While you were watching Egypt...

Crises in the Balkans

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/02/crises_balkans

THE ECONOMIST

Feb 15th 2011, by T.J. | SKOPJE

SHARP-EYED observers have noted that some of the protestors that brought down Egypt's president used the clenched-fist logo of  Otpor, the well-organised, foreign-financed civic resistance movement that helped topple Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Parts of the Serbian press, notes Florian Bieber, an academic who works on Balkan affairs, have claimed that former Otpor activists helped train some of the opposition groups. 

With the world's attention on the Arab world, the political instability gripping much of the western Balkans has largely been ignored. Yet so serious is the unrest here—including mass demonstrations in Belgrade, Tirana and Skopje—that one diplomat told me his country’s foreign ministry had asked him if he thought that Egypt-style revolution might sweep northwards into the Balkans. (His answer was an emphatic “no”.) Here is a round-up of recent developments: 

Kosovo held an election on December 12^th, but still has no government. Following allegations of “industrial-scale” fraud, re-runs had to be held. Until an apparent breakthrough yesterday, the country’s politicians had been unable to secure the basic outlines of a deal which would permit the formation of a government. Now, however, a faction within the Democratic Party of Kosovo of Hashim Thaci, the acting prime minister, has been forced to drop its insistence that its man, Jakup Krasniqi, the acting president, be given the job formally.

 Behgjet Pacolli, a tycoon, now looks set to become president. In exchange his party, the New Kosovo Alliance, will enter into coalition with Mr Thaci. Mr Pacolli is married to a Russian, which, given Moscow's refusal to recognise Kosovo's independence, leaves some Kosovars appalled.

Two years after independence, Mr Thaci has never been so weak politically. He has been weakened by a row with Fatmir Limaj, the outgoing minister of transport, who enjoys much support in the party. Internationally, his standing has been shredded by a recent Council of Europe report making all sorts of lurid allegations against him. EULEX, the EU's police mission in Kosovo, is now investigating. Partly as a consequence Kosovo’s European integration process has failed to get off the ground. Five of the EU's 27 members do not recognise Kosovo.

The situation in (Slavo-)Macedonia is little better. Nikola Gruevski, the prime minister, has set off for Washington seeking support for his attempts to speed EU and NATO integration, but he may get his ear chewed off when he arrives. Solving the almost 20-year-old name dispute with Greece appears less of a priority in Skopje than ever. Construction of a giant  plinth that will support a statue of Alexander the Great is proceeding briskly, guaranteeing fresh outrage in Greece. 

The Social Democratic opposition has pulled out of parliament, and (Slavo-)Macedonia is gripped by the saga of A1 Television, whose bank accounts have been frozen for a second time by the courts. Mr Gruevski's opponents say that the government is trying to muzzle the last bastion of free speech in the country. Nonsense, claim government supporters. The courts are simply clamping down on tax evasion. In fact, the two arguments do not contradict each other. The smart money is on an early election in June.  

Meanwhile a small group of Albanians and (Slavo-)Macedonians fought a pitched battle in Skopje castle on February 13^th, where the government has begun building what it says is a  museum, in the shape of a church. The problem is that the castle is in an Albanian, and hence Muslim, part of town. When the Albanians protested, saying that the structure was being built over an ancient Illyrian site,  Pasko Kuzman, the chief archaeologist, said construction would stop. But builders went in at night to continue their work, which led the Albanians to try and dismantle the structure. And so on, and so on. 

Albanians in Skopje

Over in Albania the prime minister, Sali Berisha, has accused the opposition of staging a coup, following a demonstration on January 21^st that went horribly wrong when Republican Guards allegedly fired on opposition supporters, killing four. The demonstration sprang from charges by the opposition, led by Edi Rama, the Socialist mayor of Tirana, that Mr Berisha was returned to power in June 2009 by fraudulent elections. Unlike Macedonia, Albania is a member of NATO, but its EU integration path has effectively stalled.* 

The Serbian government has been holed and is taking on water—but has not sunk yet. Mladjan Dinkic, head of the G17 Plus party and Serbia's deputy prime minister, had been openly criticising his governmental colleagues from President Boris Tadic’s Democratic Party. On February 14^th Mirko Cvetkovic, the prime minister, moved to sack him. Mr Dinkic resigned today but stopped short of pulling his party out of the government. 

How long the Serbian government can limp on like this is anyone’s guess. Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the opposition Serbian Progressive Party, has said that unless new elections are called before April 5^th he will lead more protests in Belgrade. Watch this space. 

Last but not least, Bosnia and Hercegovina. Elections there were held on October 3^rd, but there is still no government at state level. No surprise there. Progress on anything, let alone EU integration, has been stalled in Bosnia since 2006 in the wake of the failure of the so-called "April Package" of constitutional reforms. Al Jazeera recently announced plans for a Balkans channel, based in Sarajevo and broadcasting in what it delicately calls “the regional language”. Given the station's role as the cheerleader of revolt in Tunisia and Egypt, one can understand diplomats' concerns.

