Foreign passports go on sale in Kosovo

MINA   17 March 2010

 
Passports and citizenships of foreign countries, including multiple entry visas, are being sold in Kosovo for several thousands euros, Slovenian daily Dnevnik said on Wednesday.

The paper says a company in downtown Pristina offers the Kosovo’s citizens with savings of up to 10.000 euros to purchase British Guyana citizenship or passport. The holders of these passports can travel to Western Europe and Canada without visa restrictions.

The holders of these documents can also apply for US visa and they will probably be granted an entry visa.

The citizens can also get a Namibian citizenship for 6.000 euros. The company offers five-year and two-year visa for Britain and Cyprus.

Company owner told the paper that the company has been registered and it enables its clients to travel across the world.

Just five countries scrapped visa restrictions for Kosovo’s citizens. Turkey is the most interesting destination for Kosovo Albanians.

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Nato stops helping Kosovo force

AFP/Pristine

The Nato-led mission in Kosovo (KFOR) has temporarily suspended work with the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) after its members appeared bearing arms in public, a KFOR official said yesterday.

“KFOR commander has taken a decision to suspend temporarily the support, mentoring and training of the KSF,” KFOR spokesman, German Colonel Hans Peter Buch, told AFP.

The decision by KFOR commander General Markus Bentler came “due to the fact that we had an agreement with Kosovo institutions that KSF would not wear any weapons”, Buch said.

On Friday, KSF units were armed at a commemoration ceremony honouring a family that lost 40 members fighting as separatist guerillas with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) against Serbia during the 1998-1999 Kosovo war.

In January 2009, the Nato-trained force took over from the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) which had been made up mainly of former KLA fighters.

The force has civil protection functions and helps in emergency situations but it is not intended to be a fully-fledged military force straight away.

Nato has executive authority over the force until it reaches full operational capability.

It is expected to reach its operational size of 2,500 full-time members and 800 reserves in the next two to four years.

Kosovo seceded from Serbia in February 2008. It has so far been recognised by 65 countries but Belgrade still considers the territory as its southern province.

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Croatia joins SOuth Stream pipeline project

From The Associated Press, March 2, 2010

MOSCOW (AP) – Croatia on Tuesday joined the Russia-backed South Stream pipeline project that will run under the Black Sea to supply a handful of south European countries.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his visiting Croatian counterpart, Jadranka Kosor, oversaw Tuesday’s signing ceremony in Moscow. Croatia imports 40 percent of its gas from Russia.

South Stream is funded chiefly by Russia’s Gazprom and Italy’s Eni. Construction of the pipeline is expected to start this year and be completed by 2015, carrying natural gas to Central and Western Europe while bypassing Ukraine.

Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy have also signed onto the deal. Gazprom has said it expects Austria to sign up as well.

“The project’s benefits to its participants are obvious,” Putin said. “First of all, this means stable energy supply for Europe and purely financial gains.”

Pricing disputes between Russia and Ukraine, a key transit country, caused gas shortages in Europe in early 2009 and made Russia more determined to seek energy routes bypassing Ukraine.

Russia is now waiting for Turkey to give the green light for the pipeline to pass under its waters. Putin said in January that Turkey had assured him it would issue the approval by November.

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‘Great Albania’ Seeks Recognition

Strategic Culture Foundation
10.08.2009
Pyotr ISKENDEROV
 
The idea of ‘Great Albania’ is again in the air. On August 3 a proposal to form a separate region in the Presevo Valley with its own institutions and organs was raised in the assembly of the Presevo, Dujanovac and Medvedja municipalities and thus marked a new turn in the evolution of the so-called ‘Albanian national question’.
Local Albanian separatists are using the Kosovo scenario as a guideline. Obviously, their next step will be to forcibly oust the remaining Serbs and other non-Albanians from the region, ask the international organizations for guarantees and demand that Belgrade started the negotiations on the status of the region. There are all reasons to believe that the Presevo Valley will be recognized as a sovereign state more quickly than Kosovo. Anyway, the Serbian authorities have already been asked to ‘immediately begin talks with legitimate Albanian representatives’ and ‘launch the region’s demilitarization’ (which means withdrawal of Serbian army and police).

