PJ HarveyConfirmsDokufestAppearanceSinger-songwriter PJHarvey and Irish photog-rapher Seamus Murphywill be presenting their12 short films at thisyear’s Dokufest. Organisers of the Prizrenfestival, which is fastgaining a worldwide rep-utation, said they werethrilled by the news.

See Page 14

July 1 - 14, 2011 Issue No. 67 www.prishtinainsight.com Price € 1

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“I was asked to Make IllegalTransfer by PM Advisor”

Former Kosovo Central Bank Governor,Hashim Rexhepi, has said that corruptionallegations against him are part of a polit-ical plot and reveals details of the pres-sure placed on him by senior governmentfigures to carry out illegal activities

NEWS

Opinion: Skopje Warrior Fails to Make Greek Headlines

NEIGHBOURHOOD

page 4-6

Experts Warn of Prishtina-Skopje Highway Costs

Kosovo’s government has announced anew, expensive road construction project,despite its existing commitment to buildthe country’s first highway, which isalready straining the budget.

The government had planned to...

economyinterview pages 7

Next year Albania celebratesa century of independence.But the failure of the pow-

ers to create a state that included abig majority of Albanians remainsa subject of resentment, which isreceiving renewed attentionthanks to the rise of nationalistparties in Kosovo and Albania.

In a poll conducted by GallupInternational in November 2010, 80per cent of Albanians in Kosovo, 62per cent in Albania and 51 per centof Albanians in Macedonia sup-ported the idea of a GreaterAlbania encompassing Albania,mainly Albanian Kosovo andWestern Macedonia and fragments

of Serbia, Montenegro and Greece.In a surprise move this month,

Serbia’s President, Boris Tadic,suggested that the formation of a“Greater Albania” includingKosovo could even help solve eth-nic squabbles in the region – possi-bly because this would allowSerbia not to recognize Kosovo.

Meanwhile, nationalist senti-ment is on the rise amongAlbanians, if recent electionresults in Albania and Kosovo areanything to go by.

In Kosovo’s last general election,in November 2010, the Self-Determination Movement, LevizjaVetevendosje, became the thirdlargest political force after secur-ing 13 per cent of the vote in the

first election it had contested. With 14 deputies in Kosovo’s

Assembly, the street movement-turned party is establishing itselfas the strongest opposition to theruling Democratic Party ofKosovo, PDK, of Prime MinisterHashim Thaci.

As well as espousing union withAlbania, Vetevendosje rejectsKosovo foreign-imposed nationalsymbols, such as the blue-and-yel-low flag and the international-mandated decentralization plan,which has led to the creation ofnew majority Serb municipalitiesenjoying substantial autonomy.

Over the border in Albania, aparty representing the so-calledCham refugees, who were expelled

from Greece in the 1940s, alsoscored surprising successes inMay 8 local elections.

With the slogan “I LoveAlbania,” and campaigning with amix of minority and nationalistpolitics, the Party for Democracy,Unity and Integration, PDIU,gained 65,000 votes. Two years ear-lier, in the 2009 general elections, itwon only 14,000 voters.

The Chams originally resided inthe coastal Epirus region of north-ern Greece before being thrownout after the Second World War.They want pressure placed onGreece to restore them their lostcitizenship rights and property.

continues page 2-3

By Petrit Collaku

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Nationalists ResurrectDream of Great AlbaniaRise of nationalist parties in Albania and Kosovo puts unification of Albanian lands back on some people’s agenda.

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While the party’s main messageis directed at solving Cham griev-ances, it has targeted a wider audi-ence by styling itself a generally“patriotic party” and promotingthe idea of a sort of ethnicAlbanian economic zone in theBalkans.

The West is not keen:

While a fuzzy sentiment infavour of a pan-Albanian statemakes electoral gains, the likeli-hood of anything of the sort actual-ly happening remains small.

Article One of Kosovo’s constitu-tion expressly bans any such move.“The Republic of Kosovo shall haveno territorial claims against, andshall seek no union with, any Stateor part of any State,” it says.

This sentence was included toease international fears that granti-ng independence to Kosovo mightlead to the creation of a GreaterAlbania. Kosovo’s main partieshave to date shown little interest intackling this.

Kosovo’s Interior Minister,Bajram Rexhepi, not unexpectedly,told Prishtina Insight that he didnot even want to discuss the issue.“When we enter the EU, then we willbe united [under Brussels],” he said.

However, his ministry hasalready signed a number of agree-ments with Albania bringing thetwo countries much closer together.Deals include establishing joint bor-der controls, so that travellers needto show their documentation onlyonce, and joint police action.

Economically, the two countrieshave also become closer with thebuilding of a motorway, nicknamedthe “Patriotic Highway”, linkingPrishtina and Tirana. Albania hasalso agreed to give Kosovo use of aseaport, Shengjin, in the north ofthe country.

Glauk Konjufca, a Self-Determination MP in Kosovo, saysthe movement is well aware thatAlbanians in Kosovo and Albania

have expressed a desire to unite.Konjufca told Prishtina Insight

that the most important immediateissue was to ensure Kosovo’s sover-eignty over the whole of its territo-ry, adding that the current EU-medi-ated dialogue with Serbia ran count-er to this. The northern sliver ofKosovo is run by local Serbs in tan-dem with Belgrade.

He said that Vetevendosje wouldfirst ensure that Kosovo gained con-trol of all its borders before chang-ing the constitution to allow for uni-fication.

“We can then call a referendumand create one state, or anotheroption is a confederation of twostates,” he said, adding that theissue of whether Tirana should bethe overall capital was not impor-tant.

But he doubts these moves willhappen soon, given the position ofthe current government. “This willnot certainly happen while Kosovois run by Hashim Thaci,” he said.

He said the nation’s desire forunification was opposed by Westernpowers partly because Kosovo’spolitical elite had failed to make thecase for it.

The negative term “GreaterAlbania” was routinely used byneighbouring countries to justifytheir continued occupation ofAlbanian land, he complained.

The recent statement ofPresident Tadic of Serbia, that theKosovo dispute should be solvedthrough Belgrade and Tirana, inten-tionally presented the problemfalsely, he continued.

“There is no ‘ethnic dispute’,” hesaid. “There is a problem betweentwo countries: Kosovo and Serbia.”

Self-Determination is not the onlyparty in Kosovo looking afresh atthe issue of an all-Albanian state.

The Movement for Unification,Levizja per Bashkim, also has twodeputies in the Kosovo Assembly,after standing in coalition withVetevendosje in the general elec-tion.

Secretary Valon Murati says theirprogramme began to change in 1999

when Kosovo was freed fromSerbian rule and the focus shiftedfrom independence to unification.

But he added that they did notadvocate an Albania within its “his-toric” frontiers, that is, stretchingdeep into Serbia and Greece.

But people had a right to self-determination, including the Serbcommunity in northern Kosovo, headded.

“Where Albanians are a majorityand have territorial continuity, theyshould be allowed self-determina-tion, and this should be applied tothe Serbian community as well,”Murati said.

Ordinary Kosovars, meanwhile,remain divided over the matter.Some see unification as a pipedream. Others say it is already hap-pening, without changes to interna-tional borders.

“Unification is happening now,”Kreshnik Ceka, an Albanian study-ing at Prishtina University, said.Take the bilateral agreementbetween Albania and Kosovo whichallows Kosovo police to patrolAlbania during the summer holi-day.”

But another student toldPrishtina Insight that struggling fora united state wasn’t worth it.“Many countries in the world havesimilar problems and just imagineif everyone asked for their territo-ries [to be united in one state],” hesaid.

“The great powers and the EUwill not allow unification - andWestern countries need to be askedabout every step that Kosovo takes,”one 65-year-old man said.

Remzi Lani, a political commen-tator from Tirana, says state unifi-cation is unrealistic and its discus-sion is counterproductive.

“Albania does not have the powerto bring about the process of unifi-cation,” Lani said, noting thatmighty Germany had to wait untilthe fall of the Berlin wall to uniteonce again.

He agreed with Self-Determination’s fight against cor-ruption but was against the focus

on unification. “I do try to under-stand it but I think it is unrealistic,”he said.

The attempt by Albania’s Party ofJustice, Integration and Unity,PDIU, to raise the plight of theCham refugees, was more valid, headded. “I think the Chams’ requestsare natural,” he said.

Lani also ruled out Albania get-ting involved with Tadic’s idea forSerbia and Albania to settle Serb-Albanian disputes alone.

“Kosovo is an independent coun-try and Albania cannot discussKosovo’s partition, or any othersuch issues,” Lani said.

The new reality was the morefluid communication betweenAlbanians in Albania, Kosovo andMacedonia, which was occurringspontaneously, he added.

“This pan-Albanian integrationis happening and it is a very naturalprocess,” he said.

British historian Noel Malcolm,author of acclaimed histories ofKosovo and Bosnia, has also pouredcold water on the notion thatKosovo and Albania could uniteinto one state.

“This is a classic example of apolitical issue where everythingdepends on how you frame thequestion,” he told Prishtina Insightlast year.

“If you asked any Albanian inAlbania or Kosovo, ‘Do you thinkone day it would be a good thing forthese two to unite?’, the majoritywould say, ‘Yes, one day that wouldbe good’. And if you say, ‘Do youthink that an historical injusticewas done in 1913 when the first ver-sion of this border was created?’,everyone will say, ‘Yes’.

“But if you asked people in a gen-uine referendum: ‘Would you preferto be a unified state, so that yourpolitics and the decisions that affectyour life might be dominated bypoliticians from the other place, not

from your place?’, they would say,‘No’.

“At the theoretical level it couldhappen, but people don’t make deci-sions now for what might happen in50 years’ time,” Malcolm said.

One man goes alone:

One man taking a more proactiveapproach to the subject is head ofthe List for Natural Albania, basedin Tirana, who is presenting a law-suit of approximately 40 pages tothe International Court of Justice,ICJ.

Koco Danaj is currently finalis-ing the lawsuit’s two maindemands: union of Albanian landsand compensation of 100 billionpounds for damages caused by acentury of territorial division.

In an interview with theAlbanian news agency, lajmet-shqip.com, Danaj said the lawsuitwas against the London Conferenceof 1912 and 1913, which arrangedfor the partition of Albanian landamong Albania, Serbia andMontenegro.

Danaj said that the six powersattending at the meeting “satisfiedour neighbours by giving themAlbanian territories”.

The reason why he is seeking 100billion pounds in compensation isbecause, according to Ottoman doc-uments, the wealth of the parti-tioned territories at that time had avalue of about a billion pounds ayear.

Neither Kosovo’s nor Albania’sgovernment had contributed to orsupported the lawsuit, Danajexplained.

He was doing it all privately,because everyone has the right tosubmit legal document to the ICJ.“It’s a problem that belongs to theAlbania of today or of the future,and to Kosovo’s government too,”Danaj said.

The London Conference of1913 assembled representa-tives of six great powers:

Britain, France, Germany,Austria-Hungary, Russia andItaly, which gathered to resolveproblems resulting from thebreak-up of the Ottoman Empirefollowing the Balkan wars.

It began work on December 17,1912, under the direction of theBritain’s Foreign Secretary, SirEdward Grey.

On May 30, 1913, an agreementwas reached under whichOttoman Turkey gave up all terri-tory west of the Enos-Midia line.

Regarding Albania, the ambas-sadors initially wanted an

autonomous state, still under theoverall sovereignty of theOttoman Sultan.

After much discussion, theydecided in favour of a sovereignstate, but within very limited bor-ders. Austria lobbied hard for theinclusion in Albania of westernKosovo, but found itself blockedby Serbia’s ally, Russia. Britainexpressed very little interest oneway or the other.

This 54th meeting of the confer-ence on July 29, 1913, provided thebasis for the international recog-nition for Albanian independence.

That Britain's government orpublic knew anything at all aboutAlbania was largely down to one-

woman Albania campaigner EdithDurham who spent much of thefirst decade of the 20th century inShkodra, from where she bom-barded the British media andpoliticians with articles andappeals on Albania and roundingup MPs behind her cause.

Unable to make any headwayagainst Russia over the future ofKosovo, Durham raced south inthe summer of 1913, telegram-ming the London Conferencefrom Korce to tell the powers thatGreek claims to the town werebogus - partly as a result of whichthe border was shifted south by 20miles or so and Korce saved forAlbania.