*This paragraph has been updated: thanks to op-timist in the comments.

How many building booms can one city take?

Ex-communist Europe

Eastern approaches 

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/03/macedonias_ethnic_disharmony

The Economist

Mar 1st 2011

by T.J. | SKOPJE

OBELIX, the fat Gaulish friend of cartoon character Asterix, has a catchphrase: "These Romans are crazy!" Walk around Skopje, the Macedonian capital, and you find yourself thinking the same about Macedonians. I don’t mean this to be snide. But the pace of building in and around the city does bring to mind the Mansions of the Gods.

Skopje has long needed sprucing up. But opponents of Nikola Gruevski, who have long accused the prime minister of populist nationalism, will hardly be dissauded by the nature of the construction boom (which the government has christened  Skopje 2014). With an election in the offing, Mr Gruevski will no doubt enjoy taking credit for the new structures mushrooming throughout the city centre.

In Skopje’s central square a massive plinth is being built. It will soon be topped with a huge statue of Alexander the Great. Many Macedonians could not give a fig for Alexander. But they will be delighted to see the Greeks, who have been blocking Macedonia's EU and NATO integration over an objection to the country's name, turn apoplectic with rage when it is unveiled. The Greeks accuse the Macedonians of appropriating Alexander and trying to steal their Hellenic culture.

 But that is just one element. Museums, domes, a new foreign ministry, a bridge bedecked with statues of lions and, as in the Asterix book, a triumphal arch are all springing up, transforming the centre of town. Some of the buildings suit the landscape, but the new constitutional court (pictured), with its massive Corinthian columns, seems a trifle overpowering.

Skopje 2014, which we first wrote about last year, has accentuated bitter disputes between the majority Orthodox Macedonians and Muslim Albanians, who make up a quarter of Macedonia's population. Whenever someone suggests building or rebuilding a church in Skopje, the Albanians demand the same for a mosque. Tensions invariably mount.

The most vivid example brought small groups of Macedonians and Albanians to fisticuffs. Recently, a church-like steel skeleton appeared on the site of an old church inside Skopje's fortress (pictured). The authorities claimed they were merely building a museum in the shape of a church. But Albanians reply that under the original church is an older Illyrian structure; as, they say, they are descended from Illyrians, the site should be theirs. Construction has now stopped, but the issue reveals the delicate balance between Macedonia's two communities, in which religion, identity, land and power are all deeply entwined.

The erection of statues of historical figures and grandiose public buildings looks like an expression of ethnic Macedonian identity. But they are not the only ones; their structures are merely the most visible to outsiders visiting Skopje's centre. Visit Albanian districts in and around the capital and you come across hundreds of new mosques.

Macedonia’s Albanians have a reputation of being much more religious than their brethren from Albania or Kosovo. Their mosque-building has even begun to alarm Albanians from Albania, where they have been labelled as "Talibans" in television chat shows.

Yet the Democratic Union for Integration, a Macedonian Albanian party, which is in coalition with Mr Gruevski, has strictly secular roots. So one wonders whether there is a sub-plot to the mosque-building frenzy. In most cases, a new mosque declares not only the glory of Islam, but that the land on which is stands is Albanian. The paradox is that you can find Albanian-controlled town halls flying American flags a stone’s throw from new mosques sporting Saudi Arabian ones from their minarets.

This is one reason why the church-museum affair is so touchy. Many Macedonians say they keep quiet about the often illegally-built mosques for the sake of social harmony. That is why it irks them that an attempt to build something that merely resembles a church becomes a huge incident. Albanians, by contrast, see Skopje 2014 and related projects like the church-museum as a project designed to shove “Macedonian-ness” down their throats. 

To be continued.

 

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/03/macedonias_ethnic_disharmony

Kosovan Leader Involved in Organ, Drug Trafficking

Dec 15, 2010 

Theunis Bates Contributor

 

(Dec. 15) -- Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has been named in a Council of Europe report as the former "boss" of a "mafia-like" criminal network that trafficked heroin, weapons and organs extracted from Serb captives.

The document also says that the U.S. and other Western nations were aware of Thaci's alleged crimes but still backed his rise to power

The report is the culmination of a two-year investigation by Swiss senator and former prosecutor Dick Marty, who interviewed numerous witnesses too terrified to publicly testify against political figures and former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and analyzed secret reports from the FBI and other intelligence sources.

Visar Kryeziu, AP

Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's prime minister, has been accused of being the former "boss" of a "mafia-like" criminal network.

Kosovo's government dismissed the report as a smear designed to discredit its leaders. Sunday, Thaci was re-elected prime minister of the fledgling country.

Marty writes that at the end of 1998-99 Kosovo war, Thaci was described by NATO intelligence sources as "the most dangerous of the KLA's 'criminal bosses.'" He is accused of heading a small but powerful criminal network, known as the Drenica Group, that allegedly began organizing illegal rackets in the buildup to the war.

