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PRISTINA: Kosovo Albanians wear face masks as they take part in a protest against heavy in Pristina. Every winter morning workers wrap scarves around their faces and emerge from the pea soup that engulfs their town of Obiliq, stuck between two -fired power stations on the outskirts of Kosovo’s capital. —AFP In Kosovo’s capital, ‘breathing harms health’ ‘This place will become a new Chernobyl’ OBILIQ: Every winter morning workers wrap scarves young country, one of the poorest in Europe. Minister of remains suspended in the air, he adds. No epidemiolo- one there who has not been affected by cancer.” around their faces and emerge from the pea soup fog Economic Development Valdrin Lluka told AFP that gists have come to calculate the full health impact of Jashari said he registered 88 new cancer cases in that engulfs their town of Obiliq, stuck between two Kosovo lacked other energy options such as hydropower the two plants that relentlessly belch out smoke. 2017, also noting cardiovascular diseases and various coal-fired power stations on the outskirts of Kosovo’s facilities. “We don’t have gas, we cannot create nuclear Kosovo A is originally a Soviet design that has been other conditions. capital. If nothing is done, “this place will become a power plants. We have coal,” said Lluka, who emphasized refurbished many times, while the more modern “Those who can, leave, to get away from disease and new Chernobyl.... We will have to leave”, said Agim the importance of energy independence in Kosovo. Haki Kosovo B used ex-East German technology for coal protect their children,” he said. Minister Lluka has Ibrahimi, 46, a manual worker who lives in the town. Jashari, director of the small hospital in Obiliq, tells AFP mining during the Cold War era. In 2013, the World announced plans for swift improvements. With the help “Three members of my family have died of cancer... that, while he obviously Bank estimated that the of the European Union, the filters at the Kosovo B plant It’s a cancerous land.” Regardless of the wind’s direc- understands the importance annual cost of pollution for are to be changed. In December, Kosovo signed a deal tion, the pungent smell of burnt coal permeates Obiliq, of electricity, “we can’t violate My family Kosovo and its 1.8 million with a US power generator for a 1.3 billion-euro plant where 30,000 residents live between and around the people’s right to good health inhabitants came to 223 mil- to replace Kosovo A, which Lluka said would ensure 25 plants, known as Kosovo A and Kosovo B. Built and a proper environment”. members have lion euros ($275 million) times fewer dust emissions and four times less carbon between 1965 and 1975, the plants produce more than equivalent to 5.3 percent of dioxide. “We are not only faced with the current chal- 95 percent of Kosovo’s electricity but, combined with Premature deaths died of cancer; its gross domestic product. lenges, but with accumulated pollution,” said Edmond the coal heating of individual homes and busy urban Kosovo’s national elec- “ is estimated Nulleshi, a manager at KEK, which invested 60 million traffic, heavily impact the air quality. tricity company KEK owns It’s a cancerous to cause 852 premature euros in the environment between 2012 and 2015. No monitoring takes place in Obiliq. But in the capi- 72 percent of the land in deaths, 318 new cases of Under a law passed in 2016 but as yet not imple- tal Pristina, 15 kilometers away, the US embassy meas- Obiliq and employs 4,700 land chronic bronchitis, 605 hos- mented, KEK will pay Obiliq 20 percent of the value of ures pollution levels, publishing data on its website, people in the power plants pital admissions and 11,900 the coal it mines, which will triple the town’s budget. and places it high among the most polluted cities in the or its mines, according to emergency visits each This could help to measure the air quality, clean the soil world. Residents of Pristina, who often go out wearing the mayor. Sahit Zeqiri, year,” said the report. and strengthen medical prevention, according to Mayor a mask, don’t need official data to voice their concerns head of the local technical school, says everything is Xhafer Gashi. For Kosovo B to introduce brand new about the pollution. “Breathing seriously damages contaminated: “The air that we breath, the soil that we International aid? technology and meet EU standards it would take 300 health,” read a placard at a recent protest. On cultivate, the water which we drink”. Every day in win- Retired librarian Ruzhdi Mirena, 63, chants a litany million euros, said Nulleshi, who