The London Conference of London

Nationalists Resurrect Dream of Great Albania

July 1 - 14, 2011news 3

Editor’s Word

Lindje

I’ve been away for a few edi-tions tending to the brith, orLindje in Albanian, of my

first, second and third child atthe same time.

Yes, I am now the proudfather of triplets, and they areas adorable and demanding asyou would imagine.

My new life under the merci-less rule of the terrible triumvi-rate seems to revolve mostlyaround inspecting poo and try-ing to fathom the meaning of aparticular cry or smile.

Parents often marvel at theirnew arrivals, cooing about the‘birth of an angel’. Well, in mycase it feels more like the birthof a triangle. Obtuse, of course.

The girls may be a little diffi-cult to comprehend for themoment, but one thing that hasbecome crystal clear to me inthe past months is how very,very lucky I have been to be ableto rely on the UK’s NationalHealth Service.

Hana, Miriam and Corinnaspent six weeks under the amaz-ing care of the special carenurses at Pembury Hospital,Tunbridge Wells, as they wereborn prematurely, as almost alltriplets are.

So when news broke lastmonth that children inPrishtina’s main hospital werebeing deprived of even the mostbasic tests to detect cancer, Ihave to say I was particularlysusceptible to their plight.

I have been wanting to usePrishtina Insight as a means toencourage us international,rich visitors to Kosovo to con-tribute a little more to societythan servicing the capital’s wellstocked bars and restaurants,and this appeared to be the per-fect opportunity.

Of course there are manyworth causes and many of youwill have persuasive argumentswhy money would be betterspent here or there.

Ultimately, however, there isno perfect cause or charity, nocampaign which is beyondreproach.

But raising money to securereagents for the hospital doesmeet some important criteria: itwill result in a tangible goodwhich can be accounted for,reagents for the tests to be car-ried out; it will be given to a wellrun charity, Help for Childrenwith Cancer; and, most impor-tantly, it will help save chil-dren’s lives.

We are currently distributingcollection boxes to those willingto take them and would wel-come more requests fromorganisations and businesses sowe can try to raise as muchmoney as possible.

So please dig deep, and helpsave a child’s life. It could beyours one day.

By Lawrence Marzouk

1.7 million – the unexpectedly low population of Kosovo according to the first census in 20 years200,000 – the number of inhabitants in Prishtina. Well below the 500,000 often touted.180,000 – Prizren’s population, however, is on par with expectations.

Anew round of negotiationsbetween Belgrade andPrishtina, expected on

Saturday, may result in agree-ments on greater freedom of move-ment between the two estrangedcountries.

Milivoje Mihajlovic, head of theSerbian government's informationbureau, told Prishtina Insight thatthe fifth round of Belgrade-Prishtina talks is likely to result inclosure of a "chapter" on freedomof movement between the two peo-ples.

"This is something that the twosides have been agreeing on lately,"Mihajlovic said.

Freedom of movement shouldmean that Kosovo nationals canenter Serbia using Kosovo IDs andpassports. Serbian custom officerswill not stamp Kosovo passports,however, as that would implySerbia recognising Kosovo's inde-

pendence.Kosovo Serbs have still com-

plained loudly, dubbing the move,if it happens, as Serbia's "de facto"recognition of Kosovo's 2008 inde-pendence.

Belgrade denies this. BorislavStefanovic, chief of Serbia's nego-tiation team, said: "Belgrade willnot in any way recognise, nor con-firm the independence of Kosovo."

For the first time since Kosovounilaterally declared independ-ence in February 2008, the twosides sat down together inBrussels under EU auspices onMarch 8 and 9.

Since then, four rounds havebeen held on topics varying fromfreedom of movement, the cadas-tre, civil registry books, and mutu-al recognition of college diplomas.

But no “chapters” in the talkshave yet been closed, which is sup-posed to happen in the fifth round.Serbia has been delaying the startof the fifth round since June. TheKosovo side has suggested thatthis is because Belgrade does notwant to sign any agreements.

However, the two sides were in

touch via video conferences inJune, trying to find solutions onopen issues.

Ahead of the fifth round, EditaTahiri, Chief of the Kosovo negoti-ation team, said she expectedSerbia to recognize Kosovo cus-toms stamps and license plates,

when the two sides finally met. When it comes to telecommuni-

cations, Tahiri said that Serbianmobile and fixed telephony willstop including Kosovo as Serbia,while "roaming on favourableterms" would be introducedinstead.

Kosovo Passports to beAccepted by Serbia

Parents and teachers at aschool in Prishtina are con-cerned that pupils in differ-

ent age groups are being taught atthe same time, in the same class-room, with the same blackboard.

One teacher told PrishtinaInsight that the students found itvery difficult to follow classes as aresult, and parents said that theirchildren’s education was sufferingas a result.

Because the school only has 80students, teachers are forced totake classes at the same time.

Teacher Nazmi Islami said: “Asingle blackboard is being used forboth student groups and this ishard to manage.

“Usually, when we are teachingthe students of fourth grade,those of second grade raise aquestion and therefore the situa-tion becomes difficult for the stu-dents as well.

“We do not have enough time towork with all students and theclass is so noisy for them to do theclass work.”

Parent Avdi Aliu said: “Theschool infrastructure is verygood, but the problem is that in

the same classroom, at the sametime, the teacher gives a 20minute lecture for the students offirst grade and 20 other minutesfor the students of third grade.

“It is very difficult for our chil-dren to be focused on the learningprocess, since they hear also thelectures of the different grade. “

Education expert Halim Hysenisaid: “These children are beingvictimized, since they are notbeing prepared for further educa-tion at all.

“Unfortunately, these children

will be unable to compete withothers in the future. They arebeing punished as a result of nofault of their own, since they can-not learn from their peers orsocialise with them.

“If someone builds a school, itdoes not necessarily mean thatthey have provided all requiredparameters which are indispen-sable for a qualitative education.”

Aliu added: “I think that theMinistry of Education, Scienceand Technology should be blamedfor this situation, since they are

building schools, but do not careif the learning process is beingeffective or not.”

Ragip Gjoshi, political advisorto the education minister: “I can-not judge the investments ofMEST. By pedagogical rules, thecombined lectures are allowed,but it depends a lot on the teach-ing techniques of the teacher.The learning process should becreative; therefore, teachersshould be able to help studentsengage in the learning process-es.”

Prishtina School has OneBlackboard for Two ClassesTeachers at one Prishtina school are forced to teach two age groups at the same time

By Bojana Barlovac

By Edona Musa

Wee

k in

Num

ber

news4 July 1 - 14, 2011

www.prishtinainsight.com

Publisher:

BIRN

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network

Mensa e Studenteve, first floor

10000, Prishtina

Kosovo

Phone: +381 (0) 38 24 33 58

Fax: +381 (0) 38 22 44 98

lawrence@birn.eu.com

Editor-in-Chief:

Lawrence Marzouk

lawrence@birn.eu.com

Editorial Team:

Ana Petruseva, Gordana Igric,

Jeta Xharra, Marcus Tanner,

Petrit Collaku, Shengjyl Osmani and

Kanarina Shehu.

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YMCK

Jeta Xharra: 11 months agowe all saw your dramatic arreston TV, which to me was verymovie like the ‘Bank GovernorArrested’ headline. This wasthe first action of theAnticorruption Task Force, andthe reports seemed like somecool cowboy action movie. Doesit continue to be so?

Hashim Rexhepi: I often havethat TV story in my mind, to thisday, unluckily. How much cowboy-like it was, as you put it, or howmuch of a premeditated plot it wasyou can tell me.

Q: Why was it a premeditatedplot, from whom and how? Giveme the facts you have MrRexhepi, as you’ve had 11months to reflect upon manythings, three of which werespent in prison. What facts doyou have to show to the publicto prove that this is a plot?

A: I am a responsible personwith a great deal of experience,and it wouldn’t be a problem forme to, if requested by authorities,present myself and clarify thingswith them. But, my arrest takingplace in such a dramatic way sug-gests nothing else to me but a pre-meditated act. In saying this, I takeinto consideration the develop-ments at that time in Kosovo.

Q: What was happening thenthat could prove it was a plotplanned against you? Explainthese events?

A: Firstly, I think the politicalmoment was that it had been sixmonths that EULEX was carryingout investigations into differentinstitutions, and the citizens wereawaiting their outcome. Thus, myarrest would surely have helpedsomeone trying to deliver the mes-sage “we (the government) arefighting corruption”. Secondly, Ithink that it was very easy toarrest me, since I wasn’t affiliatedwith any political party. I had noone to back me, I was only anexpert who managed the CentralBank. I had no support in thatregard.

Q: However, it was politicsthat brought you there, right?

A: The Central Bank is an inde-pendent body reporting directly tothe Parliament, and its opera-tional independence is guaranteedby legislation covering the CentralBank. Thus, occasional interven-tions taking place at the CentralBank and my rejection of themwas certainly not appreciated,hence someone may have thought‘Hashim is unacceptable’.

Q: So, ‘Hashim Rexhepi wasunacceptable’ you say? Whendid you start seeing indicationsof that? And, I’m asking you adirect question – what favoursdid you not do for the politi-cians that began to make youunacceptable for the politi-cians. What requests were yousubjected to?

A: I must refer back to an almostthree-year period. It is easy to seethat the whole period was a contin-uous campaign against the gover-nor and the Central Bank, attack-ing various issues, over which theBank actually had no authori-ty.

Q: Remind us again, whatissues were you attacked over?

A: Simply...I would like to men-tion only three issues, I wouldn’tlike to spill everything here, Ithink. There was an open cam-paign against the Bank, particu-larly on the issue that the CentralBank hadn’t allowed privatisationfunds to return to Kosovo, whichwas developed by the KosovoPrivatisation Agency and its head,trying to blame it on the CentralBank. The Central Bank servedthe KPA as a regular client.

Q: Then, who didn’t want themoney returned to Kosovo, ifnot you?

A: Based on privatisation legis-lation, it is exclusively up to theBoard of the Privatisation Agencyand no one else. In that case, the

Central Bank could take actions, ifhaving received an instructionfrom the KPA board with a cleardescription of its aims with thefunds.

Q: Let’s clear something up:the KPA declared publicly thatit wants the money to return toKosovo but it is not beingallowed to do so by the CentralBank? Have they sent you anofficial request for the Bank toreturn those funds?

A: There was a letter which Ireceived from the board presidentof the KPA, a very general letter,not specific at all.

Q: What did that letter con-tain, exactly?

A: It said: “return the money toKosovo”, without specifying clear-ly where or how, and without sit-ting down to discuss issues regard-ing the added costs and risksshould the bank return thosefunds. I have invited the KPA boardpresident for a meeting over this.

Q: What did you say to him:“Where should I move themoney to?”

A: To discuss the fact that theinstruction needed clarifying inorder to know what the decisionwas.

Q: In other words, in whatbanks was the money to bereturned?

A: Funds could not have beenreturned anywhere else except theCentral Bank. According to thelaw, the Central Bank cannot makeinvestments in secondary banks.This is why I have asked for anoth-er meeting, but I was told over thephone “not to bother with this”. Ihave also sent an official request tohave the issue clarified.

Q: Secondly, what else hap-pened to you, what other indi-cations were there?

A: There was an early warning,if I may call it so. Back in the time

of the restructuring of the govern-ment, the story went into the pub-lic domain that the “bank gover-nor, Hashim Rexhepi, must be dis-charged” and that allegedly “heviolated the law”. This sort ofpreceded the goings on later on.But, the Central Bank law veryclearly sets out how a governor ofa Central Bank is appointed or dis-charged.

Q: Tell us, an early warningfrom whom and in what way?

A: Well, it was reported in themedia, it was reported on KlanKosova television and other print-ed media; and there were state-ments by spokespersons of thePrime minister’s and thePresident’s office which tried todeny it, generally speaking.

Q: And what followed afterthis?

A: Well, how to say, there wereactions and requests which Irejected, or against which I triedto protect the Central Bank andthe law. The requests ranged frommatters of staffing, to requests forlicensing financial institutions, allthe way to requests for funds man-aged by the Bank to be invested incertain institutions, through torequests coming by certaingroups.

Q: Before we go on, let me askyou: has anyone ever told youthat you must resign?

A: There was a case when thiswas said to me, with a degree ofanger, and this happened some-time in 2009, following my refusalto invest some funds on the basisthat the law of the Central Bankstrictly defines the rules on invest-ing the funds it manages.

Q: Tell us about the momentwhen you refused the transferof funds. Who exactly askedyou to do so, where were youand in what manner was itrequested of you?

