses contact Florent Mehmeti. eager to buy it from him. with her twin brother, Sebastian, Peppermint club Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy whom she believes to be dead. Every Friday at 7pm Music from Fatos Hondozi. Call +377 Serkis, Daniel Craig etc.Roles: Jamie Bell, Andy Masquerading as a young page Ilir Ferizi will entertain your chil- 44 234 367 for bookings. Serkis, Daniel Craig etc. under the name Cesario, she enters dren with his magic tricks and a the service of Duke Orsino with the lot of surprises that make the pro- Contra Caffe Bar help of the sea captain who rescues gramme fun and interesting. Music from Burim Mehmeti. her. Orsino has convinced himself For any further questions or reservations call at Bookings on +377 44 620 618 that he is in love with the bereaved 038 243 238 or visit them at www.kinoabc.com Lady Olivia, whose father and brother have recently died, and who Andërr will have nothing to do with any Music from Dardan Ramabaja. suitors, the Duke included. Orsino Bookings on +377 44 607 899 decides to use Cesario as an Teatri Social – Studio 2 intermediary to tell Olivia about his Music by rock band The Glasses. love for her. Olivia, believing Viola Tickets cost 2 euro( 4 euro with The to be a man, falls in love with this Glasses album) handsome and eloquent messenger. Viola, in turn, has fallen in love with New Year’s Eve, the Duke, who also believes Viola is December 31, 2011 a man, and who regards her as his Lounge Food and More confidant. Full menu, unlimited drinks and music by Sedat Kuqi. Tickets cost 25 DODONA THEATRE euro. Gallery of Arts Bookings at +386 48 161 212 or +381 38 226 215. The international exhibition “The Biennial Goes New Year’s Day, January 1, 2012 Graphic” curated by Rene Block remains open For more information call +381 Hotel Dardania until January 22, 2012. (0)38 246 555 or write . Music by Sokol Gjakova. For any further questions or Monday, January 2, 2012 Every Thursday 7.30pm A photo exhibition “Anthology of Hope” by Jutta reservations call at +381 (0)38 246 Peppermint Club Y Benzenberg, a German artist living in Albania, is Music from Zig Zag orchestra Çifti I Hapur is being staged with the 555 or write at . [email protected] M also open until January 22, 2012. Bookings: +381 38 552 555 text of Italian authors Dario Fo and C K 18 Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 Inside Prishtina Students Drag Prishtina Buses Into 21st Century With a budget of 500 euro, a group of students have stepped in to help confused bus passengers and created Prishtina’s first online resource on public transport in the capital.

transport as the municipality did- n’t help us at all, but thanks to friends, who travel around, we By Shengjyl Osmani were able to map all the bus stops,” added Thaqi. After the approval of the project by the UNICEF Innovations Lab, he dearth of official infor- the bus tracking phase started. mation on Prishtina’s 16 bus “We travelled on each Troutes is over thanks to the bus line in a team of work of high school students. two and traced it Pupils from Don Bosko High with a GPS School in Prishtina have complet- tracking ed a UNICEF-funded project to devices, make public transport easily which accessible via a new web address, traced all prishtinabuses.info. the routes The easy-to-use website pro- and bus vides routes, times, prices and bus stops. stops, all handily plotted onto a “This Prishtina Buses hopes to demystify the use of the capital's monarch of the road. map. informa- lected, Thaqi, Altin Ukshini, Lulzim istration to carry out and sup- Gent Thaqi, a 17-year-old stu- tion was the IT Gashi, Giulia Martin, Daniela port this kind of project in other dent, was part of the team who easily trans- compo- Bodnarova, Jeton Ahmetaj, towns in Kosovo too,” said Gent. worked on this project and ferred onto a nent of the Ardian Haxha, Besfort Guri, He also thanked UNICEF designed the website. computer with team worked Ardi Hasimja, and Shkelqim Innovations Lab and FLOSSK He told Prishtina Insight that map software. to create the Ahmeti. team for their support in the the website was made possible by a Also, while on the website. The website was also translat- realisation of this creative proj- small grant from UNICEF, which bus, we got the exact The team believes that ed into English, so that foreign- ect. was not completely exhausted, and information from staff on the the website will be an asset for all ers can now use the public trans- the hard work of a team of volun- bus operation schedule,” For more visit the web at the people in Prishtina and port system too. teer. explained Gent. http://prishtinabuses.info/ encourage more bus use. “We hope it will serve as an “It was hard for us even to find After all the data had been col- out all the information on public The team comprised Gent inspiration for the public admin-

Another Konak Moment Bar Review: Konak Inn

By Donjeta Demolli

