Mess: Court ruling keeps political crisis going. PAGE 4 August 29-September 11, 2014 #140 Price 1€ Prishtina Insight Burek Yoga Nightclubs Beer Trileqe Makiato PI Guide: The people and places that make this city great. PAGES 7-19 PageTwo2 August 29-September 11, 2014 Prishtina Insight HOW TO FUND EXTREMISM - 3. Create fake work contracts AND NOT GET Create 10 fictitious contracts for workers in Afghanistan and/or Iraq, where thousands of CAUGHT Kosovars have taken lucrative jobs as contractors. 1. Start a fake business 4. Create a web page for a fictitious company that works internationally. Include staf bios and job Open accounts in Kosovo vacancies for extra credibility. Contacts in Kosovo present contracts while opening bank accounts. A bank ofcer likely will do little more than check the company name against a black list, and perform a Google search to verify that the company on the contract exists. The existence of the website will provide sufcient proof of this. 2. Prishtina Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Open a Middle East bank account Insight BZchVZHijYZciZkZ!ÑghiÒddg!&%%%%!Eg^h]i^cV!@dhdkd PHONE: (-&%(-')((*-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:CViZ Open a company bank account account in the IVWV` STAFF:?ZiVM]VggV!BVgXjhIVccZg!KVaZg^Z=de`^ch!EZig^i8daaV`j! Middle East, such as in Yemen or Afghanistan. EVg^bDaajg^!CZ`iVgOd\_Vc^VcY6g^_ZiVAV_`V#DESIGN:IgZbWZaViEg^h]i^cV >ch^\]i^hhjeedgiZYWni]ZCdglZ\^Vc:bWVhhn!GdX`Z[ZaaZg7gdi]Zgh;jcY Deposit 50,000 euros per month as income. VcYi]Z7Va`Vc>ckZhi^\Vi^kZGZedgi^c\CZildg`# Prishtina Insight August 29-September 11, 2014 3 inancial crimes expert Bashkim Zeqiri recently explained to FPI how a terrorist group in the Middle East could hypothetically 5. bring money into Kosovo under the nose of authorities. Make payments Monthly payments of 5,000 euros to 10 Kosovars begin coming in, appearing as regular salaries for from the editor civilian contractors. Transactions won’t arouse suspicion of the banks or authorities. Fighting terror means cutting of the money, too The arrest of 43 suspected Muslim on the books to properly monitor radicals by Kosovo Police in Au- fnancial transactions, it isn’t put- gust seemed intended to send the ting them into use, Zeqiri says. message that authorities are seri- A combination of a lack of per- ous about fighting terrorism. Ac- sonnel and cooperation among the cording to the Kosovo Intelligence entities tasked with monitoring f- Agency, more than 130 Kosovars nancial transactions – the Kosovo have gone to fight in Syria or Iraq Intelligence Agency, Kosovo Police - mostly young men fighting for and the Financial Intelligence Unit radical Muslim groups including – has created almost an open door the Islamic State. Naturally, this has for terrorist organizations, among raised concerns of what they’ll do others, to bring money into Ko- when they come home. The arrests sovo. While a group such as the Is- 6. suggest some may be interested in lamic State or al-Qaeda might raise turning on their own country. some red fag if it, say, tried to wire These ar- 10 million euros from a charity on a Make the money disappear re st s , a lon g government watch list, it takes rela- with troubling tively little efort or sophistication Simply start withdrawing cash. Cash transactions under reports about to move money without arousing 10,000 euros are not actively monitored. But to be extra a little boy re- suspicion and make it disappear in safe, buying and reselling property is an easy way to portedly taken CViZ Kosovo. The large number of Koso- by his father to Tabak vars working as contractors in Af- launder large sums of money. fight in Syria or ghanistan and Iraq has made things :Y^idg"^c"8]^Z[ the Facebook easier to disguise transactions as le- post showing gitimate payments for work. a young man The good news it is also easy to beating a prisoner, are leading many uncover such transactions. It re- in Kosovo to do a lot of soul searching quires doing a bit of due diligence. about a problem that dates back to In Zeqiri’s experience, it’s even the end of the war. This problem isn’t as simple as performing a Google unique to Kosovo, and the answers search to realize that an entity con- of how we got here are complicated. nected to a transaction is suspect. But it’s safe to assume that signifcant When I chatted with Zeqiri about amounts of money have helped pro- this, he pointed out that Kosovo duce so many young people eager nevertheless is doing a better job - and willing to take up arms for fright- and has better laws - than some of ening groups like the Islamic State. its neighbors when it comes to de- It’s