hopes for the help of February 17, Kosovo will mark 10 years since its decla- ter, he says, five to 10 students are missing, victims of of the dead and sick, pointing a finger at the houses of international donors. “It is not that we lack environ- ration of independence from Serbia. bronchitis. Outside sports are banned, and this year, Hade, a hamlet backing on to a coal mine. “There are mental awareness, but we are not at the level of west- But pollution remains a huge stumbling block for the owing to a lack of snow or rain, particulate matter 85 families here, and believe me or not, there is not ern Europe in terms of capabilities,” he said. —AFP Police shoot a man Egypt’s army kills 16 during sword attack jihadists, arrests 34 at Indonesia church CAIRO: Egypt’s army said yesterday it had killed JAKARTA: Indonesian police shot and wounded a man 16 jihadists and detained 34 more in the Sinai who attacked a church congregation with a sword during Peninsula since launching a major operation Sunday Mass, seriously injuring four people including a against them on Friday. The security sweep in the priest and destroying Christian imagery. Around 100 peo- Sinai, heart of a persistent Islamic State group ple were attending the service in the town of Sleman in insurgency, comes as President Abdel Fattah Al- Yogyakarta province on Java island when a man barged in Sisi seeks re-election next month. Army wielding a one-meter-long sword and began attacking ter- spokesman Tamer Al-Rifai said 16 jihadists had ror-stricken people, seemingly indiscriminately. “Four peo- been killed and 34 detained during a “sweep and ple have been injured in the incident-quite seriously-but raids... in northern and central Sinai”. The army we still cannot determine the perpetrator’s motive,” destroyed 66 jihadist hideouts, 11 pickup vehicles Yogyakarta police spokesman Yulianto said. and 31 motorbikes, he said in a statement. Extremists in the world’s most populous Muslim-majori- It also discovered and destroyed an explosives- ty country have mounted a series of attacks against making laboratory and a communications centre, Christians and other minorities. A few minutes after the as well as six cannabis and opium fields, he said. service started, a congregation member ran into the church with a bleeding head chased by a young man holding a Egypt’s security forces have been increasingly tar- sharp weapon, said worshipper Andhi Cahyo. “Everybody geted by jihadists since the army in 2013 over- started panicking and screaming. I was scrambling to save threw Sisi’s predecessor, Islamist president SLEMAN: Indonesian police examine the scene after a knife attack at a church during a Sunday mass in my wife and children,” Cahyo said. People fled through Sleman, Yogyakarta province yesterday. —AFP Mohamed Morsi. In November, Sisi ordered his another door as the attacker ran amok inside the church. armed forces chief of staff to restore security in He destroyed some books and a Virgin Mary statue with Sinai within three months after militants killed his sword, said Cahyo, and attacked 81-year-German cop before being subdued,” Cahyo said. All victims have not questioned, Yulianto said. Indonesia is home to signifi- more than 300 worshippers at a mosque. No priest Edmund Prier who was standing at the altar. been taken to hospital for treatment. Police said the man cant numbers of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists. In group has claimed responsibility for that attack. Prier, who has been living in Indonesia for decades, is was a university student in his early 20s but could not con- 2016 several children were injured after a man threw “Operation Sinai 2018”, which involves the air now an Indonesian citizen. Police arrived soon after the firm if the incident was related to terrorism. Molotov cocktails at a church during a Sunday service. force and navy, is also to target jihadists in the attack and fired a warning shot but the attacker refused to “For now we cannot conclude this is related to terror- On Christmas Eve 2000 the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Nile Delta and Western Desert near the border surrender. “After the warning shot was fired, the attacker ism. We need to dig out more details and question the Islamiyah group staged coordinated bombings of church- with Libya. —AFP charged towards the officer with his sword. The officer then perpetrator,” said spokesman Yulianto. The man was cur- es in Jakarta and eight other cities which killed 18 people shot him below his stomach, but he managed to injure the rently being treated at Bhayangkara hospital and could and injured many more. —AFP