A: It happened in 2009, we wereat a conference of the EBRD inLondon, and on the second daythere I was told by the Minister ofFinance not to plan anything inthe evening because we were tomeet certain investors.

Q: The Minister of Finance,Ahmet Shala?

A: Yes. Naturally out of respectand in order for mutual coordina-tion, I did so, but in the evening Iwas told that the Minister wasbusy so I was to go in order for themeeting not to fail. To my sur-prise, there were no investors inthe room. There was an advisor tothe Minister, who made thatrequest to me.

Q: We know that in that time,the advisor to the Minister ofEconomy was an Israeli guywith the name of Ariel, right?

A: Yes.Q: What did he ask from you

exactly? You went there expect-ing investors, but found theminister’s advisor. What did hesay?

A: Well Jeta, I won’t go intodetails today, I will surely explainthem somewhere else. It was adecisive request. I was told thatsince we had enough funds underour management, that it would begood if we invested the funds intocertain banks as per their recom-mendation, and that we would allsatisfied. I said no. The law is suchthat we have an investment com-mission which knows that this is atime of crisis and so on and thuswe are very careful in how theCentral Bank manages the publicfunds. For your public’s informa-tion, at that time we were workinga lot with the DeutscheBundesbank, the Central Bank ofFrance and that of Luxemburg,for reasons of security in fundsinvestment as well as to make surethere’s no risk of eventual lossesof our funds. I believe we havedone a great job in that, and neverhave we lost a single cent of thefunds.

Q: What bank did he ask youto put the funds into?

A: It wasn’t specifically men-tioned, but after my rejection, theconversation was just dropped.

Q: I’m very curious to knowhis reaction. How did that advi-sor react?

A: He was quite nonchalant, if Imay say so, but he was probably

Former Kosovo Central Bank Governor, Hashim Rexhepi,has said that corruption allegations against him are part ofa political plot and reveals details of the pressure placedon him by senior government figures to carry out illegalactivities

I have always tried to obey the law, but in this case, a smallexception was made.A: Jeta, is there any mother on earth that would carry drugsto her children, even if they are users?

Rexhepi: “I was asked to Make

By Jeta Xharra

news 5July 1 - 14, 2011

YMCK

only relaying a message to what hethought was the right destination.

Q: And following that themedia campaign began?

A: After this came what youmentioned earlier, which was asurprise to me.

Q: That’s when you were told‘to leave’?

A: I asked for a face to face meet-ing to clarify things, but that’s howit happened.

Q: Another detail that hasnow come out in the media is ofthe moment you were asked tolicense an insurance company.Tell us about this moment andwhy you didn’t carry out thisrequest from politicians, andwho was it that made therequests?

A: Look Jeta, the Central Bankhas precise rules and licensingprocedures. Without meeting thecriteria, no one can obtain alicence. Normal procedures mustbe followed.

Q: Ok, who asked? A: There was an application by

an insurance company, I think thename was ‘Evropa Ins [UnitedIns]’, and the case was reviewed bythe relevant directory, who, in ameeting with the review commis-sion presented clearly that thecompany did not qualify for licens-ing, due to problems in meetingthe criteria.

Q: Why? Because the ownerswere under investigation?

A: There were issues with theownership structure, issuesregarding capital, police recordchecks saying that...

Q: That they didn’t pass thetest?

A: That the record checks ofthree members proposed for man-agement yielded a negative resultdue to the fact that they had beenengaged in criminal activity.

Q: Which of our politicianscame to you to get a licence forthe company?

A: I think the audience knows

this already, but I can reveal onceagain.

Q: Confirm once again,please?

A: It was minister Shala and themayor of Skenderaj, Mr Lushtaku.

Q: Again, minister Shalacomes to lobby for someonewho hasn’t met the conditions.What arguments did they usewhen they asked for licences?What did they say?

A: This meeting took place inthe Central Bank, besides me therewere the Deputy Governor, SeniorLicensing Officer and theLicensing Director; and the prob-lem was stated there, that the com-pany does not meet licensing con-ditions, and that we couldn’t pro-ceed further without that. Theirargument was that they allegedlywanted to attract foreign investorsand so on, however, it seems thatthey weren’t happy with this strictand lawful attitude of the Bank.

Q: I really want to know howit feels when politicians of thatlevel, a Finance Minister and aMayor go to a Bank to ask for arequest to be carried out, andnot to one official, but four, asyou say – is there an atmos-phere of fear? Are you fright-ened?

A: No. The Central Bank ofKosovo has managed to build itscapacity and the overall manage-ment was clearly defined, there-fore the staff felt confident in theirprofessional attitude. As for fear –absolutely no. We had principles,and if we were afraid or some-thing like that, we would haveprobably have done something ille-gal, which would be worse thanwhat happened.

Q: And, what was the reac-tion of the then-Minister. Whatdid he say?

A: There were no direct reac-tions to us, but what was said out-side the meeting room, I don’tknow.

Q: However, Mr Rexhepi, the

charges against you are seri-ous. This may all be true, butthe accusations against you,they are still in effect and showmoney laundering tax evasion, bribery, misuse of official post,exercising of pressure. Theysay that you have real estate inAlbania, they say that you gotpeople employed in insurancecompanies. Pick one which istrue?

A: I will use this occasion onceagain to discuss the charges, or bet-ter to say suspicions, since we can-not say charges. They were fabri-cated in such a manner to leave animpression to the public as if we’redealing with a criminal who hasdone nothing but illegal activity.

Q: Which of them have beenconfirmed by now, after 11months, by the prosecution?

A. None of the suspicions raisedholds water.

Q: Has any indictment beenmade so far?

A: No, absolutely not. For 11months now. I have very littleinformation from the authoritiesinvolved in this issues, as they arevery closed. But, I am very confi-dent in my work and I am certainthat there are no grounds for anyof the charges.

Q: However, you are not naiveand you do have your ties withinternationals, as there havebeen some internationals whohave spoken on your behalf,and you must certainly havediscovered what happened inyour case, after 11 months, asyou must have been trying toget answers on your case.What’s going on in the SpecialProsecution after 11 months?

A: It is my first experience withthe justice system, with investiga-tion and prosecution and so on,and from what I have witnessed inthese 11 months, I am utterly dis-appointed. Disappointed first ofall, in the inefficiency, the unpro-fessionalism and the lack of trans-

parency.Q: Give me an example?A: There are many examples.Q: Give me two?A: Firstly, there was no will on

the side of authorities, and this iswhat showed to me that my arrestwas orchestrated, to verify the evi-dence before making the decisionfor the arrest. It would have beenso easy to verify the evidence sinceit deals with financial systemswhich contain data and records.

Q: For example? What couldthey have verified, which theydidn’t?

A: They could have easily, forexample, verified the issue regard-ing the loan.

Q: They say that you took aloan while you were governorof the Bank, at a value of20,000 euro.

A: No, I wasn’t governor then.That was in late 2005.

Q: Can you tell me how muchthe loan was?

A: 23,000 euro, it was for my per-sonal needs, as I had started theconstruction of my home.

Q: This was part of thecharges, yes?

A: Yes, and it was an issue thatcould have been verified extremelyeasily, in one day, with a simplecheck.

Q: How many houses do youown in Albania?

A: None, none at all. Neverowned one, nor did my family.

Q: No real estate, no home? A: Absolutely not. Q: Not even property regis-

tered to someone else in thefamily?

A: Absolutely not. My lawyerwas able to collect evidence andproof from the Albanian authori-ties, within a very short time,which proved that I don’t own[property] in Albania, and neverhave done.

Q: Another charge againstyou was for getting 28 peoplehired by an insurance company.Who are they?

A: Just imagine that. What isimplied is that the Association ofInsurance Companies, which is acompletely independent authority,with its own governing bodies…

Q: But, you could have hadinfluence as you were governor,others would be honoured tohire the people you send.

A: Absolutely not. I never gotinvolved with issues like that nordid I exercise any influence.

Q: See, if the Prime minis-ter’s advisor can tell you to putmoney in a bank, you can alsotell insurance companies tohire people for you.

A: I am not such a person and Ihave not been involved in suchmatters. I am not certain if theAssociation of Insurers even has28 people working there. They arean organisation on their own, withtheir governing bodies and theirprocurement.

Q: Tell me then, who said thisabout you? What witness saidthese things about you, are theycredible? Or were they onlyfrom anonymous letters?

A: Most of the charges were

based on anonymous letters. I wasnever made aware who the accus-ers were.

Q: However, it is not possiblefor the prosecution not to havea witness, for 11 months now.

A: There have been many wit-nesses. They took almost all boardmembers, company directors, Ihave seen their interviews andnone of them reported witnessinganything.

Q: None of the board mem-bers or any others witnessedyou stealing money?

A: There was nothing to witness,they only wanted to speculate,because I was not involved in suchmatters.

Q: Ok, were you present inthe interviews?

A: I am not an expert in the legalfield to discuss procedures, but Iwill mention one case in which theprosecutor and the investigatorsblatantly violated the criminalprocedure code.

Q: Why? A: Because one of the so-called

key ‘witnesses’, who was alsoone of the main actors in prepar-ing the charges, not only did heprevent me from participating andasking questions, which I am enti-tled to by law, but so did hislawyers. At times, they would saythe interview is to take place at acertain hour and when the hourcame they would say that it waspostponed for another day, only tofind out that the person was seenhanging out with the prosecutorand investigator in a restaurant.Afterwards, they said that theyfinished the interview.

Q: You say it’s a violation?Does the accused have the rightto be present in the interview,or only the lawyer?

A: According to the criminalprocedure code of Kosovo, theaccused has the right to sit in aninterview. However, if the witnessmakes a request for the suspectnot to be present, the attorneymust definitely be there.

Q: Maybe they were scared ofyou, Mr Rexhepi?

A:I don’t know. I am not a personwho has caused any injustice toanyone, but professionally theymust have felt very bad becausethey are unable to prove theirinsinuations.

Q: Again, on the same issueabout hiring people. I mustmention something, althoughyou’re saying you didn’t carryout some requests from politi-cians but you did do some. Wemust not be naïve, since we livein a Kosovo where things hap-pen the way they do. You havecertainly been involved in this,being a leader of a major insti-tution. All institutions havesome pressure for getting peo-ple into jobs, from PTK[PostTelecommunications ofKosovo] all the way to RTK[Radio Television of Kosovo]. Itis impossible for you not tohave had some pressure of hir-ing people and not to have car-ried out a few requests.

continues page 6

The investigation againstShkendije Himaj, the direc-tor of supervision at the

Central Bank of Kosovo, has beendropped after almost a yearbecause of a lack of evidence.

Himaj had been suspendedfrom her job at the bank in July2010 after EULEX and Kosovo’sSpecial Prosecution Officelaunched raids on the institu-tions, and in particular the gover-nor Hashim Rexhepi.

But a probe by PrishtinaInsight, published in May,revealed serious problems withthe investigation and questions

over whether Himaj and Rexhepiwere the victims of a politicalplot.

Kosovo’s prosecution has nowconfirmed to Himaj that the inves-tigation has been dropped and shehas returned to work.

She told Prishtina Insight: “Ican confirm that the case againstme has been dropped and that jus-tice has finally been done.

“Now, I would like to see thosewho have made these false accusa-tions against me investigated sothat these people are not allowedto ruin anybody else life as theyhave done to me.”

The case against Rexhepi is stillongoing and Isabel Arnal, theEULEX prosecution whose time atthe mission is about to end, toldthe Prishtina daily Koha Ditore

that an indictment against theformer governor would be lodgedat the court this summer.

By Petrit Collaku

CBK Case: HimajInvestigation Dropped

Illegal Transfer by PM Advisor”

YMCK

business6 July 1 - 14, 2011

from page 5

A: I wanted to state in the begin-ning that there have been somecases, but I will not elaboratethem in detail.

Q: Have you hired anyonethrough a request from politi-cians?

A: There was one single case inthe Bank, which was reviewed bythe relevant commission, andthere has been an outside inter-vention to hire an individual, andthe board supported it.

Q: Who intervened?A: It was from the Prime

Minister directly.Q: So, a person was hired.

But did the new employee meetall the conditions?

A: According to the commis-sion, the candidate was relativelyqualified.

Q: Obviously he had a strongrecommendation. Then, thisperson became Head of theInsurance Department at theCBK, his name is AgronRamadani, right?

A: Yes.Q: So then, it accidentally

happens that the same personis one of the witnesses againstyou?

