March 14-27, 2014 l #130 l Price 1€. Prishtina Sub-par pitch: Investor apathy: Prishtina isn’t Few want to put ready for FIFA their money into Insight football. PAGE 2 Kosovo. PAGE 4 KOSOVO SERBIAN SERBIA RAILwaYS ACTUAL TICKET SERBIA’S ROGUE RAIL Why no one seems to care about Belgrade’s unauthorized Kosovo train service. PAGE 7 Culture: A love l Opinion: Kosovars are wary of tribunal - with good reason. PAGE 11 affair with Kosovo’s l Region: Media target Dacic ahead carbohydrates. PAGE 16 of snap elections. PAGE 12 2 n March 14-27, 2014 n Prishtina Insight PageTwoPRISHTINA STADIUM “The stadium is in a Why Prishtina isn’t ready for FIFA play miserable condition. There are no Even though it ended in a draw, the March 5 friendly also likely will be held in Mitrovica. The reason is pretty toilets for spectators because the match with Haiti was a big win for Kosovo football. To simple: Prishtina’s stadium is well below national and club has transformed the premises many, though, it may have seemed odd that Kosovo’s international standards, said Eroll Salihu, secretary of into business areas and now in debut in FIFA-sanctioned play happened in Mitrovica Kosovo’s football federation. Complicating matters is all over the stadium there are - not Prishtina. The next friendly match versus the the the fact that the stadium is run by the city’s football restaurants that rent the spaces.” Turkish national team, Fatih Terim, expected in May, club, Prishtina. — Petrit Collaku — EROLL SALIHU from the editor Sending Moscow a message Even before Russia invaded expect increased interaction with Ukraine, it seemed almost laugh- Russian business and society …. We able that Kosovo would do any- also cannot ban companies from PEJA STADIUM thing to line the pockets of an offering cheap prices in public ten- oligarch linked to Vladimir Putin. ders based on their ethnicity.” But In the last Prishtina Insight we Selimi’s reasoning was flawed. ADEM JASHARI STADIUM (MITROVICA) – CaPACITY reported that Kosovo was poised The problem has nothing to do to do just that: KEK was preparing with ethnicity. The issue is whether to award a contract to repair Ko- Kosovo should do anything to ben- sovo A, the oldest power station in efit a country that has consistently ELSEWHERE the country, to a company owned worked to undermine its existence The head of sports by Alexei Mordashov, a billionaire and prosperity. 17,500 SEATS department within who reportedly has Putin’s ear. In the past Kosovo has success- What it has: What’s been done: What it still needs: Ministry of Youth, With the exception of help- fully blocked goods from Serbia Two locker rooms, 750,000 euro in Improvements to the Sports and Culture rennovated of toilets, rennovations from the grass and a new track. and Sports, Iber Alaj, ing build Deputy Prime Minister and Macedonia as a very power- facade, and a covered Ministry of Youth, Sports said 3.5 million euro in Behgjet Pacolli’s wealth through ful political weapon. Kosovo has seating area that’s free and Culture ahead of the European commision lucrative con- also extended visa restrictions on of leaks. Haiti match. funding is helping six tracts during countries that do not recognise Ko- stadiums in Ferizaj, Drenas, Gjilan, Peje, the 1990s, Rus- sovo’s independence. Mitrovica and sia has been Making it difficult for Rus- Gjakova, which need anything but sians to do business in Kosovo PRISHTINA STADIUM (PRISHTINA) - CaPACITY: reenovations. Alaj said a friend to Ko- would seem to be a very consist- Prishtina’s stadium is not included in the sovo. Nate ent policy - especially now that project because it is In 1999, Tabak the US and EU are preparing sanc- privately run. immediately Editor-in-Chief tions against Russia for its bad be- after the NATO havior in Crimea. Last week, The 16,200 SEATS bombing cam- Guardian speculated that the US What it needs: What’s been done: Prishtina gave 200,000 paign, Russian troops occupied could target Mordashov and oth- New seats, locker rooms, The Ministry of Youth, euro in 2013 to cover the Prishtina International Airport. It er Russian Oligarchs in forthcom- track, and fixing the Sports and Culture west side of the stadium sparked what could have been a ing sanctions. leaks above the stands. invested 150,000 euro in 2013. in the field in 2010. very disastrous confrontation with For the time being KEK still NATO troops. Since then, Russia has not signed a contract with the has been Serbia’s most powerful consortium that includes Mor- ally in keeping Kosovo from gain- dashov’s Power Machines, pend- ing true legitimacy on the interna- ing a dispute in the procurement Prishtina Balkan Investigative Reporting Network • tional stage. process. With this delay, Kosovo Insight Mensa e Studenteve, first floor, 10000, Prishtina, Kosovo Strangely, Deputy Foreign Min- has opportunity to figure out how it • PHONE: +381 (0) 38 24 33 58 • EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Nate ister Petrit Selimi welcomed news can stop the deal legally - and show Tabak •STAFF: Jeta Xharra, Marcus Tanner, Edona Peci, Petrit Collaku, of this impending Russian deal. He in a small way that Moscow’s bad Parim Olluri, Nektar Zogjani and Arijeta Lajka. • DESIGN: Trembelat • Prishtina noted at the time that on account behavior won’t go unchecked here Insight is supported by the Norwegian Embassy, Rockefeller Brothers Fund of better relations with Serbia, “we either. and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. Prishtina Insight n March 14-27, 2014 n 3 • Copy / Print / Scan / Fax • Shpejtësia : 55 / 65 / 75 ppm • ARDF • Duplex • Finisher • High Capacity Tray • Garancioni 60000 print. 