his recently opened bar in [email protected], or visit their the city centre makes all Facebook profile. Tguest feel at home, cosy and comfortable in its modern setting. Konak Bar That’s just as well, as Konak in Zahir Pajaziti Square Albanian means a hospitable place 049 871 509 for a person. [email protected] The venue offers great home- made foods and excellent wine. Delicious portions of grilled fish are available for just 1.80 euro, and mulled wine is on offer every Friday night from 7 pm. Konak also serves up a special vegetable soup each day. You can also feast on chicken wings and other bar snacks, and for desert a selection of cakes is available. The bar is open Monday to Saturday from 8am to midnight and Sunday from 10am to mid- Y night. M For reservations, call 049 871 509 C or email at konakprishti- K 19 Inside Prishtina Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 Irmin Vandermeijden blogger at Kosovo 2.0 Prishtina through the Eyes of: the Eyes through Prishtina

Shop Review: Reks Balloon Decorations

REKS Balloon Decorations ‘Zahir Pajaziti’ Square By Shengjyl Osmani Tel: +381 38 722 476 What surprised you most about Prishtina? Driton Kryeziu: +377 44 300 220 Jeton Syla: +377 44 402 137 What surprises me still about Prishtina is the fact that [email protected] even though it is not such a small place, it functions like a www.reksballoons.com hether you need decora- village somehow. You meet people on the street, and if it's tions for weddings, birth- a friend you can spontaneously go for a coffee. The city in Wdays, anniversaries, this way always feels like home, I like that a lot. engagement parties, school proms or corporate events, Reks Balloon What's your favorite hangout? Decorations promises to trans- form your venue into something In the day: Dit' e Nat', at night, Shalter for sure. I had the special with its range of goods. best moments at that place during last months. Reks Balloon Decorations has been operating in Kosovo for Do you do anything cultural? almost five years now and is the Besides my work at Kosovo 2.0, I am Dj'ing regularly in only shop of its kind. clubs and bars in Prishtina. It is not only playing, the chal- On top of special balloon lenge is to attract a crowd. In some cases you could say that designs, they also offer specially you even organise the parties as well. I used to co-organise designed gift boxes, cards, bags, and wrapping paper, in different a film and arts festival “4 Tuned Cities” here as well, which colour, sizes and shapes. most probably will happen again somewhere in the future. At least ten days advance warn- ing is usually required for major What is the most annoying thing about Prishtina? events. The mud when it rains, and the fact that unexpectedly things can go completely wrong due to people not doing what they have been saying before.

If you were mayor of Prishtina for the day what would you change? I would make sure that illegal construction halted com- pletely. And I would shelter all kids that sell chewing gums and peanuts in a home.

How many macchiatos do you drink a day? Around two. My fascination with Kosovar coffee has cooled down a bit over the years.

What's the tastiest Kosovar food? I would say Piccadilly’s meat burek. It's the best in town. Y What landmark do you use to tell taxi drivers where M you live? C “Te fitness Flori njeri.” K If you would like your NGO to appear in 20 Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 our Making a Difference feature, please Opinion email [email protected] Energy Lesson from South Africa The failure of the World Bank to develop a large coal-powered thermal power plant in South Africa represents the most typical argument why its initiative for a similar development in Kosovo should not be supported. thermal power plant with a capac- to the poor and develop the econo- don’t deserve clean electricity, or will see that they sense that renew- ity of 4,800 megawatts. my. what? able energy does not represent a By Jeta Xharra, This decision was so controver- During the Durban conference I You don’t need to be an energy luxury or a mission, but rather a Durban, South Africa, sial that the respective loan even met with representatives of South expert to go to the WB webpage phenomenal business opportunity, failed to receive the supporting African poor communities who and analyze how in Serbia an as small projects result in new vote of the United States of claim that this project did not pro- Efficient Energy Project was initi- employment possibilities and, in huge United Nations America. Obama’s administration vide electricity for the poor. On the ated since 2004; in Montenegro the long run, cost less to maintain Conference on climate has pushed the environmental contrary, entire neighborhoods there is a Scheme of Green in comparison to power plants. change was held earlier A agenda far more than previous were forced to disconnect from the Investments; in Macedonia there this month in Durban, South One of these experts is Lorik administrations and it would have electrical grid, because of the is a project for the development of Africa. Haxhiu, who has been the ‘Kosova been difficult to, on one side, speak bloated prices burdened on ran- efficient energy and alternative The question is whether Kosovo e Re’ Project Manager for six of clean air at home, and, on the dom South African homes, as the energy market since 2006; and in has learnt something from the years. He has also recently estab- other, pollute the air of poor South consumers pay off the loan which Kosovo there is a plan to burn our conference which has gathered lished the Kosovo Renewable Africans. However, USA’s