A: Unfortunately so.Q: How is that possible? The

person employed through aPrime minister’s interventionhas now turned against you?

A: Not only that. Several of thewitnesses that the prosecutiongathered, were people who, in oneway or another, had been subjectof reprimand or other measure bythe Central Bank.

Q: Do you have evidence thatthese measures were taken?

A: Yes, I have it here. Q: What document do you

have that shows you’ve takenmeasures against these per-sons?

A: Certainly, we’ve had a docu-ment from an insurance companycontaining serious complaintsregarding this person’s inter-ference in their day to day opera-tions. I have sent this document tothe General Inspector and to theprosecution for verification.

Q: Hold on a second – the per-son that the PrimeMinisterhelped get a job withyou, had started to put pres-sure on the insurance compa-nies to cover damages, is thiswhat you’re saying?

A: It was about damage insur-ance. The ethical code of theCentral Bank does not allow this,and we have always ensured thatsuch interventions don’t happen

Q: I really want to know ifyou spoke to Mr Ramadani.What has he said?

A: We met a couple of daysbefore the arrest, he tried to denythat…

Q: Did he say “I didn’t do it”or did he say he was just doinghis job?

A: He said he did it for the inter-est of insurance, which is why Isent the file to the relevant Bankdepartment for verification.

Q: So, we know where the 11months of investigation leadto. You were arrested andimprisoned with no indictmentfor 11 months. But what aboutthis guy who is alleged to havebeen responsible for wrongdo-ing inside the bank – what didthe bank inspection do? Doeshe still work there?

A: Yes. I was arrested a few dayslater, I have no information aboutthe fate of the complaint.

Q: That’s what happens whenyou carry out favours forpoliticians! So, you see! Youhire a person in that fashionand it boomerangs backagainst you. That’s how unpro-fessionalism functions.

A: I wouldn’t call it unprofes-sionalism. I have always tried toobey the law, but in this case, asmall exception was made.

Q: I’m bringing up thecharges once again. One of thecharges is that your son wasone of the owners of a compa-ny, which won a tender forcomputer software to be sup-plied to the InsurersAssociation. Is this true?

A: Look Jeta, I wouldn’t go intodetail about this as I haveexplained this to the investigatorsand prosecutors. I wasn’t at allaware.

Q: You weren’t aware, butplease explain: Your son isshareholder in the company?

A: My son is a shareholder inKreako with 19 percent sharesand this company had applied fora bid by the Insurers Association,for a computer application, andthe Association had independent-ly decided to go with their appli-cation.

Q: Are you really the victim,Mr Rexhepi, that you make outto be?

A: I am certain I am a victim,and I have full confidence that itwill be revealed. Life seems tooffer up many tests.

Q: Before we close, I have onequestion to ask you, MrRexhepi. I know it’s hard toask you this. It will be the lastquestion. Many people thoughtthat after you had a problemwith your son being involvedin a murder, you should haveresigned since you have a pub-lic position. There are otherswho say that the children aregrown up and over 18, and wecan’t all have total controlover our children. However,have you ever had the dilemmathat perhaps you should haveresigned?

A: Jeta, I have never spoken

publicly about this issue, espe-cially in the post I held duringthat time. I am seriously sorrythat such a thing had happenedand that there was a victim.

Q: You are saying that ayoung boy was murdered, andyour son was involved?

A: It wasn’t only my son, therewere many others, and I am wait-ing for the justice to have its finalsay on the case, as you mayremember the headlines, therewas an attempt to portray it badlythrough statements like “the gov-ernor’s son”.

Q: Has your son receive anysentence for this?

A: No, the procedure is stillongoing after two years and fivemonths now, and the hearingshave not finished yet, but I amoptimistic that justice will haveits say.

Q: Some of the othersinvolved are not here, theyescaped to the US, right?

A: It is true that on that night,which was New Year’s morning,two persons were witnessed beinginvolved directly. They haveescaped to the US.

Q: What does your son say?Does he say he did it or thatthe others did it?

A: To this day, my son is certainthat he did not murder.

Q: Did he see who did? A: One of the key witnesses has

seen the event, and he has givenhis testimony.

Q: Have you spoken to thefamily?

A: I haven’t had the chance. Ofcourse, I have sent them my con-dolences, I felt really bad as if myson was murdered, in fact, itcould have been him. It was anaccident. The parties didn’t knoweach other at all. Therefore, Iwant to believe that justice willbe served.

Q: I know it’s a bit personal,

but I want to address allrumours about you, MrRexhepi. The last rumour. Thestory goes that your wife wascaught carrying drugs inprison, taking it to your sons.Is this true?

A: Jeta, is there any mother onearth that would carry drugs toher children, even if they areusers?

Q: Maybe so, I don’t know.A: My sons were never drug

users. In fact, I never went to visitmy sons at that time. I spoke tomy children on the phone andtold them I would go and visitthem.

Q: Tell me, was anythingfound or not?

A: My wife went together withtwo people to visit my children.Checking procedures were notcarried out well that day as offi-cers normally check everythingyou bring in. My wife was told tojust go ahead inside and to leavethe stuff there. She went in to seeour son, and then as she moved tosee our other son, some officerscame and said that they founddrugs inside her pocket.

Q: And they found the drugswithout her being present?

A: Absolutely. This was a hugetrauma for my wife, for everyonewho was inside there and for me.A very bad image was created ofmy family, and my family is notlike that, Jeta. Absolutely not.We’re a very normal family. We’rean intellectual family, a motivat-ed one.

Q: Did you have any propos-als from politicians to get yoursons out of there?

A: I wouldn’t talk about thatJeta. Although there has beensomething of that.

Agron Ramadani, who works atthe Central Bank of Kosovo, hasrefused to give a statement toBIRN regarding the allegations.

Economy experts believe thatthe 10 per cent import dutyimposed on goods from

Serbia and Bosnia andHerzegovina products from July 1will hit mainly hit Kosovo con-sumers.

The action is being taken inresponse to Serbia and Bosnia’sboycott of goods stamped‘Republic of Kosovo’ since the dec-laration of independence, in con-travention of the Centreal andEastern European TradeAgreement.

“Kosovo should reply back toSerbia with reciprocity, an embar-go, and not with a duty of 10 percent more for their goods, sincethe consequences of such a taxwill be picked up bu the Kosovoconsumers, and not by Serbianproducers,” said the economy pro-

fessor Nagip Skenderi.Professor Skenderi said he was

concerned that businesses inKosovo would take advantage ofthe situation by hiking the priceof products beyond the 10 percent.

“Shopkeepers may manipulatethe price of products by increas-ing those prices by 20 per centeven though the tax would be only10 per cent, and they will stillblame the government for theincrease,” he said.

He insists that this tax will notaffect the producer fromSerbia, but the consumerfrom Kosovo.

Muhamet Sadiku, economyexpert, says that this situationhas emerged from the non-functionality of the CentralEuropean Free TradeAgreement, CEFTA, an agree-ment which, according to him,appears to be applicable for somecountries, and for some other not.

Sadiku said the best optionavailable to Kosovo is reciprocity,

since even when Kosovo’s exportswere allowed to enter in Serbia,they represented just 15 mil-lion euro per year,while the importsfrom Serbia is wortharound 290 millioneuro and 80 millioneuro from Bosnia.

“Even the WorldTrade Organization con-siders reciprocity as alegitimate tool, thus itshould be used,” claimsSadiku.

H e

admits that theapplication of this tax willincrease inflation in the country.

On the other hand, the deputyprime minster of Kosovo and the

Minster for Trade and Industry,Mimoza Kusari-Lila,is confident that

from thebeginning of July

the 10 per cent duty willonly affect consumers that do notwant to replace goods from Serbiaand Bosnia and Herzegovina withproducts from elsewhere.

“Only those consumers who atany cost want to consume goodsfrom Serbia and Bosnia andHerzegovina will a face price

increase of 10 per cent, asthere will be

other goodsfrom other

countries whichwill replace the

goods fromSerbia and Bosnia

and Herzegovina,”said Kusari-Lila.

Kosovo currentlyrelies on Serbia forwheat, and therefore

bread. “We will befollowing the situa-tion in the market,regarding the supplyof goods, in order not

to create a trade shock,”she added, explaining that theconstruction of the highwayKosovo-Albania makes the importprocess of goods from otherEuropean countries much sim-pler.

New Tax on Serbian, Bosnian Imports Questioned Kosovo government has warned that from the beginning of July it will begin to apply an import duty on Serbian and Bosnian products in response tothese countries embargo of Kosovo goods

Rexhepi: “I was asked to Make Illegal Transfer by PM Advisor”

By Lavdim Hamidi

YMCK

business 7July 1 - 14, 2011

Skopje and the Bosnian Serbcity of Banja Luka haveemerged well from the World

Bank’s regional report, “Doingbusiness in South East Europe”.

The report surveys businessperformance of 22 cities fromseven countries in the region. Thereport was published this week inVienna and updates a previoussurvey done in 2008.

The four benchmarks are: start-ing a business, handling construc-tion permits, registering propertyand enforcing contracts.

The report generally pinpointsprogress in all of the 19 cities thathave been surveyed for a secondtime, noting that all have pro-gressed at least in one of the sur-veyed areas.

But only Macedonia's capital,Skopje, and the Bosnian Serb defacto capital of of Banja Luka arepinpointed as making progress inall four benchmarks over the pastthree years.

It takes just three days and a lit-tle over 100 US dollars to start upa business in Skopje, the reportcontinues.

The worst in the region for start-ing businesses are the capital ofKosovo, Pristina, and the Bosniancapital, Sarajevo, where entrepre-neurs wait almost two months toregister their enterprises.

Meanwhile the best city forenforcing a contract appears to beZrenjanin, in north-easternSerbia, where commercial dis-putes are resolved in 10 monthson average. The worst for settling

a commercial dispute is Prizren,in Kosovo, where the waiting timeusually exceeds four years.

Businessmen face the least dif-ficulty when registering a proper-ty in the Moldavan capital,Chisinau, and in the town of Baltiin the north of the same country.

The Bosnian town of Mostar isthe worst for registering property.

The Montenegrin city of Niksicis marked out as the best for deal-ing with construction permits.The Serbian capital Belgrade isthe worst in this regard.

The survey included cities in

Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo,Macedonia, Moldova,Montenegro and Serbia. WhileCroatia has dropped out since thelast survey, Moldova has beenadded.

“The wide variation in businessregulation across the regionpoints to ample room for improve-ment,” states the report.

The report notes that whilemany business factors depend onthe local authorities, govern-ments can also help a great dealby improving regulations, cuttingbureaucracy and red tape.

Skopje leads the region in terms of best city in which to start a business, a new report says, whereas Prishtina is at the bottom of the Balkan table

Kosovo Trails in World Bank Business League

By Sinisa Jakov Marusic

Kosovo’s government hasannounced a new, expen-sive road construction

project, despite its existing com-mitment to build the country’sfirst highway, which is alreadystraining the budget.

The government had plannedto finance the Prishtina-Skopjehighway through a public-privatepartnership, but it has beenadvised by French firm Egis thatthis is not viable.

Earlier this month, the coun-try’s cabinet announced that itplanned to press on with thescheme despite with fundingcoming from the national budget.

American-Turkish consortiumBechtel Enka is currently con-structing Kosovo’s first highway,which will connect Kosovo to

Albania and Serbia, at a cost ofbetween 700 million euro and 1billion euro.

Experts warn that the movecould bankrupt the country.

Until 2007, Kosovo’s budget wascharacterised by budget surplus-es of more than 7 per cent, but in2010 the budget deficit was 2.6 percent because of increased capitalexpenditures on the new high-way.

This year’s deficit is expectedto reach up to 5 per cent of theGDP.

Because of increased budgetexpenditure, and in particularspending on the road and anincrease in the salaries of civilservants, the InternationalMonetary Fund stopped the 18month programme with theGovernment of Kosovo, the socalled “Stand-by Arrangement”,which has deprived the countryof 150 million euro in grants andloans.

In the IMF’s assessment of

Kosovo’s economy it said: “Newspending initiatives need to becosted thoroughly, and theiraccommodation requires higher

revenues or expenditure cutselsewhere.

“Importantly, the governmentplans another highway fromPrishtina to Skopje/Macedonia,for which a sound financingplan is an indispensable prereq-uisite.”

“The French consulting com-pany Egis, recommended thatthis highway not to be builtthrough a public-private part-nership,” confirmed Lah Nitaj,the advisor to the Minister ofInfrastructure, Fehmi Mujota.

