Kosovo Businesses Spar Over Faded Spa Police Convoy from Page 1 Sprayed with Bullets
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Opinion: The Kingdom of Looting September 14 - 27, 2012 Issue No. 95 www.prishtinainsight.com Price € 1 NEWS How to Medicus Clinic ‘Part of Bigger Buy an EU International Chain’ Citizenship > page 4 NEWS Stalin would not have Limaj May be been amused. Indicted in October A man named Vladimir, > page 5 apparently the Soviet BUSINESS dictator’s great-grand- Fox Marble is son, stands at the Kosovo’s First threshold of acquiring London Floatation a Romanian passport > page 7 and with it, the right to CULTURE work within the EU. ‘Black Sheep’ Disturbs Albania See Pages 12 - 13 Art Scene > page 14 Kosovo Businesses INTERNATIONAL Does the CIA step up drone strikes Spar Over Faded Spa during Muslim Kosovo’s top spa resort in Yugoslav times is crumbling away today, and its future remains unclear after a series of failed festivals? privatizations and court cases. attempt to offload the huge com- men, Ekrem Lluka, was declared Gani Dreshaj, owner of Kosova By Parim Olluri plex, including 26 acres of land, winner in the privatisation of the Invest, is a business partner of four hotels and a spa. Peja baths after his firm, Dukagjini Xhavit Haliti, a senior figure in espite interest from some of But a final decision is being SHPK, offered 8.6 million euro. the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo’s most powerful delayed by PAK, which is current- But Lluka later withdrew the Kosovo, PDK. Dbusinesses, Banja e Pejes, a ly without a board. bid, claiming that he had received But he was unable to provide once popular spa retreat near Peja, Meanwhile Prishtina Insight deaths treats from three men, all of PAK with the funds on time, and > page 15 is still under state ownership and has learnt that one of the disquali- whom were found guilty of extor- the agency disqualified his offer. deprived of much needed invest- fied bidders, the German firm, tion the following year. PAK then offered the second ment. The Kosovo Privatisation Rutinvest, is considering a legal PAK then put the hotel back up highest bidder, which had offered 7 Agency, PAK, in August announced challenge. for sale in 2010. A consortium of million euro, then the third, which that the Prishtina-based firm two firms, Kosova Invest, and a offered 5 million euro, the opportu- Kosovo’s only English-language Intering had offered 6.1 million Firms vie for spa: German firm, Wefa Health nity to buy the business. But both newspaper is available: euro to buy the publicly owned Management GmbH, was then suc- pulled out. “Hotel Onix Peja Baths and Ilixhe”. In November 2009, one of cessful in securing the bid, after Delivered to This was part of the fourth Kosovo’s most powerful business- offering just under 8.2 million euro. continues page 2 Your Door Kosovo Imam Laughs Off Kosovo Marks Full From Newsstands Al-Qaeda Links Independence With a Shrug across Kosovo Everyone knows him in Mitrovica. They Apart from the teams of police officers Sent To greet him, hug him, sometimes they even dotted at major intersections, securing safe Your Inbox offer him sweets. passage for the diplomats and dignitaries But Ekrem Avdiu, an imam at a contro- gathering in Prishtina, there was nothing versial mosque in this divided Kosovo city, unusual about Monday, September 10 – sup- From is also known to the American secret serv- posedly a key date in Kosovo’s history. our partners ices who claim he has links to Islamic Everyone went to work - even the civil news extremism... page 3 news servants who had been.... page 6 see page 16 for more info is supported by: 2 September 14 -27, 2012 news Kosovo Businesses Spar Over Faded Spa Police Convoy from page 1 Sprayed With Bullets Intering, the highest bidder in North Kosovo in the most recent sale, also bid on this occasion, although A Kosovo Police officer was injured Prishtina Insight was unable to when masked men sprayed a convoy establish how much it offered. Meanwhile Dreshaj filed an of EULEX and Kosovo Police vehicles indictment at the Special with bullets. Chamber of the Supreme Court, contesting PAK’s deci- sion to disqualify his firm. The 500,000 euro he had deposited when bidding for the enterprise By Fatmir Aliu has not been returned. Dreshaj is a business partner with Haliti, who is deputy n EU and Kosovo police convoy was chairman of the Kosovo assem- attacked last Friday morning in the bly, in the firms “Macrometal” Anorthern Serb-run part of Kosovo, and “Kosovo Clinic when a group of masked persons opened fire Management”. on them. He told Prishtina Insight: The assault, according to the