Prishtina Insight Has Discovered
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Opinion: Ramush Haradinaj - Justice Delayed is Justice Denied May 11 - 24, 2012 Issue No. 88 www.prishtinainsight.com Price € 1 NEWS Socialists British Airways Flex New “Recognises” Muscles in Kosovo’s Independence Post-Election > page 4 Serbia NEWS Once a marginal force in Limaj Found Not politics, Ivica Dacic's Guilty in the Klecka Socialists have doubled their seats in parliament Case by profiting from the > page 5 weaknesses of their NEWS rivals and playing the nationalist card. Marty Testimony See Page 2-3 in Medicus Case Undecided ‘Salary’ For Mayor’s Widow > page 5 FEATURE Albania Politicians Splash Out on US Causes Confusion Lobbying The widow of the murdered Mayor of Suhareke has continued to receive his salary since his death in 2002 - while other widows of mayors receive nothing, Prishtina Insight has discovered. > page 15 have never addressed this issue. the flat in central Suhareke given level. INSIDE PRISHTINA By Lulzim Ahmeti Meanwhile relatives of two to her by the municipality follow- Since then his family has con- other late mayors, Ismet Rraci in ing her husband’s death. tinued to receive his salary of 360 “Unnecessary” and he widow of murdered Klina and Fadil Ferati in Istog, She earns a total of 22,000 euro a euro a month, costing the local mayor Uke Bytyci, herself a have received nothing. year while her two sons, based in budget around 30,000 euro since Already Patched Up Tleading politician, has con- Attempts in the Suhareka’s local Switzerland, earned 96,000 euro 2002. tinued to receive his salary since assembly to overturn the pay- and 40,000 euro a year in 2011. It would have amounted to – Kosovo’s his death in 2002 ments in 2008 and again in late She was fined 200 euro in around 40,000 euro had the pay- Spaghetti Junction Since 2002, following a decision April were rejected. January this year for initially fail- ments not been suspended in 2008 of the local assembly, she has Kimete Bytyci became an MP in ing to declare her wealth to the and 2009, when the municipal > page 18 received a total of around 30,000 July 2011 for the Democratic agency. treasury cast doubts on the legali- euro. The family was also given a League of Kosovo, LDK. ty of the payments. flat in town. She is also member of the A Widows’ Pension The local authority decision in The decision by the municipali- Parliamentary Committee for 2002 to keep paying the salary ty of Suhareke in that year stated Human Rights, Gender Equality, Mayor Bytyci, who also was states that it is based on the that the mayor’s salary would be Missing Persons and Petitions. president of the LDK branch in “Regulation for Municipal Self- Kosovo’s only English-language transferred to the family until the According to Kimete’s most Suhareka, was killed on October Governance in Kosovo 2000/45 and newspaper is available: government ruled what pensions recent declaration of assets to the 27, 2002, while passing through the Statute of the Municipality”. such families should receive. Anticorruption Agency, she has a the village of Leshan, celebrating Delivered to But government institutions home worth 200,000 euro as well as his recent victory at municipal continues page 2 Your Door Sink or Swim for Flotation of Roma Eviction Sullies From Newsstands Kosovo’s Marble Wealth? Belgrade’s Image across Kosovo UK-based Fox Marble Company has More than a thousand Roma, many from Sent To drawn up plans to exploit Kosovo’s estimat- Kosovo, have quietly packed their belong- Your Inbox ed 16billion euro of marble reserves. ings and got on buses that drove them far But plans for the company to float in from their old homes in Belgrade in the November, raising 13 million euro, appear last few days. From to be on hold, despite backing for the plan At least half were not sure where they our partners of famous UK businessmen... were being taken... economy page 7 news page 6 see page 16 for more info is supported by: 2 May 11 - 24, 2012 news ‘Salary’ For Mayor’s Socialists Flex New Muscles Widow Causes Confusion in Post-Election Serbia from page 1 blies have no legal right to delegate Once a marginal force in politics, Ivica Dacic's Socialists have doubled their salaries or permanent pensions to anyone. seats in parliament by profiting from the weaknesses of their rivals and In addition to the salary, the decision also Kimete Bytyci told Prishtina Insight: commits the town to protect the name and “We have been given the status of a fami- playing the nationalist card. the works of Bytyci. ly of a martyr.” “Uke Bytyci is declared posthumously She confirmed that they had received Honorary Mayor of