Nitaj told Prishtina Insightthat the tender will beannounced for expression ofinterest for construction of theroad in July, where, accordingto him, experts within this min-istry will review the possibili-ties of funding funds.

The construction of this roadis also foreseen in the Ministryof Finance’s long-term spend-ing plans, where it is noted thatwork on ‘Route 6’ is supposed tostart in the last quarter of 2012and will take three years.

Lumir Abdixhiku, executivedirector of the InstituteRiinvest, said that construction

of this highway cannot happenwith budget money, since this isnot in accordance with thebudget forecasts.

According to him, Kosovocannot find 600 million euro forthis highway, when theVermice-Merdare route isexpected to cost 1 billion euro.

“There is definitely no chanceit can be funded with budgetmoney, as the country’s finan-cial stability is under questioneven with the highway that hasalready started being construct-ed,” claimed Abdixhiku.

Advisor Nitaj, however, saidthat Kosovo Government hasconsidered all these issues andbelieves the project can be com-pleted without risking thefinancial stability of the coun-try.

Abdixhiku added: “If it isplanned to be built with budgetmoney, then Kosovo risks enter-ing a deeper budget crisis thenGreece.”

The highway Prishtina-Skopjewill be 55 km long and will have 2tunnels. The longest tunnel willbe built in Kacanik, 2.2 kmmeters long.

Experts Warn of Prishtina-SkopjeHighway Costs Kosovo Government has announced its plans to build a high-way connecting Prishtina and Skopje, but experts’ warm thatthe country’s budget is already too overstretched.

By Lavdim Hamidi

xxx

xxx

YMCK

neighbourhood business8 July 1 - 14, 2011

On the outskirts ofBahovitsa, a small villagein northern Bulgaria, a

couple of shiny, brand-new factoryhalls have recently gone up.

Next to them in a neat row standthe skeletons of two other unfin-ished buildings, also a part of acomplex that Great Wall Motor, aChinese sports car manufacturer,is building in the country.

The roar of machines and trucksechoes around the site.Construction work, now in fullswing, does not stop even over theweekend. Soon the plant will startturning out the first locally pro-duced Chinese cars for theEuropean market.

Meanwhile, in the capital, Sofia,the office of Litex Motors, the localpartner to Great Wall Motor, hasbeen buzzing with activity.

Staff has been overwhelmed with

hectic preparations for the ongoingauto exhibition, where the Chinesecars have had their official pre-miere.

When finished, the car plant isexpected to create 3,000 jobs andturn out 50,000 vehicles per year,Litex Motors told Prishtina Insight.

Great Wall Motor’s decision tobuild a factory in Bahovitsa is justone successful example ofBulgaria’s drive to lure investmentfrom China.

Sofia, which joined the EU fouryears ago, wants to make sure thatmore companies like them set footin the country, enabling Bulgaria toestablish itself as portal forChinese business in the EU.

But there is a long way to go. Asyet, China is not a major foreigninvestor in Bulgaria. Last yearBeijing invested a meagre 4 millioneuros in Bulgaria. The authoritiesare determined to change that mod-est statistic.

Chinese businesses in the coun-try now include producers of glass,air-conditioners, televisions andsolar energy. They are also invest-ing in trading and IT.

Bulgaria is slowly emerging fromthe global economic crisis. Foreigninvestment, the main motor behindthe country’s economic boombefore the global downturn struck,has plummeted in recent years. Asother sources of investment dry up,Bulgarian has eyed Beijing as apotential replacement.

As the second largest economy inthe world, investing billions ofeuros abroad every year, Sofiabelieves that China could signifi-cantly boost Bulgaria’s economyand help it recover from the finan-cial slowdown.

On the other hand, as a member

of the EU, Sofia can provide Chinawith access to both regional andEuropean markets.

The Balkan country is attractiveto foreign companies because itcombines cheap labour and lowtaxes with inexpensive start-upcosts.

The Sofia authorities believeBulgaria has the potential to mar-ket itself as a main entry point tothe bigger European market forChina.

Evgeni Angelov, deputy ministerof economy, told Prishtina Insightthat Bulgaria sees China as a strate-gic partner and Sofia intends to payspecial attention to improving eco-nomic cooperation with Beijing.

Chinese companies find Bulgariaas an attractive place to do busi-ness, he claimed.

“Bulgaria has the potential toposition itself as a gateway forChinese business at European mar-ket,” Angelov said, adding thatSofia should take advantage ofChina’s plans to expand abroad.

While the construction of theBahovitsa plant advances, the twocountries are holding intensivetalks on future partnership deals.

At the moment, Bulgaria is try-ing to lure Chinese companies intoputting money into the construc-tion of a new, hi-tech industrialzone near the capital. The govern-ment has also invited Beijing totake part in the renovation ofBulgaria’s dilapidated railwayinfrastructure.

Valeri Andreev, head ofIndustrial Zones, a state company,is currently on a visit to China,holding talks with Chinese officials

and

businessmen. He explains thatChinese companies don’t makequick decisions, so the negotiationprocess can take a long time.

“At the beginning, Chineseinvestors are very cautious, butonce we manage to attract a coupleof companies to start their busi-nesses here, a wave of newinvestors will follow,” Andreev pre-dicts.

He argues that just a few bigChinese investors could markedlyimprove the economic situation inBulgaria. Bulgarian officials hopethat once they seal the deals withChinese companies, more capitalfrom other Far Eastern and Asiancountries will come.

“Over the last year-and-a-half,more than ten Chinese delegationshave visited the country, which is aclear sign of their growing interestin Bulgaria,” Andreev toldPrishtina Insight.

In March, officials and business-men from one of China’s most pop-ulated provinces, Hunan, whichalone houses around 100 millionpeople, visited the country.

Guangdong, one of China’swealthiest provinces, has alsoshown interest in Bulgaria. Teamsfrom the province have visited Sofiathree times this year.

Lu Yongming, an economic andcommercial counselor at theChinese embassy in Sofia, believesthat more Chinese investors are onthe way.

“Bulgaria has competitive advan-tages and might become China’sgateway to the European market,”he said. “After all, the country hasthe lowest taxes in the bloc.”

By BoryanaDzhambazova

Bulgaria Dreams of Becoming China’sDoor to Europe Sofia hopes to market itself as a portal to the EU for Chinese companies – butwith Beijing's investment fairly modest so far, it has a way to go.

Site preparation works areunderway in the centre ofthe capital, Skopje, for a new

five-star Marriott Hotel. Costed at38 million euros, it will set newstandards for luxury on Skopje’shotel scene.

After investors obtained a con-struction permit for the luxurycomplex last week, the ground-breaking ceremony is expectedsoon.

The new 180-room hotel, built bythe local Divelop Grup Dooel,which has the franchise for theMarriott International’s iconicbusiness brand, is expected toopen in early 2013.

The five-star hotel, which willfeature 180 stylish guest-rooms, 16luxury suites, a presidential suit,spa-centre and top floor garden,will be located on a 20,000-square-metre site in Skopje's mainMacedonia square.

The hotel is expected to raise thebenchmark for luxury in theMacedonian hotel business, whichtill now has lacked internationallyfamous hotel brands.

Marriott International Inc is aworldwide operator and fran-chisor of a broad portfolio ofhotels and related lodging facili-ties, running nearly 500 hotels in60 countries.

The art deco design was firstshown to the public in 2009 as partof the government-financedrevamp plan for the Macedoniancapital dubbed "Skopje 2014". Itwas soon announced that it wouldbe built by private investors.

The "Skopje 2014" project isalready underway with dozens oftall buildings and monumentsdrawing inspiration fron the clas-sical styles of Antiquity.

Work on First Marriott Hotel Begins in BalkansBy Sinisa Jakov Marusic

neighbourhood 9July 1 - 14, 2011

President Gjorge Ivanov on Tuesdayentrusted Nikola Gruevski with afresh mandate to form a new govern-

ment after his VMRO-DPMNE party won theJune 5 elections. He has 20 days to completetalks and present a new team to parliament.

Gruevski will now have 20 days to wrap uptalks with his junior ethnic Albanian part-ner, the Democratic Union for Integration,DUI, after which his proposed governmentwill be put to a vote in parliament.

Sources from both parties briefed that thesharing of ministerial seats between the twoparties was a done deal, and that all thatremained now was filling in the ministerialposts with actual candidates.

Vice-Prime Minister Abdulaqim Ademi,of the DUI, said on Monday that a joint gov-ernment platform had been already agreed.

“For the first time in plural [i.e. democrat-ic] Macedonia, the governmental pro-gramme is jointly composed of the electoralprogrammes of the two parties that won theelections," Ademi said, declining to divulgedetails.

It is known that the DUI will hold five min-istries and will name two vice-prime minis-ters, an increase on the party's allocation inthe last coalition.

The post of Vice-Prime Minister in chargeof monitoring the 2001 Ohrid peace dealstays in DUI hands. The deal ended the briefinsurrection among Albanians in the west ofthe country.

The current Vice-Prime Minister,Abdulaqim Ademi, is likely to stay in thispost.

The DUI will most likely also get the Vice-Prime Minister in charge of Europeanaffairs, which was previously reserved forVMRO-DPMNE. The DUI spokesperson,

Ermira Mehmeti, is mentioned as the mostprobable choice for this post.

Mehmeti said the initial distribution ofposts and ministries in the new governmentwould be 2:1 in favour of the DUI's seniorpartner. She did not comment on the possi-bility of her own appointment to the govern-ment.

“The DUI during the [government] talksmade a detailed and comprehensive analysisabout how to fully satisfy the needs of theAlbanian community," she recalled. "Wehave decided to concentrate on the executivepower that will ensure proper quantitativeand qualitative participation of Albaniansin government."

According to unconfirmed party sources,the DUI will also now get the DefenceMinistry as well as the Justice Ministry,which previously went to VMRO-DPMNEnominees.

The DUI retains the Ministry of Economyand the Ministry of Local Governance, aswell as having one minister without portfo-lio.

According to sources, the DUI will alsoappoint the new head of the Public RevenueOffice.

However, it is looking increasingly unlike-ly that the DUI will get the Finance Ministry,which it wanted. This appears destined forZoran Stavreski, who occupied this positionin the last government.

Another key post, the Police Ministry, willalso remain under VMRO-DPMNE. It willmost probably be held by the current minis-ter, Gordana Jankulovska, or by the currentchief of the Public Revenue Office, GoranTrajkovski.

According to unconfirmed sources,Gruevski is most probably keeping on theForeign Minister Antonio Milososki, theTransport Minister, Mile Janakieski as wellas the Education Minister, Nikola Todorov.

Gruevski is the sixth Macedonian PrimeMinister since the country gained independ-ence 20 years ago. He receives the mandatefor the third time in a row as he won the 2006

and 2008 elections as well as this year’s earlyelections.

The block led by Gruevski won over 56 ofthe 123 seats in parliament. Together withthe DUI the ruling coalition is expected tohave some 70 legislators.

By Sinisa Jakov Marusic

Acorpse of a smoker and his or her dis-eased lungs are images that mightoccupy roughly half the surface of

each cigarette pack in Serbia soon.In a new attempt to discourage Serbians

from lighting up, the Health Ministry hasannounced plans to amend the Tobacco Actso that cigarette packs get graphic warninglabels, strengthening people's understand-ing about the health risks of smoking.

The US authorities have announced plansto make the same move as of September2012.

Serbia is the fifth "worst" country inEurope in terms of the proportion of smok-ers. Each year, about 16,000 people in Serbiadie of diseases directly related to cigarette

smoking. Ninety six per cent of patientswith vocal cord cancer are smokers, while92 to 95 per cent of patients with lung can-cer, are smokers too.

Srmena Krstev, president of the NationalCommission for Smoking Prevention in thehealth ministry, says all tobacco manufac-turers in Serbia will be obliged to displaythe pictoral warnings once the changes tothe law are adopted.

“We will use photos that are officiallyallowed by the EU that contribute to reduc-ing smoking,” Krstev said.

This is not the first move in the anti-smoking campaign Serbian authorities havemade.

As of November last year, Serbs may nolonger light up in shopping malls or in anypublic buildings under the Law to Protectthe Population from Exposure to TobaccoSmoke, adopted earlier that year.

The ban covers all indoor workplaces andpublic spaces connected to the provision of

health and social care and education,including theatres and cinemas.

Offenders face fines ranging from 5,000dinars [about 50 euro] to a million dinars[about 10,000 euro].