police in “I’ve engaged an American northern Kosovo, took place at around 9am lawyer to deal with the case. on the road between Zupce and Zubin Potok PAK’s decision was unjust and during a routine joint patrol of the two forces. I’ll go to the end.” The court has “One Kosovo Police (KP) officer was slight- yet to issue a verdict. ly injured and a KP and a EULEX vehicle Earlier this year, the baths were damaged [after] a number of masked were again put up for sale, persons appeared on a road between Zupce receiving just two offers, the Both are part owners of the and Zubin Potok this morning [and] opened first for 4 million euro and the International Village, built on fire on the vehicles,” a EULEX press release second, from Intering, for 3 mil- the outskirts of Prishtina, said. lion euro. which is also owned by Dino Kosovo Police said that the injured officer, But PAK’s board annulled the Asanaj, the former chairman of of Serbian ethnicity, is out of danger and was tender. “We refused the offer of the PAK board. He died in suspi- injured by broken glass, not by bullets. this company [Intering] as it cious circumstances in June, The northern part of Kosovo, which bor- was too low,” Naser Osmani, a although police said he commit- ders Serbia, has long been prone to violence. PAK board member, explained. ted suicide. The local population, almost entirely com- The process was then Albert Shoshi, an official at Bathers relax in the waters of Banja e Pejes, despite the building’s poor state prised of Serbs, does not recognise Kosovo's launched for the fourth time in Intering, said that they were independence, or the ethnic Albanian-led May. awaiting the decision of the German institutions and those which were illegally occupied. government in Prishtina. In August, the agency report- PAK board on either refusing or in the European Union to “PAK accepts that it hasn’t Last week, three explosions were recorded ed that it had received only one approving their offer. understand this,” he added. been able to gain ownership of in the zone, targeting the property of a valid offer, for 6.1 million euro, He noted that his company “We have also engaged a the entire area of this enter- Kosovo Serb Police officer, the director of the again from Intering, owned by was now competing for the lawyer in Kosovo and are await- prise,” spokesman Ylli Kaloshi hospital in northern Mitrovica and a senior brothers Xhevdet and Arben third time for the enterprise. ing adequate instruction as to said. official of the Serbian Progressive Party, Shoshi, businessmen from Peja. PAK said a decision on how we should proceed. He added that PAK had man- SNS, in Leposavic. The EU Special Representative to Kosovo, Intering’s offer would be made “We have been very interest- aged to retake some other Samuel Zbogar and the Head of EULEX, when a new board of the agency ed in buying the hotel and had a usurped land on the site and is approved. No date has yet good team of people from Xavier Bout de Marnhac, condemned the lat- Baths still open: had brought the thief to justice. been set for the long delayed Kosovo and other companies in est incident in northern Kosovo. “The usurper [of the land] Despite its decrepit decision. Germany. "I thoroughly condemn this act of wanton has been convicted and sen- state, Banja e Pejes Tomas Witsad, manager of “Based on what will happen, violence. Lives were put at risk. It illustrates tenced to one year in jail,” remains open to the public. the German company we would again be very inter- and reinforces the need for greater rule of Kaloshi added. For an entrance fee of Rutinvest, told Prishtina ested in buying the hotel,” he law in this area of Kosovo," Zbogar said. just 2 euro visitors can Insight, that they had employed concluded. “The agency has sent several The head of EULEX said the perpetrators enjoy hot pools, sauna, a lawyer to look at why they requests to the relevant institu- had to be brought to justice, and appealed to massages and swimming were disqualified from the most Usurped land query: tions in this municipality - the all those who had information relating to this pools. recent bid. municipality and police - to stop incident to contact the police. The complex is about “We were promised a reason As part of the hotel sale, 26 usurpers damaging the proper- Northern Kosovo is widely seen as being 16km from the town of for our elimination but this has acres of land are also on offer. ty but the necessary measures under de facto control of so-called parallel Peja along the main road to never happened and we do not But Prishtina Insight has dis- to preserve the property from institutions, which are funded by Serbia.