absten- the state obtained from the World coal as soon as possible, preferably thousands of representatives from Energy Association. If Kosovo has tion did not result in the loan Bank, as the state was unable to before we are ready to accede in 194 countries around the globe, in no renewable energy potential, being blocked. find any other means to repay the the EU. order to discuss what can be done what are the experts of Kosovo This recent report of the South loan for the construction of the Is it possible that none of the regarding global warming. Government doing establishing African project inspection panel is new thermal power plant. economic minds working for the The problem is that, when we renwable energy organisations? of great significance for Kosovars, Electricity tariffs have increased World Bank thought of the fact join the list of 194 United Nations Perhaps they know something that because the coal-powered thermal so much that the poor are unable that Kosovo, a country with the members and become a member- the cynics, who baselessly say that power plant in Africa represents to pay for the electricity provided. state of this organisation, we will greatest energy loss occurrence, Kosovo has no has no renewable the latest WB global experience in However, it is important to empha- immediately needs projects that be ranked at the bottom as one of energy, don’t know. . support of coal projects. And if size that in this entire calculation, will mitigate our problem – the the most polluted countries on If the Bank does not trust civil they failed to apply their stan- the lowest electricity prices, much evaporation of 40 per cent of gen- earth, due to the generations of society who is saying there is dards there, who can guarantee lower than those of regular con- our energy production from our erated electricity – and leave aside that they will not fail in our sumers, are paid by the large potential to be explored, they have polluting fuel - lignite. plans to suffocate the next two to ‘Kosova e Re’ project, which seems South African companies, very a 'credibile' source staring right at We are told that the new power three generations in the country? supported by the World Bank even similar to Kosovo’s ‘Ferronikel’. them, credible enough for treating plant ‘Kosova e Re’ will resolve Should we not provide the upcom- more than by our own govern- Therefore, Zoellick’s argument Kosovo at least at par with other this problem, as the development ing generations with air that is ment. that the Bank is helping the poor countries of the region. They of the new facility will result in cleaner than the air we breathe? After one and a half years of by developing coal-powered ther- should not try to sell the pressure the decommissioning of ‘Kosova You don’t need to be an expert to research, the WB inspection panel mal power plants is invalid. This to develop ‘Kosova e Re’ as an A’, however, the World Coal reach the conclusion that it’s not on the African project concluded thermal power plant will result in attempt ‘to help the poor in Kosovo Association, which held a round- WB that does not know, but it does that the Bank has not properly the advancement and development and to develop Kosovo’. This did table in Durban on December 5, not want to listen to the people considered the harm caused by the of new “ferronikels”, and not in not fly in South Africa, and it cer- acknowledges that the develop- with which it works on daily basis, power plant on human health and the benefits of the general public. tainly shouldn’t fly in Kosovo ment of new technologies to cap- which state that Kosovo does have on water shortages in that region. Go and ask Drenas residents how either. ture and store CO2 is progressing a great potential for generating In fact, the inspection panel crit- it feels to live next door to such pol- At the moment of writing this very slowly. There are no power clean energy. icizes WB for not considering the luters. article, investors’ requests for plants anywhere in the globe that It did not take me long to find impact of the utilization of this developing wind-powered genera- have showed that this technology out, during the filming of the resource on the lives of people that Ignored renewable energy tors are being forwarded from one is fully functional. In other words, “Kingdom of Coal” documentary, need it for other purposes. Kosovo regulatory office to the even using the most advanced opportunities that in fact people confirm that Another argument that repre- technology on earth, currently those who can confirm that other, while three such wind- sents the basis for the inspectors’ there is no possibility to burn coal If WB wishes to help the poor in Kosovo has some clean energy power generators constructed in critique of WB, is the expansion of without polluting the environ- Kosovo, why are there no projects potential are precisely the Kosovo Golesh are not allowed to generate the mine required for supplying ment. to ensure more efficient use of Government experts that remain energy, although they obtained all the thermal power plant, which The sooner we understand this electricity in Kosovo, 40 percent of committed to the ‘Kosova e Re’ permits required for operation. would cause additional pollution – in Kosovo, the less we will