However, Belgrade remains a haven for

smokers in practice, as smoking is stillallowed in all the clubs and cafes. Even inthe cafes that have a separate room forsmokers, the law is being circumvented.Waiting staff often put ashtrays onto tableswhere they are not supposed to be.

By Bojana Barlovac

Gruevski Asked to FormMacedonian Government

Serbia Plans to Frighten SmokersOut of Habit In Serbia, ranked fifth in Europe in terms of the number of smokers, authori-ties mull fortifying the ongoing anti-smoking campaign by introducing grimimages on cigarette packs.

Romania ClampsDown on CheatingStudents

Stricter measures are resulting in a bigincrease in number of studentsexpelled from exams for cheating in

Romania.Some 233 students all over Romania were

expelled on Monday from graduation examsafter they were found trying to use variousgadgets to copy answers, or crib sheets.

The number is almost double the numbercompared to last year and reflects an offi-cial clampdown on cheating in exams.

Cheating in tests has been always a prob-lem in Romania, but this year the authori-ties took more serious measures. Securitycamera systems were installed in 60 out of71 exam centres across Bucharest alone,while officials supervising exams wereinstructed to make sure that no studentscheated.

“We have launched a policy of zer0 toler-ance for any type of fraud in education. It isnecessary to stop this phenomenon, whichhas for years affected our schools and uni-versities”, the education ministry saidrecently.

Copying during examinations was wide-spread under the communist regime. After1990, the lack of jobs made many studentsdetermined to graduate with flying coloursat any price.

A real industry of gadgets and technolo-gy that can be used for cheating duringexams has developed in the meantime.Bluetooth ball pens, wireless micro-cam-eras and touch-screen watches with incor-porated memory can all be purchasedonline.

Almost 22,000 students took exams inBucharest on Monday, while around 193,000exams took place across Romania. Theexam is crucial as only successful candi-dates can enter universities.

By Marian Chiriac

YMCK

investigation10 July 1 - 14, 2011

Experts are divided overwhether the erection of ahuge statue of Alexander

the Great in the middle of Skopjeon Tuesday will have a damagingeffect on relations between Greeceand Macedonia - and onMacedonia’s EU perspectives.

Professor Stevo Pendarovski,from the University AmericanCollege, maintains that the gov-ernment-backed installation ofthe statue will not harmMacedonian-Greek relations, asthey are dismal to start with.

“The erection of the statue isthe last part of a project started bythe government in 2007, with therenaming of the airport afterAlexander the Great,” he recalled.

“Since then, the relationsbetween Athens and Skopje havebeen practically frozen so thiscan’t worsen them,” Pendarovskiadded.

Macedonia's relations withAthens are already strained by atwo-decade row over Macedonia'sname. Athens says use of thename “Macedonia” implies a terri-torial claim to the northern Greekprovince also called Macedonia.

More worryingly forPendarovski is that this latestmove may have cost Macedoniathe support of the few friendly

countries that have till now stayedon its side.

“This is an issue with two sidesthat are not even. Macedonia isthe smaller and weaker side,” hesaid.

“That is why the only possibili-ty to get even with Greece was tohave friendly supporting states.With the statue, we lose them andput arguments in the hands of theGreek politicians,” Pendarovskiclaimed.

But former foreign ministerSlobodan Chasule says Macedoniashould not worry too much aboutthe Greek position.

“The statue is a marginal prob-lem for Greece at this moment,” hesaid. “If the people gave the gov-ernment a mandate to govern, theyshould not be interested in whatothers think.

“I can’t see why Greece shouldsee this as provocation,” he added.“We have to stop worrying aboutwhat nationalist politics in Greecehave to say.”

Chasule told Balkan Insight hebelieves Macedonia could even geta date to start negotiations on EUmembership this year, even thoughGreece remains firm that withouta resolution of the “name” issue,this will not be possible.

“I do not think the monumentwill have negative influence ofMacedonia's EU perspective,” hesaid. “The conditions for using the[1995] Interim Accord are met, soMacedonia can progress towardsEU," Chasule added.

He said that because of theGreek economic crisis, no countryin the EU is likely to supportGreece's demands to continue toblock Macedonia.

Macedonia and Greece signed anInterim Accord in 1995 by whichthey agreed to settle their differ-ences with negotiations on thename issue.

From then until 2008, Greece didnot block Macedonia from enteringinternational organizations underthe provisional name Former

Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,the name under which it is regis-tered in the United Nations.

This Accord was respected until2008. That year, Greece blockedMacedonia's bid to enter NATO atthe Alliance summit in Bucharest.Athens justified its move by accus-ing Macedonia of trying to stealits history by renaming airports,stadiums and building afterAlexander the Great and his fatherPhilip.

Greece considers Alexander the

Great and his legacy an exclusivepart of Greek culture and history.

Greek officials have condemnedthe new statue as provocative,warning that Macedonia is riskingits EU perspectives. Citing theunresolved name issue, in 2009 and2010 Greece blocked Macedoniafrom getting a start date for negoti-ations with the EU.

Greek Foreign Ministryspokesman Gregory Delavekourassaid that in the light of the ongo-ing dispute between the two coun-tries over Macedonia’s name, thenew statue “undermines our bilat-eral relations and hampers negoti-ations under the UN” aimed atreaching a compromise.

The EU commissioner forenlargement, Stefan Fule, alsowarned that the statue couldundermine Skopje’s EU hopes.

Speaking on Macedonian A1 TVchannel, last week Fule said: “Ifyou have a neighbour… and thereis an issue between two of you…and you are trying sincerely tosolve it, I guess you would avoiddoing anything that your neigh-bour might call a provocation.

“This is simple logic. I wouldexpect the government in Skopjeto avoid doing things which wouldbe called by the other side provoca-tions,” he said.

Pendarovski says that not onlythe statue, but the internal crisisin Greece is prompting the Greeksto firm up their stance about thename issue.

His thesis is that Greece’s eco-nomic problems are only makingAthens more inflexible.

"In a situation when the EUcountries are asking Greece totake harsh measures and are prac-tically humiliating its govern-ment, no one will want to put pres-sure on Athens to be more flexibleon so sensitive a topic as the nameissue," Pendarovski predicted.

While some fear the new statue will pour oil onto theflames of the ‘name’ dispute with Greece, other say tiesare already so damaged it will make no difference.

By Darko Duridanski

Macedonia Ponders Alexander Effecton Greece

With the slogan “I LoveAlbania,” and campaign-ing with a mix of minori-

ty and nationalist politics, theParty for Democracy, Unity andIntegration, PDIU, was a surprisebeneficiary in Albania’s May 8local elections.

According to preliminaryresults, published by the CentralElectoral Commission, the PDIU,which ran as a part of the centre-right coalition of Prime MinisterSali Berisha, gained 65,000 votes inthe local poll.

Two years earlier, in the 2009parliamentary elections, it con-vinced only 14,000 voters, sendingonly one deputy to parliament.

After being restructured undera new leadership, the PDIU nowranks as the fifth political party inthe country in terms of size, andbecause its voters are clustered inspecific voting areas it may playan important role in the 2013 gen-eral election.

Elated by its poll results, theparty’s leaders say their new polit-ical weight will strengthen theirbargaining power in the govern-ment, enabling them to direct astronger diplomatic stance toward

Greece to resolve the community’sgrievances.

The Chams are a sub-group ofAlbanians who originally residedin the coastal Epirus region ofnorthern Greece.

According to British historianMiranda Vickers, the Chams havea strong sense of tradition, identi-ty and community, which has unit-ed them over the past 62 yearssince their expulsion from Greece.

The Greek authorities accusedthem of collaborating with theGerman occupation.

About 250,000 Chams live inAlbania and another estimated400,000 or so live in the wider dias-pora, mostly in the US and Turkey.

Despite being granted Albaniancitizenship in 1953, many Chamsstill regard themselves asrefugees, unjustly stripped oftheir Greek citizenship.

The PDIU, often referred to asthe “Cham Party,” aims tostrengthen the pressure onAlbanian government, parliamentand raise awareness of their causein international institutions likethe United Nations and theEuropean Union.

While their immediate goal is tosecure the right to undertakeshort-term visits to Greece and thereclaim property confiscated bythe Greek state, the PDIU has alarger target audience that goesbeyond the Cham community.

Styling itself “a patriotic party”

during the local election cam-paign, it promotes the idea of asort of ethnic Albanian economiczone in the Balkans.

The party has also been at theforefront of nationalistic disputeswith the Albanian AutocephalousOrthodox Church, whose GreekArchbishop, Janullatos, is seen bymany Albanians as pushingAthens’ agenda.

“The mainstream political par-ties do not represent the nationalinterests as they should, and evenother parties that have been creat-ed with this objective have donelittle,” the PDIU manifesto says.

Shpetim Idrizi, a formerSocialist MP of Cham decent, wholeft in 2010 to head the PDIU, saysthe party’s broader national plat-form in the local election cam-paign extends beyond its coreCham community.

“The voice that we raised hasexpanded from our ranks and thecall was heard among patriotsacross the country,” Idrizi says.

“We were able to break the two-party political scene and were con-firmed as the second politicalforce in places like Delvina in thesouth, or Barjam Curri in thenorth,” he adds.

After coming third in the citiesand towns of Durres, Vlora, Fierand Saranda, the party is expectedto drive a hard bargain in coalitionnegotiations ahead of 2013 generalelections, as Albania’s regional

proportional voting systemfavours strong voting blocks inspecific geographical areas.

“We have 65,000 votes to makeright the injustices done towardour nation, starting with theCham issue,” Idrizi says. “These65,000 wills represent the resolveof the people, which can neithererased nor ignored.”

Gentian Elezi, political scienceprofessor at the EuropeanUniversity of Tirana, says thePDIU’s strong showing at the pollswill boost its cause for the Chamminority claims with the govern-ment in Tirana and international-ly – although not immediately.

“In the short term I don’t expectthe strengthening of this party toboost… the Cham cause,” Elezisaid. “But in future, depending on

their representation in govern-ment, they may be more able topush their cause onto Albania’spolitical agenda,” he added.

Idrizi, the Cham leader dis-agrees. He says his communitywill not have to wait long for theparty to produce results.

“We have the legitimacy tospeak out on the issue at the righttime, in the right way and we willdo it,” he said.

“Over the next two years theCham issue will be reactivated ona scale that will surprise many,just like many were surprisedwith our recent successes,” headded.

This article was made possiblethrough the support of theNational Endowment forDemocracy.

With four votes in favourand two against, the com-mission declared Lulzim

Basha the winner of the May 8race for the capital's mayoraltywith a 93 vote advantage out of aquarter-million.

“I want to thank all the citizenswho made their voices heard andwaited patiently for the process toend,” the former interior ministersaid after the result wasannounced.

“The electoral process soon willend and the work to govern thecity will begin,” Basha added.

The Tirana poll was consideredthe key battleground of the May 8local elections, pitting Bashaagainst the opposition leader andincumbent Tirana mayor, EdiRama.

Despite Basha’s impatience tostart work as the city’s next mayor,the Socialists are again contestingthe commission's ruling and onSunday they warned that they willask the Electoral College to annulthe poll.

“The Socialist Party and theunited opposition believe that thevictory for the May 8 poll goes toEdi Rama,” Socialist MP BlendiKlosi said.

“Convinced that [PrimeMinister] Sali Berisha and [com-mision head Arben] Ristaniruined this poll in order to hidetheir loss in Tirana and across thecountry, we will seek the invalida-tion of this electoral massacre,”Klosi added.

Within five days, the Socialistsare expected to lodge a compliantwith the Electoral College, a spe-cialized court for election dis-putes.

The new complaint before thecourt would be the fourth after theelection commission on May 23

initially declared Basha the win-ner, following a controversialrecount of stray ballots.

The recount gave Basha a lead of81 votes out of a quarter-millionover Rama, who had a razor-thinmargin of ten ballots in the unoffi-cial preliminary results, before thestray ballots were added.

The dispute over the stray bal-lots occurred because some voterswho had multiple ballots to putinto designated boxes failed to doso correctly, partly because theballot boxes were not clearly dis-tinguished by colour.

On June 13 the Electoral Collegeruling annulled the election com-mission's May 23 decision, whichdeclared Basha the winner inTirana. At the same time, it reject-ed the opposition challengeagainst the miscast ballots, whichwere deemed as valid.

Following the ruling, the courtordered a re-evaluation of contest-ed ballots in 368 ballot boxes,whose results were added to the

final tally, giving Basha a lead of93 votes.