Tensions grew in the aforesaid Albanian municipalities in July following a series of attacks on the Serbian police and civilians. The authorities had to send extra troops to the region and introduce other security measures. A response to this was quite predictable (remember Kosovo in 1990s): Serbia was asked to ’stop escalation of tensions and anti-Albanian campaign in the media’.

Demographic situation in southern Serbian regions is worth of our attention. It resembles that of Kosovo. In 1961 Albanians made up 68% and Serbs-25% of the population of Presevo, by the year 1991 (when Yugoslavia collapsed), Albanians made up already 90% (with only 8% of Serbs). By that time socialists of Yugoslavia had spent a few decades fighting against mythical ‘Serbian nationalism’ and creating the most favorable economic, social and political climate for the Albanian population. In 1991-2001 the situation stabilized- however, not due to the return of the Serbs but because of resettlement of many Albanians to the neighboring Kosovo.

In 1992 Albanians of Presevo held a referendum to vote for joining Kosovo. In 1999-2001 the region was on fire when Albanian extremists attempted to seize power. The coup was organized and supported from the Kosovo territory, which was already under control of terrorists from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), despite the UN and NATO presence in the region. But the Serbian army and police took decisive measures to stabilize the situation.

This time Albanian separatists of Presevo have taken into consideration all the previous mistakes. They waited until Kosovo is recognized by dozens of countries and now claim they have similar rights. Instead of boycotting the local governmental bodies, they now simply oust Serbian politicians and officials from power. As a result, these governmental bodies are being controlled by Albanian separatists. The government of Serbia, with support from Washington and Brussels, blindly obeys the extremists and does nothing to prevent dangerous changes.

It is also remarkable that the ongoing escalation of tensions in the Presevo Valley began soon after an influential US congressman Dana Rohrabacher spoke about the necessity of a new territorial division of the Balkans (the idea widely discussed by various experts in recent years). Rohrabacher suggested annexing three south Serbian municipalities to Kosovo, while leaving to Serbia Northern Kosovo with the center in Kosovska Mitrovica.

The idea caused serious concerns in Kosovo. Kosovo government spokesman Memli Krasniqi said Hashim Thaci`s cabinet was opposed the idea of territorial division.”We think that exchange of territories and demarcation of borders is not the right thing to do”, said Krasniqi. But what is especially interesting about it is that traditionally well-informed and influential Pristina newspaper Koha Ditore wrote that the idea put forward by Dana Rohrabacher may be welcomed in the Presevo valley. I had a conversation with the representatives of the Bosnian Serbs, who told me that the Republica Srpska also takes seriously this idea of territorial division and creation of two monoethnic states- Serbia and Albania.

But the world leaders will hardly fancy the idea of all Balkan Serbs living in a separate state. At least until the Serbian nation unanimously expresses its will (which should be also lobbied by the politicians).

But there is no doubt that Albanian activists are ready to go further with the idea of ‘Great Albania’. Unlike Serbs, they have already done all preparatory work by lobbying for Kosovo independence. And now this scenario is being implemented in south Serbian municipalities and also in Macedonia. ‘Great Albania’ is looking for its place in the Balkans.

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BALKANS: Arrest of Wahhabis Highlights Extremist Threat

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Feb 12, 2010 (IPS) – The arrest of seven Wahhabis, following a police crackdown on the remote Bosnian village of Gornja Maoca, has raised concerns over the continued presence of Islamist fundamentalists who first arrived in the country during the bloody 1992-1995 Balkans war.

Alarmingly, the police action on Feb. 2, codenamed ‘Operation Light,’ showed up the possibility that extremist activity in the village was being funded from outside.

“It’s hard to say how much influence these people can really have here [in Bosnia-Herzegovina], but it is obvious that the security forces do have significant information and have acted against them,” Srdjan Dizdarevic, head of the Sarajevo-based Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, told IPS over the phone.