the Municipality of 360 euro from the municipality of Suhareke,” it reads. Suhareka, and had been given an apart- By Bojana Barlovac “The Picture of Uke Bytyci shall be ment in the city. placed in the Office of the Mayor, the On the widow’s payment, she said: “The Deputy Mayor, the Chief Executive Officer, municipality is obliged to proceed with erbia's Socialists celebrated their sur- Directors of Departments, and the this payment until the assembly decides prise success in the May 6 general, local Municipal Assembly room.” differently.” Sand presidential elections in front of The decision also states that the town’s She added that following the murder of party headquarters on Sunday with fire- Culture House will be named after him and her husband she was forced to encourage works, pistol shots and trumpets. that a statue of the former mayor will be her eldest son, Valon, to work in It turned out that the party, once led by erected in front of the Municipal Switzerland. Slobodan Milosevic, was the only major Assembly. party to have any real reason to celebrate the The current Mayor of Suhareka, Blerim Other Cases Treated Differently results. Kuci, said continued payment of the may- In the biggest upset of the general election oral salary to the family was legal as it was On April 24, 2001, Ismet Rraci, chair- the party has emerged with 45 of the 250 a decision of the assembly, and the funds man of the municipal assembly in Klina seats in parliament. for the salary come from the Mayor’s budg- and of the LDK Branch in the municipali- Its leader, Ivica Dacic, also did well to come et line. ty, was killed while going to work. His third in the presidential election, taking 15.3 “This support of 360 euro per month for killer has never been found. per cent of the vote. the wife and children will be paid until the Officials of Klina municipal assembly The ruling Democratic Party won 23.2 per central authorities regulate the issue,” told Prishtina Insight that Rraci’s family cent while the opposition Progressives won A spoilt Serbian ballot with a modern-art twist Kuci said. receives no financial support. 24.7 per cent of the vote in general elections. He added that the 2002 municipal deci- The family of the former Mayor of Three reasons have emerged as to why the “However a number of sectors, both public sion remained binding on him as mayor. Istog, Fadil Ferati, who passed away in party of the discredited former Yugoslav and non-state and the EU, were involved in “This decision can only be repealed by office after a serious illness, also receives strongman has succeeded in rising from the this,” Milic told Prishtina Insight. the municipal assembly if it believes it is no financial support from the municipali- ashes. Dacic has also been pushing social issues appropriate,” said Kuci, from the Alliance ty. The first is that it simply listened to the that dovetail with EU policies, including gen- for the Future of Kosovo, AAK. Mayor Haki Rugova, also Vice-President pulse of the people. The second lies in the der equality and gay rights. The gay rights The 2002 decision to continue financial of the LDK, said Istog municipality has no weakness of its opponents, as both the activist Boris Milicevic joined the party and support for the family of the former mayor, legal basis to provide financial support biggest parties, the opposition Progressives soon become a member of the party’s Main according Sali Asllanaj, chair of the for the family of a former mayor. and ruling Democrats, are widely believed to Board. Municipal Assembly at the time, was a “If we provided support it would be have disappointed their core voters. Slavica Djukic Dejanovic of the Socialists, “political solution of the time”. against the law,” he said, urging that the The third factor is Serbia’s overall politi- meanwhile, became the second woman in According to Asllanaj, the decision also issue be regulated by law. cal culture in which reformers tend to lose Serbian history to head the country’s parlia- obtained a “green light” from the former “However, support [for the family] is and the status-quo options do well. ment. UNMIK Administrator in Suhareka. provided individually because he made a Although Dacic has been working hard to Asllanaj noted that although this salary tremendous contribution,” Rugova added. A changed party: distance the party from Milosevic’s legacy, was paid regularly for several years, it was Besnik Osmani, Secretary of the he has never apologized for it. suspended in 2008 and 2009, when the treas- Ministry of Local Government Milosevic’s death in a detention unit of the Zarko Korac, psychologist and deputy ury questioned the legal basis for it.