Earlier the Electoral Collegehad rejected two other Socialistcomplaints about the procedureused by the election commission toinclude the miscast ballots in thefinal tally.

However the Socialists have con-tested the latest recount as well,pointing to problems in severalballots boxes, where securitycodes were different from thoseregistered by counting centers orwhere paper ballots were foundoutside the various envelopesinside the ballot box.

The May 8 local elections wereconsidered as key for the country’sEU future, following a two-yearpolitical crisis which has stoppedthe reform process dead in itstracks.

However, after a peaceful andquiet election day, the row over themiscast ballots has heightened thepolitical climate once again,adding to Brussels’ doubts overthe country’s EU future.

This article was made possiblethrough the support of the

National Endowment forDemocracy.

investigation 11July 1 - 14, 2011

Basha Declared Winnerof Contested Tirana Poll Albania’s Central Electoral Commission has for the second time in as many monthsdeclared the ruling party candidate the winner of the hotly contested race for the Tirana mayoralty.

Albania Nationalist PartySavours Poll Success A party representing the Cham expellees from Greece says its strong showing in the localelections will boost the community’s hand in demanding resolution of their grievances.

By Besar Likmeta

By Dardan Malaj

Working for the UnitedNations and as a TravelBlogger/writer has its

moments: sometimes they inter-sect in an amazing experience oropportunity that just leaves mewondering how I ever became solucky.

If anyone ever tells you a dreamjob does not exist, share this storywith them and then get working onmaking it come true.

In the run up to my new guidebook release (The Mountains ofDragash, Kosovo: Hiking andNature Tourism Guide) I led agroup of 30 people into theDragash back-country for a week-end of hiking, camping, and get-ting back to nature (ie getting verywet on the hike in and out).

The trip was part of a largereffort to develop a nature tourismstrategy for the isolatedMunicipality of Dragash, and tocreate a series of value chains tohelp locals benefit from increasedtourism.

The project is sponsored by theFinish Government, and is beingimplemented by the UnitedNations Development Programme.

We have been working on thishiking guide for about a year nowand I have written about hiking inDragash a number of times onTodd’s Wanderings as the work

has progressed. Some of the hikesinclude Brod to Mount Cule, Brodto the Old Macedonian SmugglingPass and Restelica to Brod.

You will notice a pattern here asthe picturesque village of Brodfeatures heavily in my hikes. Thebeauty of this little village, tuckedinto a protective valley andwrapped lovingly in a series ofcrisp rivers, is undeniable. Add inthe cultural traditions of thelocals, numbering about 1,000,delicious cheese, succulent lamband a dramatic landscape accessi-ble just a few minutes from townand the tourism potential becomesclear.

The latest hike is the same onethat we arranged for the 30 personweekend and the text is the sameas you’ll find in the soon to be pub-lished hiking guide, due out inJuly 2011.

The Guide contains 12 of myfavorite hikes and three mountainbiking trails around DragashMunicipality, along with tourisminformation, easy to follow mapsand local knowledge.

If you are looking for a moreserviced experience feel free tocontact me and I’ll can pass alongyour message to a contact personin the village.

We organised horses to pack upour tents, and for food to be pre-

pared for dinner and breakfast thenext morning.

This is just the beginning ofmountain tourism in Dragash andwe are hoping to lay the founda-tion for sustainability wherelocals benefit monetarily, the envi-ronment benefits from conserva-tion and tourists have a uniqueamazing experience.

Brod to LakeShutman/Sutman

This is one of the best knownhikes in the Brod region with awell worn path, and stunningviews through the Brod Gorge andinto the southern rolling alpinefields where LakeShutman/Sutman lies. The lake ismore of a pond and is shallow witha muddy bottom but beautifulnonetheless.

These small lakes are calledmountain eyes due to the resem-blance of human eyes whenviewed from the mountains above.

This hike can also be combinedwith two other hikes in the region,Mt. Vraca or the three Peaks hike,which begin and end at LakeShutman/Sutman.

The lake also provides a niceplace to camp for those wanting to

explore more of the southern areaof Dragash/Dragas.

Starting/End Point: ArxhenaHotel or Old Road near BrodStarting elevation: 1384 metersHighest Elevation: 2120 mDistance: 8.82 KmDuration: 6 – 7 Hours round-tripalong the same pathDifficulty: Easy. There are veryfew steep parts to this hike.Hiking Route DescriptionYou have two options where tostart. You can either start directly

from Arxhena Hotel and climb upthe steep ski slope behind the hotelwhich meets the path further on;or you can start from the begin-ning of the main path along theOld Road closer to Brod which islonger but has a more gentle climbup into the mountains. If startingfrom the Old Road, follow the maindirt road out of Brod towardsArxhena Hotel with the river onyour right hand side.

After the last house between thehotel and the village, just past therusted skeleton of an old car on itsside under a tree, the river passesunder the road.

As the river moves to the leftside of the road you will see asmall concrete water-tap structureon the right and the power linesbegin to diverge from the road.

YMCK

culture12 July 1 - 14, 2011

Camping and Hiking in Kosovo's In the run up to my new

guide book release (The

Mountains of Dragash,

Kosovo: Hiking and Nature

Tourism Guide) I led a

group of 30 people into

the Dragash back-country

for a weekend of hiking,

camping, and getting back

to nature (ie getting very

wet on the hike in and

out).

The trip was part of a larg-

er effort to develop a

nature tourism strategy

for the isolated

Municipality of Dragash,

and to create a series of

value chains to help locals

benefit from increased

tourism.

YMCK

culture 13July 1 - 14, 2011

Backcountry: Brod to Lake ShutmanTurn right here and follow thegrass road uphill following thewooden electrical poles. This is thestart of the Old Road to Macedoniathat was never completed.Eventually the grass route willturn to a dirt and rock path.Follow this further into the valleyuntil you are directly aboveArxhena Hotel. It is here that theski slope intersects with the mainpath.

I love a nice mountain lake.These post glacial lakes are oftencalled mountain eyes as they looklike eyes looking up into the skywhen seen from the mountain topsabove.

Continue following the well-travelled path south into the rivergorge. Make sure you stay high upon the path and do not descend tothe river and cross it. There is apath on the other side of the riverbut it is more difficult and does notlead directly to the lake. More thantwo thirds of the way to the lakeyou will see a beautiful waterfallwhere the river rushes out of anarrow rocky gap. The top of thewaterfall has a nice area to restand have a picnic. You can accessthis area by leaving the pathbehind after the waterfall turningleft, crossing the river at its high-est point and then walking back tothe waterfall. See the map for fur-ther indications, as there is no ded-

icated path to the waterfall fromthis side of the river.

After passing the waterfall youwill come to a point where the pathbecomes narrow and less clear.This is also where you will see ashepherd’s building which doublesas a sharr dog breeding hut. Stayaway from the building, as sharrdogs are very protective, even ifthey are cute when they are young.Stay closer to the mountain onyour right and you will eventuallymake out the path that leads out ofthis valley and up into the valleywith small but beautiful LakeShutman/Šutman.

Text and photos come courtesyof www.toddswanderings.com,which is crammed full of informa-tion about hikes in Dragash, aswell as great travel tips for theBalkans and beyond.

YMCK

culture14 July 1 - 14, 2011

For nearly half-a-century, until theStalinist regime of Enver Hoxha col-lapsed in 1991, Albania was one of the

most isolated places in the world, often com-pared to the likes of North Korea.

The few Westerners allowed into Hoxha’sself-proclaimed “proletarian paradise,”described the regime as a brutal world inwhich people were constantly under thewatch of the feared “Sigurimi” secretpolice.

Two decades on, the country has openedup to the world, has joined NATO in 2009and is now tracing a path toward EU mem-bership.

But although Albania no longer jams for-eign TV stations and young people no longerend up in jail for listening to rock music, thetransition to democracy has done little toimprove its battered image.

Foreign media often describe Albania asEurope’s wild east, a land where extremepoverty, lawlessness and medieval vendettasoverlap, an hour’s flight away from Westerncapitals.

The stark contrasts of a society in whichluxury Mercedes dot pot-holed streets hasbeen the theme of many Albanian artists, asthey try to make sense of the country’s con-tradictions.

Many reside abroad and, apart from theinternational media, are the main commu-nicators of Albania’s reality to the Westernpublic.

But with the authorities desperate toattract more tourists and investment, theirworks are often criticized as not doingenough to present a rosier picture of thecountry.

But the artists themselves resent the idea

of being used as salesmen, pointing out thatsuch suggestions miss the whole point ofwhat their artistic endeavour is all about.

“Although some art is a hymn to beauty,it’s more likely to portray what is ugly, fear-ful, violent, immoral and inhuman,” ArianLeka, a poet and publisher based in Tirana,explains.

Although Albania has always received itsfair share of bad press, a 2006 travel featurein the Sunday Times by British writer A AGill really infuriated local intellectuals andthe media.

Gill mocked Albanians as "short and fer-ret-faced, with the unisex stumpy, slightlybowed legs of Shetland ponies."

He also described the Albanian languageas "a ready-made code for criminals",adding: "There are four million Albaniancitizens… three million of them live athome, the fourth quarter work abroad, andwhat they do is mostly illegal."

Gill escaped a reprimand from the BritishPress Complaints Commission, after theSunday Times made the case for the author’s

harsh words, referring to sources fromEuropol, Save the Children, the EU, theWorld Bank and the Italian public prosecu-tors.

But the vitriolic writer - famous for hisscabrous verbal assaults on his targets stillreceived death threats by email fromAlbanians who felt offended and enraged byhis words.

Albania was also the butt of Britishhumour in the BBC’s Top Gear show, whichmade references to Albanians are carthieves.

Albanian artists are themselves not abovemocking their own homeland, albeit rathermore gently and affectionately.

Italian-based filmmaker EdmondBudina’s latest feature film, Balkan Bazaar,takes a jibe at the region’s jumble of nation-alities, drawing on the history of the villageof Kosine in southern Albania.

There, Greek nationalists in 2006unearthed what they alleged were thegraves of Greek soldiers who had fallen inWorld War 2.

Greek nationalists have long staked aclaim to southernmost Albania, calling theregion Northern Epirus.

Balkan Bazaar takes a critical look at bothGreek and Albanian nationalism throughthe eyes of two foreigners, a scheming jour-nalist and his superstitious driver, and thescript has drawn heat both from Albania andGreece.

Budina does not feel inclined to apologise.“I think we hang on to an old mentalityabout the image of the country,” he says.“Many think that it’s enough to draw a nicepostcard and send it, and that will giveAlbania the place that it deserves,” he adds.

The “old mentality” that Budinadescribes was rooted in the xenophobic cul-ture of Hoxha’s half-century regime.

Although the Communist authoritieskeenly sponsored the arts, the results had toconform to the strict rules of SocialRealism, while at the same time singing thepraises of the party and of Hoxha’s own

provincial brand of nationalism. Leka says that although art is no longer

seen as a propaganda tool for a ruling eliteor ideology, the public expectation remainsthat writers and painters should build uptheir country’s image.

“Its not the role of art or literature in gen-eral to create images about specific places,”he says. “Literature speaks to the world…and to all of humanity,” he added.

Filmmaker Budina agrees. In the artworld, artists make use of the images that acountry projects - not the other way around.

“Albania is a country with its good andbad sides, its beautiful and ugly images - theimportant thing is how you use them,”Budina maintains.

“Inspiration can be found even in what isugly and evil, and by narrating this we cangrow richer and better [human beings],” heconcludes.

This article is funded under the BICCEDproject, supported by the Swiss Cultural

Programme

Artists Defend Their Take on Albania’sBattered Image Albanian artists are brushing off complaints that they are not doing their best to counter mockery of their country in the West.

By Ben Andoni

PJ Harvey Confirms DokufestAppearance

Singer-songwriter PJHarvey and Irish photog-rapher Seamus Murphy

will be presenting their 12short films at this year’sDokufest.

Organisers of the Prizrenfestival, which is fast gaining aworldwide reputation, saidthey were thrilled by the news.

Harvey and Murphy willtravel to Kosovo for a specialscreening of the films atDokuFest and will hold a Q&Asession about their collabora-tion.

Award-winning photogra-pher Seamus Murphy travelled

5,000 miles around England tocreate 12 films inspired by anddeveloped from themes inHarvey’s new album, the criti-cally acclaimed Let EnglandShake, which was released inFebruary this year, enteringthe UK charts in the top 10.