One alleged money-making scheme involved smuggling a "handful" of captive Serbs, and some ethnic Kosovan Albanians, into neighboring Albania in the months after the war, where their organs were harvested.

"The testimonies on which we based our findings spoke credibly and consistently of a methodology by which all of the captives were killed," the report states, "usually by a gunshot to the head, before being operated on to remove one or more of their organs." The document does not personally implicate Thaci -- who served as the KLA's political head during the war -- in these killings.

The murders were carried out on a converted farmstead in the town of Fushë-Krujë, some 12 miles north of the Albanian capital Tirana, which had been turned into "a state-of-the-art reception center for the organized crime of organ trafficking."

The scene inside the clinic is detailed in the paper. "At least some of these captives became aware of the ultimate fate that awaited them," it states. "In detention facilities where they were held in earshot of other trafficked persons, and in the course of being transported, some of these captives are said to have pleaded with their captors to be spared the fate of being 'chopped into pieces.'"

After extraction, victims' kidneys were flown out of the country and sold on the black market. According to a separate investigation by The Guardian, some of those organs were shipped to Istanbul, as part of a criminal scheme operated by Turkish doctor Yusuf Sonmez.

Interpol is now attempting to hunt down the fugitive doctor for his part in an organ trafficking racket discovered by police in 2008. That scam saw impoverished Russians, Moldovans and Turks lured to the Medicus Clinic in Pristina with the false promise of payments for their kidneys. The donors received nothing, but their organs were sold for up to $200,000 to patients in Canada, Germany and Israel.

The Council of Europe report says that the removal of organs from captives in Albania a decade ago is "closely related to the contemporary case of the Medicus clinic." It cites "Kosovan Albanian and international figures" who were key "co-conspirators" in both crimes.

Their names have been omitted from the report "out of respect" to Kosovo's judicial process. However, The Guardian reports that sources within the Kosovan government say those unnamed individuals are Dr. Sonmez and former KLA medical commander Shaip Muja, who now advises Prime Minister Thaci on health policy.

The paper alleges that the two men became friends during the Kosovo war, and that Muja helped found the Medicus clinic.

Authorities have not accused Muja of any wrongdoing at Medicus, and he has denied being a member of the Drenica Group.

The Council of Europe paper doesn't comment on Muja's alleged connection to the clinic but states that it has uncovered "numerous convergent indications" of his decadelong involvement in "far less laudable international networks, comprising human traffickers, brokers of illicit surgical procedures and other perpetrators of organized crime."

The crimes outlined in Marty's report mostly took place in the chaotic months following the end of the Kosovo conflict, as international peacekeepers tried to restore law and order in the Serbian-ruled province.

NATO intervened in Kosovo in 1999 to stop a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Serb forces, who are believed to have butchered up to 10,000 ethnic Albanian civilians in just under two years. After 11 weeks of bombing raids by Western air forces, Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic pulled his troops out of the province, which declared independence in 2008.

Although the international community strongly condemned Serbian atrocities, Marty writes that the West opted to ignore suspected KLA war crimes, "placing a premium instead on achieving some degree of short-term stability."

He notes that witnesses "credibly implicated" Thaci and four other members of the Drenica Group "in having ordered -- and in some cases personally overseen -- assassinations, detentions, beatings and interrogations in various parts of Kosovo" and Albania from 1998 to 2000.

The same five ex-KLA commanders have held key positions in the country's government over the past decade and secured the support of Western powers keen to prevent further violence. But as well as holding important political positions, the document states that the men have also continued to be major players in the region's crime syndicates.

"In confidential reports spanning more than a decade, agencies dedicated to combating drug smuggling in at least five countries have named [Thaci] and other members of his 'Drenica Group' as having exerted violent control over the trade in heroin and other narcotics," Marty writes.

He adds that he studied these international intelligence reports "with consternation and a sense of moral outrage" as officials in the U.S. and Europe must "undoubtedly possess the same, overwhelming documentation of the full extent of the Drenica Group's crimes, but none seems prepared to react in the face of such a situation and to hold the perpetrators to account."

The European Union, which has some 2,000 police and justice workers in Kosovo, today declared that it was prepared to look into the allegations contained in Marty's report.

"We take allegations on war crimes and organized crime extremely seriously," said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. "We have seen the report, and if the rapporteur, Mr. Marty, has any concrete evidence, we invite him to bring this forward to the relevant authorities," including the EU's police and justice mission in Kosovo, EULEX. That body handles cases that are too sensitive for the local judiciary, such as allegations of war crimes.

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Prime Minister Thaci's ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo -- which won Sunday's general election -- has condemned Marty's allegations as "fabrications."

"[The report] is based on groundless facts which are invented with a goal to harm Kosovo's image," it said in a statement issued Tuesday. The party added that it would "take all possible and necessary steps in order to confront Marty's fabrications, including legal and lawful ones," it warned.

The Serbian government, which refuses to recognize Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, questioned whether Thaci could hold on as prime minister. "I do not know what future that person has, if one takes into account the Council of Europe report," said Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.