also shockingly easy to bring this tecting suspect transactions. The money into Kosovo. trouble for Kosovo, which also isn’t Bashkim Zeqiri, an analyst for alone in facing the threat of home- 7. BIRN, this newspaper’s publisher, grown terrorism, is that the stakes is a financial crimes expert who are higher. Kosovo is getting its has done stints with the Kosovo Po- footing as a country, and is fghting START SPENDING! lice, the Financial Intelligence Unit for international recognition and and the private sector. He recently against the perception that it’s a ji- Whether you want to keep a terror cell fed and noted in an op-ed on Kallxo.com hadist narco-state. As such Kosovo that millions of euros have entered has a greater burden to show that its clothed, fund Sharia law classes - the money is Kosovo from the Middle East with serious about tackling terrorism. safely out of the reach of authorities. little to no scrutiny by the authori- And that means more than just ties. While Kosovo has the laws making some high-profle arrests. 4 August 29-September 11, 2014 Prishtina Insight Nation COURT 83 days and counting since Kosovo held national elections on June 8. Meanwhile, the country remains under the caretaker government of PM Hashim Thaci. No clear path around political logjam <dkieaVchidgZhiVgi YVc\ZgdjhedlZgeaVci Constitutional Court ruling fails to help resolve deadlock that has left Kosovo without a By Paulina Nushi and and Supply Company Valerie Hopkins (KEDS) said imports to government for nearly three months. cover the energy Kosovo The government plans to is not making for itself are have the Kosovo A power projected between 20-25 plant up and running by million euros only for By Nektar Zogjani not nominate a candidate for Prime the end of the year despite 2014. As a result, a price Minister until parliament has put having not fully investigat- hike of 5 percent is to go Three months on since June’s gener- its house in order. ed why a hydrogen tank into efect in September. al elections and Kosovo is no closer “Constituting the Assembly will exploded at the 40-year- The last time prices rose, to getting a permanent government. pave the way for the next steps in old facility in June, killing in early 2013, about 1,000 With an opposition bloc holding order to establish new [governing] two people and seriously people protested. the most seats in parliament on one institutions,” Arber Vallahiu, Jah- injuring another. The plant produces side, and the former ruling Demo- jaga’s adviser, told Koha Ditore. The accident and 35 percent of Kosovo’s cratic Party of Kosovo, PDK - with the Only when Jahjaga nominates another in 2008, which energy by burning lignite weight of the highest court behind it a Prime Minister is there legally im- took the life of another coal, which is considered - on another, the political tug of war posed deadline to form a govern- worker, appear to have the dirtiest kind of energy has yet to produce a real winner. ment - within 60 days. Once that changed little about because it emits more A ruling released on Tues- time limit expires, new elections how things are done at greenhouse gases than day by the Constitutional Court, must be called. the plant. There are no other kinds of fossil fuels. concerning the election of the An earlier Constitutional Court signs that authorities are Located just 10 kilom- speaker of parliament, has not of- Ruling means that Thaci's PDK, as taking concrete steps to eters from Prishtina, the fered a path forward - and lef many the party that won the most votes prevent another catas- plant is considered one of scratching their heads. in the June elections, has the right trophe from occurring or the worst polluters in Eu- The court threw out the elec- to name the Prime Minister nomi- are considering shutting rope, and last year inter- tion in July of the opposition lead- nee, which will presumably be down the plant before national donors pledged er Isa Mustafa as Speaker and said Thaci himself. If he fails to form a 2017 as planned. 154 million Euros to close that the PDK - as the largest single government, Jahjaga can nomi- The explosion caused it down. According to party parliament - had the sole nate someone of her own choosing. damage to infrastructure World Bank research, 835 right to nominate a candidate. The two Constitutional Court worth 12.4 million euros, people die annually be- But the court ofered no alterna- rulings have dealt blows to the op- plus 180,000 euros in the cause of pollution-related tive solution should Hashim Thaci’s position coalition, led by Ramush municipality of Obiliq. A illnesses, and it takes fve PDK fail to get its Speaker elected.