lie to which is unbilled? coal project. If anyone is interest- Alternative energy and energy yet another argument not consid- ourselves and the public, and the How does one logically explain ed (someone like WB), these people efficiency are no sacrifice; such ered by WB when charging ahead better prepared we will be to take the fact that in most countries of have compiled maps that show projects have the potential to with the South African project. decisions on next year’s develop- the region, WB develops projects that the Dukagjini Region is employ more people than a ther- Third, and most conclusive, ments related to the to encourage energy efficiency, but assessed to be potentially suitable mal power plant, which is not only inspectors found “numerous defi- (non)construction of a new coal- none in Kosovo? Does WB consider for wind-powered electricity gen- harmful to our health, but will not ciencies” in the WB assessment of powered thermal power plant, us a black hole and people that eration. If you go a bit deeper you generate new jobs. problems caused by poor air quali- which would be our ‘present’ for ty, a consequence of thermal the generations to come. power plant operations. But, will we take these deci- The World Bank is showing a sions, or will the foreigners take similar disregard to health, envi- them on our behalf ? ronmental and water-use factors World Bank’s role – South in the planning and development of the ‘Kosova e Re’ power plant. Africa and Kosovo In South Africa, this thermal power plant is now confirmed to During the conference it was be problematic even though it is revealed that World Bank (WB) located in a scarcely inhabited failed in the implementation of its area. In our country, WB will “sup- environmental policies by issuing port” the development of the new a decision to approve a 3 billion thermal power plant under our euro loan for the construction of noses, no further than 10km from one of the largest lignite-powered the capital city. thermal power plants on the globe, When during a meeting with TPP ESCOM in Limpopo, a north- civil society representatives from ern province in South Africa. around the globe, held this This assessment was made by September in Washington, I asked the inspection panel, an independ- the World Bank chief, Robert ent body of the World Bank. Their Zoellick, why was he trying to report on the South African develop a coal-powered thermal Thermal Power Plant was pub- power plant in Kosovo when the lished by ClimateWire and can be Bank failed to follow its own stan- Y found on their website. dards in a similar project in South M In April 2010, the World Bank Africa, he briefly responded that C decided to support the develop- they do this in developing coun- K ment of a rather controversial tries in order to provide electricity Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 21 Opinion If you would like your NGO to appear in our Making a Difference feature, please email [email protected] New Universities in the Balkans: Outside In European visions, UFOs and Megatrends 2011: Kidneys, Negotiations, By Florian Bieber Barricades and all that

t’s a stale (and wrong) cliché that the Balkans produce more history Ithan they can consume (quote By Kreshnik Hoxha from Churchill). More recently, it seems like the Balkans are producing more universities than anybody could (or should) consume. hatever cynics may tell you, this year has been a Throughout most countries of the rather interesting and patience-trying one for Kosovo Win so many ways. region, there has been a boom of new private (and state-run) universities. Interesting and patience-testing, however, does not neces- In Serbia, there are some 17 universi- sarily mean blessed, great or on the right path towards ties, plus a number of independent Western integration, as our leaders like to repeat in promises “faculties”, i.e. departments. With conjured from thin air. Nevertheless, it’s been a year that has only a quarter of the population, the potential to teach us many things, if we ever decided to abandon apathy and embrace accountability. Macedonia has approximately the The UFO University in Tirana. same number of universities. Having started the year with bombastic headlines regard- Bosnia beats both Serbia and University. In addition to its name, it sion of the university “International ing Kosovo’s advanced surgical capabilities in organ trans- Macedonia with the number of state also wins a mention for its cryptic University of Struga is a highly plant, the little country in the Balkan Peninsula managed to (or rather entity and cantonal) uni- English text “How strong are you to qualifiedUniversity which is fullyde- quickly dampen the festivities of the New Year and outrage versities: nine (including two in win yourself ? During its develop- votedtothe education and successful- its citizens, neighbours and certainly our international sup- Sarajevo, Mostar) and around the ment, human society has managed to ness of its students” porters. It was the last thing we needed having just produced same number of private universities. overpower and strengthen its capabil- 5. International University of Novi enough drama with our “democratic” elections. Kosovo is lagging behind with just ities acting by the influence of its Pazar (Serbia). Another international Suddenly, the sceptics of Kosovo’s independence became two public universities (and the sec- will, by the strength of its body and university in the region. The presi- empowered in their cause that Kosovo never deserved state- ond one in Prizren is still pretty new) mind, achieving the best results in dent is “Da Mufty” Zukorlic. He notes hood and it is a pseudo-country led by criminal gangs. Well, and less than ten private universities. different life activities…” in his message to the world that “we there is nothing better than this to butter the bread of our The regional winner seems to be 9. Crystal University (Highway wait for long for the sun of university northern neighbours, who are determined not to give up on Albania with over 10 public and over Tirana-Durres, Albania). Once more, to shine from the piece of the sky the so-called “Serbian Jerusalem” – as ironic, delusional and 30 private universities. the name makes this university worth above us…and now we will enjoy this amusing as that may sound. There is no doubt that advancing a mention, as well as the address sun.” (no translation can do justice to With all this mud covering Kosovo’s international image, (Highway Tirana-Durres, kilometer the Bosnian original) higher education is a good idea, esp. there came the envelopisation of Kosovo’s politics and the 3) and the motto: Crystallize Your 4. Megatrend University (Belgrade, in a region where the ratio of univer- first female President, Atifete Jahjaga, whose election saved Future! Serbia). This university earned its sity graduates is below the European the country from another round of “democratic” elections. As 8. Synergy University (Bijelina, place in this ranking through its average. It is also not bad in principle much as this helped resolve the institutional crisis looming BiH). This university also deserve mega-creative name and of course, to have private universities. over Kosovo, it also proved that the wind in Kosovo blows the recognition for its name and the pic- for making the leader of the people’s However, considering that there are way the Americans fancy. So, inevitably questions about ture with the current president of the Jamahiriya a Doctor honoris causa. approximately as many private uni- Kosovo’s ability to run itself arose. RS (and his predecessor below) on the To quote the university: “This once versities in the region than in the Probably the most remarkable development of the year was main page, a prominent scholar and again proves the readiness of entire European Union (minus the first official handshake in Brussels between Kosovar and promoter of academia. Megatrend University to follow the Romania which also has dozens of Serb delegations led by Edita Tahiri and Borko Stefanovic private universities) together (around 7. UFO University (Tirana, world trends of international busi- Albania). No, there is no department ness and educational cooperation.” after utterly frozen relations ever since Serbia rejected the 100, mostly very small institutions: Ahtisaari Plan and the status negotiations failed. This time, Austria 13, Germany 83, UK 1, for extraterrestrial studies here. UFO 3. University of Donja Gorica stands for “Universitas Fabrefacta (UDG) (Montenegro). This uni is a bit however, the catchphrase was “technical issues aimed at Hungary 1, Netherlands 1, Portugal improving lives of citizens”. This was Edita’s script, whereas less than 10, most other countries Optime”, which means as much a more modest about its name , even if university to forge the good. So it’s it aims to be the Oxford of Montengro Borko was taking pride in “bringing the southern province none or single digits), there might be back to the negotiating table”. a bit of an oversupply. the University to Forge the Good and in the process earn Milo As the negotiations in Brussels continued to unfold over the Thus, considering the limited University. Their motto, 3000 stu- Djukanovic, one of its owners (togeth- year, it became more than evident that public opinion in both resources, both in terms of funding dents cannot be wrong (in the er with liberitarian economist countries was heading in a completely different direction to for students to pay tuition and in Albanian version of the website, it is Veselin Vukotic), a bit of extra cash. that of head negotiators. Many in Kosovo had absolutely no terms of potential teachers, the num- 4000 students can’t be wrong). To Oh yes, it is also very orange. faith in the start of the new round of negotiations as it was ber in the Balkans is striking. quote the president: “Welcome to 2. Iliria Royal University widely believed that Kosovo was not ready for them. Some of the institutions are cer- UFO University! Many of you have (Prishtina, Kosovo). A royal universi- Others claimed that these negotiations were designed to tainly on their way to establish them- just started the university studies, ty, and Iliriya? What more can one ask pave the way for Serbia’s EU candidacy status. Well, today it selves as serious places of higher edu- the others are deeply engaged to for? This university is under the transpires that the route passed by Angela Merkel’s doorstep. cation. Many others have a distinctly reach their best, as you are living patronage of the King of Albania. Of