“There also has to be financial help for the group from the outside, as no one can survive without jobs and work, which the [arrested] Wahhabis did not have,” Dizdarevic said.

Tensions continue to run high among Bosnia-Herzegovina’s three main constitutional groups – Muslims who constitute 45 percent of the population, Serb Orthodox, 36 percent, and Roman Catholics who form another 15 percent.

Dizdarevic pointed out that the prosecution officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina had said that the operation was being mounted ‘’against people who set up criminal organisation, aiming to destabilise the country and its constitutional order, incite inter-ethnic, racial and religious hatred and intolerance”.

According to Dizdarevic, while Wahhabis are spread across the country and have a visible presence, the main problem is that ‘’they want to introduce their strict version of Islam with force and do not refrain from violence, targeting both Muslims and non-Muslims’’.

Wahhabism is an austere form of Islam that insists on the literal interpretation of the Koran. Strict Wahhabis believe that all those who do not practice their version of Islam are heathens and enemies.

Critics say that Wahhabism’s rigidity has led it to misinterpret and distort Islam, pointing to extremists such as Osama bin Laden and the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. It is the dominant faith in Saudi Arabia.

Wahhabism arrived in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war,when up to 15,000 fighters from Algiers, Afghanistan, Caucasus and the Middle East arrived to help Bosniak Muslims in a violent war against Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs that resulted in the deaths of 100,000 people.

Apart from waging war the fighters introduced strict Islam to their hosts, who were prevailingly secular Sunni Muslims.

Most of the Mujahideen (religious fighters) left after the war ended with the United States mediated Dayton Peace Accords, but up to 1,500 remained, marrying local women and blending into Bosniak society.

The villagers of Gornja Maoca lived by strict Shariah laws, organising schooling for their children in Arabic, outside the state system, and opposing the primacy of the Islamic Community concentrated in Sarajevo.

During the war and shortly afterwards more than 50 Islamic non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were engaged in supposed humanitarian activities.

The most prominent of these groups, according to the book ‘Garibs (foreigners) – the Mujahideen in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992 to 1999’ by Sarajevo-based author Esad Hecimovic, were the Sudanese-founded and Saudi financed Third World Relief Agency (TWRA) and the Benevolence International Foundation.

Both organisations, and many other as well, were shut down under pressure from the U.S., but Saudi money continued to pour into Sarajevo, including for the grandiose 29 million US dollar King Fahd mosque in the Bosnian capital.

In an interview to the prominent Belgrade daily ‘Politika’ Hecimovic said, last week, that “the very presence of ideas that have led to mass criminal acts abroad represents danger for the security of Bosnia and its surroundings”.

“Police and prosecutors should not be passive when someone instructs his followers on how often to make suicide attacks,” he added alluding to comments by Nusret Imamovic in the website run by the Gornja Maoca Wahhabi group, www.putvjernika.com (road of believers).

The Bosniak language site carries statements by the al-Qaeda and Islamic groups fighting in the Caucasus. It commemorates suicide bombers as the most joyful people among Muslims and displays dozens of photos of young ‘martyrs’ with smiles on their faces after carrying out missions against the ‘infidel’.

Dizdarevic, however, believes that the influence of the Wahhabis is limited. ‘’There would have been many of them had they been able to take roots among Bosniaks, after they entered the country as far back as in 1992,” he said.

For Dzevad Galijasevic, member of a Sarajevo counter terrorism team, “the village [of Gornja Maoca] is only one of the arms of the octopus that is spreading everywhere in the region.”

In an interview with the Federal Sarajevo TV, Galijasevic said that the presence of the Wahhabi group in Gornja Maoca only “distracts attention from activities in Sarajevo.”

“The head of the octopus is in the King Fahd Mosque, where the Wahhabis and other extremists carry out their business unimpeded and even meet the members of international criminal groups,” he said.

