Prishtina Insight

Opinion: Communitarians of the World Unite (and Decentralise)! October 28 - November 10, 2011 Issue No. 74 www.prishtinainsight.com Price € 1 The 600,000 NEWS Dollar Lobbyists Uniformed Russians Tour North Kosovo Kosovo’s government Barricades has quietly signed a > page 3 deal with one of the BUSINESS Washington’s top Kosovo Doctors in lobbyists for Holidays-for- 600,000 dollars a Prescriptions year after it was Scandal forced to cancel an identical agreement. See Page 3 Blood Feuds Sold as Tickets > page 7 to Belgian Promised Land NEIGHBOURHOOD Saintly sounding NGOs are selling fake documents about deadly vendettas to Albanians seeking Hackers Disrupt asylum in Western Europe. Online Macedonian claiming that feuds with another criminal code. six month period, but they are not By Elvis Nabolli in Shkodra family put their own lives at risk. It lays out detailed procedures allowed to work during their stay. Classes For Greeks Prishtina Insight has discovered for blood feuds, loosely based on Following the liberalization of ran Nikolli, a burly man in that Nikolli’s organization and the principle of an eye-for-an-eye. the visa regime there were few > page 9 his sixties, works as the gen- other similar NGOs routinely sell When someone is killed, the vic- applications for asylum in Feral secretary of “Mother families documents and certifi- tim’s family may take revenge not Western Europe. Teresa’s Missionaries for Peace,” cates saying they could become just against the killer himself but But in September and October INSIDE PRISHTINA an organization that claims to be victims of a fatal vendetta if they against all males in his extended Belgian authorities saw an expo- involved in peace-making between No End to Albanian families caught in a do not receive asylum in Europe. clan. nential growth, prompting warn- cycle of violence based on the As this reporter found, these Because of the loose nature of ings to Tirana that criminal net- Illegal Taxis medieval code of Lek Dukagjin. documents come with a price tag, the rules on retribution, it’s often works might be behind the sudden Although Albanian officials say and they do not necessarily hard to work out who precisely is surge. > page 18 so-called blood feuds - which require a real conflict to exist. in danger. Freddy Rosemont, head of spiked after the collapse of Enver The EU lifted visa requirements Belgium's Asylum and Migration Hoxha’s dictatorship - are declin- An eye for an eye: on Albanians on December 15, 2010, Department, who recently visited ing, Nikolli and his colleagues are since when Albanians have been Tirana to alert local authorities, The Canon of Lek Dukagjin is a allowed easier access to Europe’s said 240 Albanian citizens sought busier than ever. Kosovo’s only English-language Hundreds of Albanians, mostly centuries-old code of conduct cov- borderless Schengen zone. political asylum since the start of newspaper is available: from the northern region of ering every aspect of life, which The new regime allows October, compared to only 44 in Shkodra, have applied for asylum still holds more sway in some Albanian citizens to travel within September. Delivered to in Belgium in the last two months, areas of the countryside than the the EU borders for 90 days within a continues page 2 Your Door North Kosovo Leader Demands Impasse over Skopje From Newsstands Right to Join Serbia Highway across Kosovo The head of the Serbian National Kosovo’s government intends to press Sent To Council, Nebojsa Jovic, says that 50,000 ahead with its plans to build the country’s Your Inbox Kosovo Serbs living in the area north of second highway between Prishtina and the the Ibar river want the territory to become Macedonian border, perhaps as early as part of Serbia and are ready to die for the next year, despite concern from interna- From cause. Beside one of the 18 barricades tional institutions that the country can ill our partners erected by Serbs north... afford it... news page 2 business page 6 see page 16 for more info is supported by: 2 Oct 28 - Nov 10, 2011 news North Kosovo Leader Demands Right to Join Serbia A Serb leader in North Kosovo says the 50,000 Serbs living there want to merge with Serbia, and will not live in an independent Kosovo, whatever the EU and NATO say. is that we are allowed to live inside with a comprehensive agenda Serbia, separated from independ- about the north, and reach out to ent Kosovo. The second is that Serbs living there. By Fatmir Aliu, someone expells us from here, Jovic said that Stefan Fule Mitrovica which believe me, is hard to "means absolutely nothing com- Serbs in northern Kosovo want to be ruled from Belgrade. achieve. Deporting 50,000 people pared with Resolution 1244. This [Serbs] tried