An abrupt nein from the Germans made Merkel the most pop- dubious ring. Here is my list of my some of the most intensive years of course the academic (and for that favorite ten private universities in the live. I say convincingly that you matter royal) credentials of Leka, ular international leader in Kosovo and definitely the most Western Balkans (this is not to sug- should feel lucky that this intensity “King of Albanians” are well estab- loathed one in Serbia. gest that these are not fine institu- of taking and treating of the knowl- lished. The university also seems to The appearance of barricades in northern Kosovo showed tions, but presentation and names edge you experiment in lecture engage in a good amount of flag-wav- the potential we all have to head back to the dark times of leave a bit to be desired): rooms of UFO University. We give our ing, American that is. 1990s while Yugoslavia was shattering. The Balkans has once belief, so that each element that must 1. Slobomir P University (Slobomir, again managed to prove that humans often fail to learn the Runners-Up have “a good university” …. Bosnia). This is a university for a (vir- lessons of history, largely because our views of the past are so 6. International University of tual) city. The project of a certain cou- tied up in specific ideological frameworks. And until we all European Vision University Struga (Macedonia).According to the ple known as Slobodan and Mira, no, make an effort to move away from such an approach, we are (Pristina, Kosovo). Basic website, but website, the uni boasts many African- not what you think, Pavlovic (thus the likely to see new episodes of this long-running saga. These European vision. American and Asian-American stu- P. in the name). It’s a part of a barricades, erected to stop Prishtina extending its sovereign- International University of dents, palm trees. The university, in grandiose plan for a city of freedom ty to the north, actually turned out to be a roadblock to Travnik (Bosnia). Best picture of the words of the rector “is one of the in peace, a just down the road from Serbia’s path towards the EU. library most significant historical events for Bijelina. A city of the future has all And it is precisely this point that cheered up Kosovar this city as well as for Republic of one needs from a city of peace, a uni- Albanians. Witnessing Serbia’s hopes being slashed because Top Ten: Macedonia and the region of versity, a TV station and an aqua park of Kosovo was perceived as a victory among the Kosovar pub- Balkan.This University will accom- (Palma, eat your heart out). And lic opinion. Schadenfreude is all we have left. 10. Pan-European University “APE- plish the dreams of the citizens of Dodik is also shaking some hands in But we should welcome 2012 with “the hope that we can IRON” (Banja Luka, BiH). Here the Struga, Macedonia and the wider the city of peace. hope” for change that will benefit us directly and improve our name is pretty good. Apeiron means region and it will contribute to devel- lives, rather than just wallow in the misfortune of others. infinite or limitless in Greek, so this op the city of Struga into “Balkan This blog was originaly published We must understand that our enemy’s defeat is not the same Strasbourg”.” According to the mis- on Florian Bieber's blog. is the infinite Pan European as our victory, even if it often feels like that. 22 Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 Community Focus Ecosovo BIRN Unveils The recycled house Investigative cious dishes, served on their traditional low Albanian sofra table, with ingredients whose carbon cost can be measured in foot- By Elizabeth Gowing steps rather than food miles. Journalists Manual Beyond the garden is another building project, almost completed, which takes their BIRN’s new investigative commitment to the environment even fur- he housing boom across Kosovo is one ther because virtually all the materials for journalism manual reveals of the biggest threats here to the quali- this annexe are recycled. cutting-edge techniques for Tty of our environment. There’s the aes- “The old cowshed here was a dusty jum- thetic impact of all those huge half-finished ble of old stonework and ramshackle con- reporters in Kosovo. buildings with their empty window gaps crete walls,” says Alan Packer, who meas- like staring eye sockets, but there’s also the ured up the site himself to design a new threat to urban planning posed by the can- building which incorporated the existing cerous growth of brickwork and human stonework and replaced concrete with walls habitation without thought for how to man- By Shengjyl Osmani age the need for sewage treatment, clean and wooden galleries mainly of recycled water, electricity, light and air or free move- materials, as well as locally-grown wood for floorboards and stairs where necessary. ment. And even more problematically, each new journalism manual helps “We knew of a few old stone houses in the of those vast half-used homes represents the journalists uncover how many tally of environmental damage from unnec- village which had fallen down, and we came Abeers Minister Vlora Citaku likes essary bricks that have been fired, cement to an agreement with their owners that if to order on official visits and the tech- that