Opinion: Kerestinec Verdict Shows Double Standards in Croatian Judiciary November 9 - 22, 2012 Issue No. 99 www.prishtinainsight.com Price € 1 NEWS Kosovo Law Disputes ‘Backing Away’ Raise Questions From Closing Over PTK Buyers Polluting Plant > page 3 A conference to lure NEWS donors to fund renew- Kosovo Returnees able energy projects in Still Face Obstacles, Kosovo has been post- Says OSCE poned because two organisers, the European > page 4 Commission and the NEWS World Bank, believe that PM’s Relative to the government is trying Head Diaspora to extend the life of the country’s oldest and dirt- Commission iest coal power plant, a > page 6 top European ... PROFILE See Page 7 Serbia’s Clowning PM Keeps Close Eye on Power Kosovo Govt Paid For > page 9 President’s US Meetings Atifete Jahjaga’s office denies paying a lobbying firm to help set up meetings in the US - but the company’s disclosure to the US Justice Department reveals that Kosovo’s government paid it to do just that. CULTURE Patton Boggs reported to the US and assisted in arranging meetings Patton Poggs signed with the Jobless Ethnic By Parim Olluri Justice Department that it earned with governmental officials.” Kosovo’s Foreign Affairs Ministry 191,753 US dollars (150,017 euro) Jahjaga visited the US twice in in 2011. Albanians “Let from the government of Kosovo for 2011, in September and December. This was for “advisory services ystery remains over its efforts over six months, ending She met President Obama and on legal and advocacy issues to be Down by the State” whether the government Mof Kosovo paid a December 31, 2011. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, used for expansion of bilateral > pages 10-11 Washington lobby firm to help The firm reported contacting among other senior officials. and multilateral relations”. President Atifete Jahjaga meet top U.S officials and Congressional Patton Boggs did not reply to The Foreign Ministry did not US officials, including Barack staffers about bilateral relations Prishtina Insight’s request for respond to an inquiry from Obama, in 2011. between Kosovo and the United more information about the lobby- Prishtina Insight. While the Kosovo President’s States. ing activities disclosed in the Menderes Ibra, a spokesman for office says it didn’t spend money to The two-sentence report, which report, so it is unclear which meet- the minister, Bedri Hamza, said Kosovo’s only English-language secure the US meetings, a compa- is routine and required by ings it helped arrange. only the office of the President newspaper is available: ny disclosure filed with the US gov- American law, noted that the firm It is also unclear whether the could release such information. ernment suggests that the Kosovo “supported the visit of the report is connected with a 600,000 Delivered to government did. President of Kosovo in Washington US dollar a year contract that continues page 2 Your Door Developers Ravage Albania’s Kosovo Mulls Fate of From Newsstands Historic Landmarks Milosevic-era Cathedral across Kosovo On August 16, the people of the southern In 1995, University of Prishtina students Sent To Albanian town of Korca woke up to an woke up to find building work going on Your Inbox unpleasant surprise. next to the main library. But it wasn’t a Overnight, one of the city’s most impor- new faculty, dormitory or even a new tant landmarks, a villa known as the “Flag library. From House,” had been flattened. Orders had arrived from Belgrade that our partners In the same house in 1916... Prishtina was to get... neighbourhood pages 12-13 culture page 14 see page 16 for more info is supported by: 2 November 9 - 22, 2012 news Kosovo Govt Paid For President’s US Meetings from page 1 Foreign Ministry asked the Agency of Public Procurement to The President’s office denied allow a one-source tender. The spending any money on US lobby- ministry justified this by saying ing. that the contract required confi- “We haven’t paid any company dentiality. to arrange any meetings for During Jahjaga’s December President Jahjaga during her vis- 2011 visit, in addition to meeting its to the US,” Arber Vllahiu, a Clinton, she also met the then spokesman for President Jahjaga, Undersecretary of Defense, said. Michele Flournoy, Attorney Vllahiu added that presidential General Eric Holder and FBI visits are held according to the Director Robert Mueller. official protocol in which the She also met Senators Mark respective embassies are engaged. Kirk and Ross Johnson, and for- The Kosovo embassy in mer Secretary of State Madeleine Washington did not respond when Albright, whose company is also asked about Patton Boggs report. seeking to buy a stake in Post and Telecommunications of Kosovo, Troubled contract: PTK. Earlier, in September, Jahjaga The Kosovo government initial- met President Obama at a recep- ly hired Patton Boggs in tion for world leaders held at the September 2010. UN General Assembly. She also The government canceled the met former US President Bill deal in November that year after Clinton at his Clinton Global Prishtina Insight revealed that it Initiative conference. Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga met US President Barack Obama in September 2011. appeared to violate Kosovo’s law During the same visit in on public procurement, as no bid- September, Jahjaga also met in Kosovo. He was the US special According to the President’s expand diplomatic relations with ding process had occurred. Frank Wisner, Patton Boggs’ for- representative on talks about the office, Jahjaga invited Wisner to countries with which Kosovo has But the deal was quietly eign affairs adviser. status of Kosovo before it join an initiative called “Friends no official relations. Wisner revived in July 2011, when the Wisner has long been involved declared independence in 2008. of Kosovo” whose stated goal is to reportedly signed on. Brussels Lauds 'Honest' Kosovo-Serbia Talks Ashton praises Hashim Thaci and Ivica Dacic for agreeing to continue Kosovo-Serbia talks and implement deals agreed earlier. So far, the two sides have reached deals on freedom of move- ment, university diplomas, region- By Bojana Barlovac al representation and on trade. But not all the deals have been imple- mented. Under the terms of the IBM osovo and Serbian leaders agreement, Kosovo and Serbian held “open and honest” customs and police officers will Ktalks, focusing on different stand under one roof once the ways of normalizing relations agreement is put into operation. between the two sides, the EU According to the press release Foreign Policy Chief, Catherine from Brussels, both sides also Ashton, said on Wednesday. agreed to form a joint technical “We agreed to continue our working group that will prepare a work on full implementation of all feasibility study for the construc- agreements and welcomed results tion of a highway from Nis in of a joint working group on the Serbia to the Kosovo capital, integrated crossings management Prishtina. [IBM] that took place on November Talks also focused on the 5-6,” Ashton said after the two Serbian-run northern sector of leaders met in Brussels on Kosovo. Wednesday. Thaci said after the meeting that EU-mediated talks in Belgium Another meeting between Hashim Thaci and Ivica Dacic. Kosovo had insisted that Serbia started in March 2011, three years make it’s financing of Serbian-run Kosovo Serbs want to know what health authorities, post offices and where 18 police officers and 10 after Kosovo declared its inde- “parallel institutions” in the north Serbia is financing,” Dacic told the schools. activists from the opposition pendence from Serbia in 2008. transparent. Serbian broadcaster B92. This was only the second time Vetevendosje movement were Serbia has vowed never to recog- Dacic said this was not a prob- According to him, this did not that Dacic and Thaci had sat at the injured in clashes. nise Kosovo as a state, but says it is lem as Serbia itself wanted to mean abolition of the so-called same table following a historic According to Dacic, the next open to deals that improve daily make its financial aid to Kosovo parallel institutions in the north encounter on October 19 in meeting with Thaci will be in lives on both sides of the [from Serbs transparent. of Kosovo. Brussels. December, possibly before Serbia's point of view unrecog- “Serbia has nothing to hide. The The parallel institutions in The first meeting prompted December 10, when the European nised] border. international community and question include town councils, nationalist protests in Prishtina, Council meets for a session. Y M C +381 38 602042, +377 44 243367, +386 49 243367 K news November 9 - 22, 2012 3 Law Disputes Raise Questions Over Editor’s Word Kosovo Telecom Buyers The Gentler Three of five pre-approved bidders competing to buy PTK are linked to cases that include accusations of bribery, fraud or conspiracy. Giant By Nate Tabak By Parim Olluri hree of the five compa- eople out and about in Prishtina on nies vying to purchase the eve of the US presidential elec- TKosovo’s state telecom Ptions could have gotten their pictures company are involved in legal taken with Barack Obama and Mitt disputes that raise questions Romney. about whether they have the It was all thanks to the American right to buy a stake in the coun- Embassy, which took around cardboard try’s most profitable public cutouts of the now-former candidates to enterprise. Prishtina’s familiar sites, including Mother In December, the govern- Teresa Boulevard and the National Library. ment is expected to announce Naturally, the embassy posted a photo- the winning buyer of Post and graphic chronicle of the affair on Telecommunications of Facebook.