through violence and cades on various roads, preventing looks like a big risk,” Jovic added. resolution is stronger than Stefan war to achieve our goals, but we access to the Jarinje and Brnjak he head of the Serbian Northern Kosovo, which borders Fule, and it is more powerful than failed. That was the case pre-1999 border gates. KFOR has since National Council, Nebojsa Serbia, has long been a tense area. the German Chancellor [Angela and afterwards. Now is the time to requested the removal of the barri- TJovic, says that 50,000 Its population, which is almost Merkel] and other statesmen." Kosovo Serbs living in the area talk to each other. Dialogue and an cades. entirely Serbian, does not recog- He was referring to the Security north of the Ibar river want the agreement should be based upon But Jovic says Serbs will keep nise Kosovo’s independence and Council resolution, adopted in 1999, territory to become part of Serbia reality [on the ground] and on the the barricades and are ready to pro- does not trust KFOR and EULEX. which placed Kosovo under the and are ready to die for the cause. readiness of both sides to compro- tect them with their lives. While officially a part of Kosovo, authority of the United Nations. Beside one of the 18 barricades mise,” Jovic said. “If the barricades are taken the four majority-Serb municipali- "What's happening in the north erected by Serbs north of the town Recently, tensions have flared down, EULEX and KFOR will have ties in the north are under the de- is a private war of [Kosovo Prime of Mitrovica, Jovic told Prishtina over the issue of who controls to pass through us," he said. "We facto control of Serbia, which Minister] Hashim Thaci," he Insight that the Albanian-led gov- Kosovo-Serbia checkpoints. From don’t want to threaten anyone. But finances all the main institutions. added. "It’s not a war between the ernment in Prishtina, NATO's Kosovo's independence in 2008 the moment they march on the bar- The EU Enlargement Albanian and Serbian nation." peacekeeping mission, KFOR, and until mid-July, the two main north- ricades, even if they use tanks, Commissioner, Stefan Fule, recent- The head of the Serbian the EU rule of law mission EULEX, ern border gates were controlled they will have to run over us first," ly urged Belgrade to improve its National Council said multi-ethnic needed to understand that Serbs exclusively by EULEX. he said. relations with Prishtina in order to institutions could not function in will never accept Kosovo's inde- But on 25 July the Kosovo gov- "If we find ourselves in a life begin EU accession talks, noting Kosovo. pendence, proclaimed in 2008. ernment deployed special police to threatening situation, then of that the area north of the Ibar river “No one can force us love each “They cannot force us to be part these two checkpoints to enforce a course we will have to defend our- remained part of Kosovo. other," he said. "The Albanians of the independent Kosovo. This recent trade ban on goods entering selves with other means, but I hope The European Commission, don't love us and I don’t like them, will never happen," he said. the country from Serbia. this will never happen,” he added. meanwhile, recently urged the gov- but don’t hate them either. "There are two options. The first Kosovo Serbs then erected barri- ernment in Prishtina to come up "It’s a fact that in the past we Blood Feuds Sold as Tickets to Belgian Promised Land from page 1 country is staggering, considering framework on which to issue such certificates about blood feuds are "If this trend continues, by the REPUBLIKA E SHQIPERISE that the Shkodra region’s police documents and in most cases they not so scared of the police clamp- Misioni i Pajtimit Mbarekombetar end of the month the number of “NENE TEREZA“ spokeswoman, Farbardha Celepia, are fakes, because the people who down. Albanian asylum seekers [in Adresa: Shtepia e Ushtarakeve, Kati 3, Shkoder- ALBANIA Tel. +355692633015 says only about 240 people in the received them were not involved Gjin Mekshi, chair of the Nr.173/11. Prot Shkoder, me 16/10/2011 Belgium] will reach some 400," area are involved in blood feuds. in any conflict or vendetta,” police Nationwide Reconciliation VERTETIM Rosemont said in a joint press con- Me ane te te cilit vertetojme se z. Elvis NABOLLI, i datelindjes 11 shtator 1986, “In recent years this problem has spokeswoman Alma Katragjini Mission, “Mother Teresa,” anoth- lindur e banues ne Shkoder, eshte rregjistruar prane Misionit sone si person i rrezikuar nga fenomeni i gjakmarrjes. ference in Tirana with the head of Xhaxhai i Elvisit, Faiku eshte kthyer per pushime nga Greqia ku eshte emigrant been minimized,” Celepia said.

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