has been trundled across the country we cleared and levelled the sites for them we niques needed to which Kosovo politi- (and beyond), and polystyrene insulation could take as much stone as we wanted in cians owns businesses in Panama. boards extracted from dwindling oil sup- exchange. So all this stone is from nearby, Balkan Investigative Reporting plies. and it’s recycled,” says Alan. The warm ter- Network third edition of its investigative But standing in the beautiful new home racotta traditional clay pantiles are journalism manual was unveiled last shared by Mary and Alan Packer and Nazmi reclaimed rather than newly fired too. The week at a workshop attended by journal- and Kadrije Berisha in Runjevë, near wooden beams from the previous hayloft ists and members of civil society. Kaçanik, I realize that of course the hous- have been used to layer in the traditional The book provides reporters with a Author Lawrence Marzouk has, along- ing boom also represents an environmental way between courses of stone as well, and practical guide to navigating the inter- side his colleagues at BIRN, won the opportunity. other pieces came from reclaimed materials net, using the law to gather unpublished UNDP prize for anti-corruption report- Here in the shadow of the towering snow- being sold off by the US base at Bondsteel. documents and harnessing the latest ing in Kosovo in 2010 and 2011. topped Luboten mountain, you can’t help As you walk the wooden gallery that runs technology in the quest for information. The manual and training session were getting a new perspective on man’s relation- around the building you realize you are lit- The guide includes tips ranging from made possible thanks to funds from the ship with the natural world, and the house erally treading - lightly - across layers of detailed explanations of how to get the Dutch NGO Press Unlimited. that the two couples designed and built from Kosovo’s history. most out of Google to the best websites to scratch and moved into this spring shows a In demolishing a wall of an old house use if you are tracking Kosovo business- The manual is available for free online different model of new-build. It was which had stood on the site too, the couple men or companies across the world. at www.birn.eu.com/kosovo. designed to incorporate traditional archi- found that underneath the plaster were tectural features like the elegant glazed çar- adobe mud bricks. “We knew that adobe was dak. It’s heated with a carbon-neutral wood a great insulator,” says Alan, “so we’re stove, and designed to maximize light and going to reuse these bricks in a new wall Bottle Tops for Wheelchairs natural warmth (and minimize the need for we’re putting up”. The craftsmen who have electrically powered equivalents) from its been used for the Runjevë project are all The American University in Kosovo is collecting plastic bottle tops many thoughtfully-placed windows. from nearby and for some of them it’s been a – caps – in a bid to raise enough money through recycling to buy The house has a garden lush with vines, chance to use skills that haven’t been called quince and apple trees, vegetables and herbs on in almost a lifetime of building work. “The wheelchairs. - and compost heap - and Mary cooks deli- guy who helped us with the stone walls is port the bottle tops and wheelchairs in nearly at retirement age both directions. and he said it was such a Currently, AUK Charity Club collects delight to be using the By Shengjyl Osmani plastic caps within AUK campus and it techniques for stone aims to expand the number of collection walling that he’d last used points. right at the beginning of Anyone can contribute to this project he Kosova Cap Project is a charity his working life,” says by starting their own collection points project which aims to help people Alan. “In that way we’re in their homes and workplaces and col- Twith disabilities in Kosovo who lecting plastic caps from their relatives, recycling local knowledge need but cannot afford a wheelchair. as well as local materi- friends and colleagues. AUK Charity Club will transport the als.” Some 250kg of plastic caps need to be caps to Turkey to the recycling company The new annexe will recycled to pay for each wheelchair. Muzaffer Pinarbasi Isletmeleri. enable the couples to offer For more information contact the Funds from this will be used to order accommodation to individ- [email protected] and wheelchairs from Germany. The uals or groups wanting a [email protected] to arrange trans- Turkish Embassy in Kosovo will trans- retreat from Prishtina, a portation to AUK. stroll in a quince orchard, a chance to lift their gaze up to the serenity of the snow-capped peaks, or inspiration for more thoughtful ways of living. I’ve already made my booking.

Elizabeth Gowing is a founder of The Ideas Partnership, a Kosovan NGO working on educa- tional, cultural and envi- ronmental projects. She is also the author of the recently-published, Travels in Blood and Honey; becoming a bee- keeper in Kosovo. She can Y be reached at M theideaspartner- C [email protected] K Dec. 23, 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012 23 Classified Contact Prishtina Insight if you would like to advertise Email [email protected]

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