4 n March 14-27, 2014 n Prishtina Insight Source: Investment Promotion ECONOMY Agency of Kosovo Nation TOP €340 INVESTORS mil 2008-2013 €216 €196 €188 mil mil mil €115 mil €63 €20 €20 mil mil mil GERMANY TURKEY SWITZERLAND UK AUSTRIA USA NETHERLANDS ITALY Investors 40Cases of swine flu have been detected in Kosovo, according to the the University Clinical Centre, the country’s main hospital. So far one person has died keep clear and seven people are being treated. Officially known as H1N1, swine flu can be more serious than typical flu strains as it is more likely to infect the lungs. of Kosovo Concerns about corruption, red tape Three convicted in and weak rule of law mean few investors Kosovo 2.0 attack want to take a risk in the country. By Edona Peci court might revoke this conditional sentence and By Nektar Zogjani Some problems can have enor- An EULEX court has con- they would have to be sent mous consequences. In 2012, the victed three persons for to jail. With the nearest Ikea stores in UK-owned Kosovo-based marble storming a launch party of The case concerns Greece and Bulgaria, Danish fur- company Fox Marble saw its share the Kosovo 2.0 magazine, events on December 14, niture maker JYSK - just outside price drop by a third on the London damaging property and 2012, when a group of Prishtina, in Fushe Kosove - thrives Stock Exchange after its explora- attacking staff. around 30 people stormed as the go-to destination for Koso- tion licences were suddenly re- Albert Kastrati, Gani a magazine launch party. vars seeking smart Scandinavian voked. Latifi and Driton Dili were The indictment states goods at low prices. “One investor told me that, af- found guilty of violating that the three accused, But JYSK’s beginnings were far ter this news, no one would ever the equal status of resi- together with a group from easy. Fatmir Zymberi built the invest in Kosovo again,” Fox Mar- dents of Kosovo, prevent- of unknown persons, store in 2004 on what he believed ble’s CEO, Christopher Gilbert, said ing or hindering a public entered the Youth and was land given by the municipality. at the time. Ultimately, Fox Marble meeting and damage to Sport Centre in Prishtina, But, he was later told that it was pri- regained its licenses and its share movable property, EULEX forcefully prevented and vate property, and had to pay up. price recovered. But damage had said Monday. hindered the holding of a “After the whole building was been done. The three were each public meeting, destroyed completed, the owner [of the land] sentenced to six months goods and assaulted a demanded a very high sale price Investment flight: for violating the equal Kosovo 2.0 staff member. for JYSK,” Vigan Salihu, director of After peaking at 440 million status of residents, four The three were Kosovo and Macedonia operations euro in 2007 - the year before Ko- months for hindering a protesting against the for JYSK, recalled. “It took time to sovo declared independence - FDI public meeting, and four launch of the magazine's recover and slowed the company’s for 2013 as of September reached months for damaging latest edition, entitled success,” he added. only 205 million euro, according to property. "Sex", which focused on Stories like Zymberi’s are all too Kosovo’s Central Bank. However, they lesbian, gay, bisexual and common in Kosovo, where corrup- While the final FDI for 2013 has were given suspended transgender issues. tion, weak rule of law and cumber- yet to be released, it is on track for sentences for two years. But, the offense of some bureaucracy are part of the a similar level to 229 million euro, This means they will not inciting national, racial, cost of doing business. which was the figure for 2011. have to spent any time in religious or ethnic hatred These factors are also blamed - While the government blames jail, but are not allowed to discord or intolerance was in part - for the large drop in foreign the global downturn for the fall-off commit any law viola- withdrawn during the direct investment that Kosovo has in FDI, investors, foreign embas- tions in the upcoming two trial, as it was covered by experienced since it declared inde- sies and business associations say years.