Galijasevic was referring to the November 2009 arrest of three radical Muslims charged with terrorism offences and weapons trafficking by a Bosnian court. This was preceded by an intense investigation which, prosecutors said, involved interviews with nearly 70 witnesses and the collection of over 1,000 items of evidence in Bosnia, Germany and Austria.

One arm of the octopus was cut in the Serbian town of Novi Pazar in the Sandzak region bordering Bosnia and populated by Bosniak Muslims. In July, last year, a court in Belgrade sentenced two Wahhabis from Sandzak, Senad Ramovic and Adnan Hot, to 13 and eight years imprisonment respectively, after they were charged with possession of arms and ammunition and planning terrorist activities.

“The groups of Wahhabis in Gornja Maoca and Novi Pazar are connected,” Serbian minister of employment and social policy Rasim Ljajic told the Belgrade B92 TV channel. Ljajic is himself a Muslim from Sandzak.

“Wahhabism is not the characteristic of Muslims in the Balkans and Europe, but emissaries who came during the 1992-95 war had the aim of putting its roots here,’’ he added.

During the trial before the Belgrade Special Court, Adnan Hot said that Wahhabis in Novi Pazar “follow only three people – Nusret Imamovic, Ebu Muhamed and the late Jusuf Barcic”.

The names did not mean much to Serbian press at the time, but with the arrest in Gornja Maoca of Imamovic, the alleged leader of the Bosnian Wahhabi group, a pattern is discernible, observers said.

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US senators call on Bosnian leaders to show unity

(AFP) – 06-02-10

SARAJEVO — Visiting US senators on Friday called for Bosnian leaders to show unity and resolve an impasse on how the divided country should be governed to help it gain NATO and European Union membership. “(The) United States believes that the only real path to secure a prosperous future (for Bosnia) is European and Euro-Atlantic integration and it’s important that no more time be lost,” Republican senator John McCain told journalists. McCain and independent senator

Joe Lieberman headed a delegation of US senators and and members of congress. They expressed disappointment at the failure of EU- and US-backed talks, held late last year between Bosnia’s Muslim, Croat and Serb leaders, aimed at ending the political deadlock in the Balkan country. Since the 1992-1995 war Bosnia consists of two semi-independent halves — the Serbs’ Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

They are linked by weak central institutions while each has its own government. The unclear division of authority between the two entities often leads to paralysis of institutions.

The international community has been insisting for years on the reform of the Bosnian constitution to make the country more functional. The Bosnian Serbs, however, have refused any modifications which might reduce their hold on power.

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FM: Iran Keen to Involve in Economic Projects in Bosnia

FARS News Agency  |  08 Feb 2010

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Monday voiced Tehran’s preparedness to involve in economic projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 
 
 
Speaking at a meeting with new Bosnian Ambassador to Tehran Amir Haji Kadonij here in Tehran today, Mottaki underlined that Tehran is ready to expand its relations with the Balkans in trade and economic fields.

“The foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on expansion and consolidation of ties with independent states and Bosnia has a special place in this regard,” he added.

Mottaki pointed to Iran’s aids and assistance with the Bosnian nation during the war in the Balkans, and underlined that friendship at times of hardship for a nation paves the way for close friendship in time of peace.

The Bosnian ambassador, who submitted a copy of his credentials to Mottaki during the session thanked the Iranian nation and government’s support for the Bosnian nation, and stressed that the Bosnian people will never forget Iran’s help and assistance.

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US Intel: Balkans threaten European stability

 
 
By MELISSA EDDY
Associated Press
2010-02-03 05:54  
 
 
The top U.S. intelligence official warned Tuesday that persistent ethnic tensions in Bosnia pose the biggest challenge to maintaining stability in Europe.
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said in written testimony to lawmakers that animosities among the Balkan nation’s Croat, Muslim and Serb factions are on the rise, and a hardening of their divergent agendas could threaten the stability of the fragile state.

Blair further named Russia’s continued efforts to exercise influence over its former Soviet neighbors, particularly Georgia, as another cause for concern, saying it could pose a threat to relations with Washington. He noted that “sporadic low-level violence” continues in the region, which could spark a return to fighting. Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in August 2008 over two breakaway Georgia regions.

Fighting also could flare between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Blair said. The enclave in Azerbaijan has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since a six-year conflict that killed about 30,000 people and displaced 1 million before a truce was reached in 1994.

Bosnia remains divided into ethnic ministates _ a Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat federation _ that were established in 1995 under the Dayton agreement that ended a bitter 3 1/2-year civil war. It is under the leadership of a multiethnic government whose leaders clash regularly over what the country should look like.

Blair said Bosnian Serbs has been reversing some of the changes included in the accord as part of efforts to seek more autonomy for their ministate. This, Blair said “is contributing to growing interethnic tensions.” At the same time the Bosnian Muslims and Croats want to abolish the country’s division so it can progress toward EU membership, Blair said.

“While neither widespread violence nor a formal breakup of the state appears imminent, ethnic agendas still dominate the political process, and reforms have stalled because of wrangling among the three main ethnic groups,” Blair said.

Kosovo, whose Serb minority and ethnic Albanian majority remain at a tense standoff over the still-divided northern sector, also requires continuing US and European attention to maintain stability, Blair said.

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Ankara reaffirms support for Pristina

Feb 03 2010   |  The Sofia Echo
 
 
Full state honours and pledges of support greeted Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu on arrival on a visit to Turkey, media reports said.
 
In Pristina, media said that Sejdiu was assured of Turkey’s continuing support for Kosovo.
 
Turkish president Abdullah Gul said that Turkey supported the efforts of Kosovo authorities to reestablish law and order in the north, and called on the countries of the Balkans region to build good neighbourly relations.
 
“Turkey sees Kosovo as its sister because we have a strong Turkish community there, and this plays a bridging role between the two countries,” Gul said.
 
“We believe that, when the time comes, Kosovo will strongly take its place in the European and Atlantic structures, Nato and the EU,” Gul said, according to Turkey’s Hurriyet website.
 
Gul said that stability and security in the Balkans are of importance to Turkey, Serbian news agency Beta said.
 
Sejdiu said that Turks living in Kosovo and Kosovo citizens in Turkey are the golden bridge of co-operation and friendship between the “two countries”.
 
At an opening ceremony for Ankara University’s Research Centre on Southeast Europe, Sejdiu urged Turkish investors to take part in various sectors of Kosovo’s economy “and to do business in Kosovo without hesitation,” he said.

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Bosnia seeks to enhance economic ties with Pakistan

Daily Times (Pakistan)  |  03 Feb 2010
ISLAMABAD: Ambassador of Bosnia to Pakistan Armin Limo on Tuesday said Pakistan and Bosnia needed to improve their political and economic relations to promote bilateral trade and investment as the current volume of trade was far below the respective potential of both countries.

The ambassador expressed these views during a meeting with a group of local businessmen.

Several products of Pakistan go to Germany, get a new label and then enter European market including Bosnia costing more to consumers. He stressed for direct trade between Pakistan and Bosnia, which would be more beneficial for the economies and people of both countries.

The Bosnian ambassador said Pakistani businessmen could enter Bosnia by making joint ventures with their Bosnian counterparts. He said many Pakistani products including rice had good potential in Bosnia and Pakistani businessmen should establish direct trade links in Bosnia to grab better market share.

He said Bosnia was organizing the First International Investment Conference and invited Pakistani businessmen to participate in this event to explore more business opportunities by holding B2B meetings with their counterparts.

He thanked the government of Pakistan for providing crucial humanitarian and other support to Bosnia during its wartime.

Local businessmen said Bosnia was still an unexplored market for them. Frequent exchange of business delegations and establishing direct contacts were the options, which should be used to exploit untapped bilateral trade and investment potential in both countries, they said.

Pakistani products including rice, sports goods, surgical instruments, pharmaceutical, leather and textile products were very cheap for Bosnia and Bosnia should enhance imports of these products from Pakistan, they said.

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