Each film is a combination ofstill and moving imagery, madein the manner of classic photo-graphic reportage recordingreal and spontaneous situa-tions to document England andthe English.

Murphy, an award winningphotographer, has spent overtwo decades uniquely docu-menting conflict through hislens.

His work has brought him toRwanda, Eritrea, Kosovo, Iranand Iraq.

By Lawrence Marzouk

After several decades of total isolationfrom their neighbours under EnverHoxha’s xenophobic regime,

Albanians are rediscovering the Balkanswith a range of new books and moviesexploring Balkan-related topics and themes.

Albanian writer Anilda Ibrahimi, whowrites in Italian and lives in Rome, dedicat-ed her last book in 2010, L’amore e gli strac-ci del tempo, to the theme of a love storybetween a Kosovo Albanian girl fromPrishtina and a young man fromBelgrade, before and after the conflict inKosovo in 1999.

A few years earlier, in 2007, OrnelaVorpsi, an Albanian writer and photogra-pher also writing in Italian, in La manoche non mordi, described her relationshipwith a Serb from Belgrade living in Paris,and her strong friendship with a Bosnianartist from Sarajevo.

Albanian video-artist Adrian Pacimeanwhile has produced a video chroni-cling the war in Kosovo and combining itwith videos from a Yugoslav porn showthat many Albanians over the border usedto watch covertly in the 1980s, whenwatching foreign televisions was prohibit-ed by the Hoxha regime.

Albanian film directors and producershave launched a range of films dealingwith the Balkans in the past few years.

Gjergj Xhuvani’s 2009 East-West-East,for example, depicted the adventures of acouple (a group, they were 5-6) ofAlbanians cycling through Yugoslavia in1989, just before the country exploded.

Also in 2009, Genc Permeti collaboratedwith Goran Paskaljevic on the first everSerbian-Albanian co-production,Honeymoons, while Albanian directorEdmond Budina’s 2011 Balkan Bazaarreflects on a political incident betweenGreece and Albania.

These artists say Albania is slowlyrediscovering its sympathies and com-monalities with the rest of the region.

Permeti, chief of the Albanian produc-tion house Ska-Ndal,says the firstSerbian-Albanian co-production was con-sciously intended “to show that we areable to give the hand to each-other and to

collaborate”.“We have a very strong spiritual rela-

tionship to other peoples from theBalkans. If we don’t take into considera-tion the political manipulations that wehave absorbed, it is very evident that weare very similar,” director Xhuvani says.

Writer Anilda Ibrahimi echoed thatpoint when presenting her book, pub-lished by Italian publishing houseEinaudi, on a Serbian-Albanian lovestory.

“I wanted to tell a story in which Serbsare not being denigrated as they are usu-ally, because this chain of violencebetween Serbs and Albanians has to fin-ish,” she said.

Edmond Budina agrees. “In BalkanBazaar, beside other topics, I wanted toshow that in the Balkans we are very sim-ilar, we think the same way,” he toldBalkan Insight.

“We are ethnically mixed too. Part ofmy family now lives in Macedonia,speaks Macedonian and they perceivethemselves as Macedonians,” he added.“Following the logic of nationalism andisolation, I should consider them my ene-mies. But it does not make sense.”

But Armanda Kodra, an anthropologistin Tirana, warns that breaking down theold sense of separateness felt by manyAlbanians will not be easy.

“Albanian culture still reflects the iso-lation that was typical under the periodof National Communism,” he (she) said.

“Albanians see themselves as unique,and as descendents of the AncientIllyrians, without similarity to theirSlavic or Greek neighbours who they alsoconsider enemies.”

Dhimiter Doko, a scholar of demogra-phy specializing (professor of demogra-phy at the University of Tirana) in ethnicminorities in Albania, makes the samepoint.

“Even 20 years after the fall of theCommunism, we still perceive our neigh-bors largely through political stereo-types,” he said. “The Albanian mediastrictly follows this kind of stereotypingwhile reporting on the Balkans,” headded.

Significantly, most of the artists andauthors who have been most instrumen-tal in breaking down negative stereotypesabout Albania’s neighbours have beenliving for many years outside the countryin Western Europe.

Edmond Budina, director of BalkanBazaar, maintains that he didn’t havestrong prejudices about Albania’s neigh-bours even before he left the country.“But since I’ve been living for 20 years inItaly as a migrant, dealing with peoplefrom all the world, you notice how muchfeeling there is among us and other peo-ple from the Balkans,” he said.

“Beside that, living in multi-ethnicsocieties makes you go further, towardsdeconstructing stereotypes,” he added.

One Italian critic of literature, whowants to remain anonymous, said theprocess of opening up needed to be seenin its true context.

Recalling the new trend for Albanianliterature in prestigious Italian publish-ing houses, he said: “The opening up ofsome Albanian authors to the Balkans isa kind of Balkan version of the multi-eth-nic tolerance that a certain type of leftintellectuals profess in Western coun-tries.”

“In the last twenty years we dealt withour problems and our Albanian traumas,and now that we have achieved a certainlevel of stability, we are dealing with awider space we belong to, the Balkans,” ishow writer Elvira Dones sees it.

Breaking taboos and stereotypes aboutones neighbours has certain economicadvantages, others note.

“There are many foundations and fund-raising possibilities in connection to proj-ects based on international collaborationamong Balkan countries,” recalls SofiaKalo, an Albanian scholar atMassachussetts University.

Filmmakers especially agree that pro-ducing a film today is virtually impossiblewithout having an international co-pro-duction agreement, which in Albania’s

case means a deal with some other coun-tries from the Balkans, as well as othercountries from Western Europe.

Meanwhile, the process of opening upto the Balkans is not without its critics.

Cultural journalists like KoloretoCukali and Elsa Demo have slatedAlbanian cinema for crudely imitatingthe way that the well known Serbiandirector Emir Kusturica directs his films.

But Albanian director Artan Minarollishrugs this off. “It is normal that ourfilms are similar to those of Kusturica,since we come from the same culturalspace in the Balkans,” he says.

This article is funded under theBICCED project, supported by the SwissCultural Programme.

YMCK

culture 15July 1 - 14, 2011

Albanian Artists Revive LostBalkan Connections Writers and directors are rebuilding links between Albania and its estranged neighbours, which virtually snappedduring decades of isolation under Enver Hoxha.

By Marjola Rukaj

marketing

16

YMCK

July 1 - 14, 2011 Prishtina Insight

Te Komiteti

Te Komiteti’s large trees and a beauti-fully garden, which surround the smalloutdoor terrace, give you an impressionof an exclusive place for ordinary peo-ple. And this is exactly what it is. Frombrunch to lunch-time snacks and specialevening meals, this restaurant offersdishes comprising quality, varied ingre-dients, combined to perfection.

Alongside oneof Prishtina’sbest ‘modernEuropean’ stylemenus, you’llalso find a goodselection ofwine, and greatsangria andcocktails .

Te KomitetiQamil Hoxha

StreetPrishtina

+381 38 24 96 63

Where to pick up Prishtina Insight?Prishtina Insight has teamed up with these six excellent venues to offer a limited number of complimentary copies of Kosovo’sonly English-language newspaper. Grab a copy of the publication and settle down with a drink or a meal to read it.

Cantina am-pm Restaurant

Cantina AM-PM, formerly known asMexican Cantina, recently wentthrough a transfer to new management,and although hardly noticeable from adistance, the new owners have trans-formed the venue into a more grown-upaffair with good, cheap food. Cantinaoffers Mexican dishes at reasonableprices, starting from less than 5 euro.Although the majority of the food isMexican-influenced, Cesar salad andpizza have been included too. Mexicanfavourites served up at Cantina include

tortilla, thickerpan-friend tortilla,nacho chips andburrito. Cantina’salso offers a verypleasant area for alfresco dining.

Cantina AM-PMRr Qamil Hoxha

Prishtina+377 49 710 710

Odyssea Bistro

Odyssea Bistro Bar is a beautifulbistro located in the heart of Prishtina,offering a combination of a qualitymenu with inspiring dishes and a mod-ern bar with a large variety of drinksand exotic cocktails.

Odyssea Bistro Bar's unique design isa mixture of classic French influenceand a modern touch.

Busy during lunch breaks, romanticfor dinners and classy for eveningdrinks, Bistro is a great place to visit atany time of the day.

Sample Bistro’s brunch on Sundays, orenjoy live music on Wednesday, Fridaysand Saturdays

Bistro,Sejdi Kryeziu, Pejton, Prishtina

045402095 and 049333959

Hotel Prishtina

Hotel Prishtina’s 43 charm-ing guest rooms and suites arereminiscent of a small hotel inthe European tradition. You'llimmediately feel at home inour living room, sipping a glassof wine in our fine restaurantsurrounded by a gallery of

p a i n t i n g sby localartists.

The hoteloffers free,fast wifii n t e r n e t ,complimen-tary break-fast, confer-ence room,swimmingpool, saunaand laun-dry service.

Cavallero Mexican Restaurant

You can almost transport yourself to theMexican coast, with soaring palm trees and animmaculate five star resort, while dining atCavallero Mexican Cantina. Mouth-wateringappetizers and savoury main dishes are nicelywashed down with countless cocktail optionsand even imported Mexican beer. Skopje-based‘Los Ritmos’ entertain diners every Fridayand Saturday with their latin beats. For more

information, visittheir facebook page,or contact them.

Cavallero,Located next to the ex-

UNMIK buildingPrishtina

+386 49 619 375Facebook page

Hotel VictoryBut Victory is more than a place to meet and do

business. Its doors are always open for guests toenjoy the tranquility of our guest rooms and lob-bies, and the finest cuisine in the region. The onlyhotel in the region where real plants, original artand fine solid furniture decorate the space andturn it into a homelike environment. HotelVictory is established to offer travelers the mostcomplete, comfortable accommodation availablein Kosovo and the region. Our professional staffwill offer guests the highest standard of serviceand support, and we will use our resources togreater lengths to make your stay as complete aspossible.

Hotel VictoryMother Teresa

Prishtina, KosovoTel: +381 38 543 277

+381 38 543 267 Email:

info@hotel-victo-ry.com

http://www.hotel-victory.com/

Jinglebells

If your soul is affected by the grey sea-son then pay a visit to Jinglebells, whereyou will find all the colours that you’vebeen missing.

Jinglebells is a perfect one-stop-shopfor internationals offering a selection ofbooks in various languages and thequickest supply of international newspa-pers in town. It also offers souvenirs and

gifts, such aslocal handicrafts.

Jinglebells.Bookstore and

more.Ernest Koliqi

12, oppositeEULEX HQ

+386(0)49 741 170

A taste of Napoli in Prishtina.

After ten years of making pizza in Napoli, andonly with love to blame, Fatmir the chefreturned to Prishtina. His pizzas, made in awoodburn stove, are definitely genuine napoli-tanas. For those who consider pizza to be bor-ing, Fatmir has several pastas on offer, also atrue joy for the taste buds. Napoli has an excel-lent selection of red and white wines or, for themore ambitious, one of the region's best Quint's

raki. Napoli makes fordelicious lunch, dinneror even after-theatretime out in the centreof Prishtina.

Pizzeria Napolioff Luan Haradinaj,

opposite Newborn044/409-402402

Hotel AFA

Located in a quiet neighbourhoodjust outside the city centre, HotelAfa can guarantee guests a peacefulnight while being within walkingdistance of all the action. The venuehas won a host of awards for itsexcellent service to customers andoffers a good range of facilities,from an exclusive restaurant andVIP bar to pretty, tranquil garden.Rooms start at 45 euro for a single,and luxury rooms and apartmentsare available. The hotel’s rooms are

well appoint-ed and com-fortable.

15, Rr AliKelmendi,

SunnyHill,

Prishtina+381

38/225 226www. hote-

lafa. com

Paddy O’Brien’s

The staff at Paddy O’Brien’s have a saying:“It’s easy to walk in, but very hard to leave.”

And with its warm atmosphere, fantastic rangeof drinks and excellent food, it is easy to see why.

There have been many attempts to establish aproper Irish pub in Prishtina, but this is the onlyone to hit the spot.

From classic coffees to cocktails, via, of course,Guinness, you really wont find it difficult toselect the perfect drink.

A mouth-watering menu of Irish specialties isalso on offer, spanning from all-day breakfasts toIrish stews at night.

Options include shepherd’s pie, bangers andmash, fish ‘n chips,and whopping greatburgers.

Thursday is pub quiznight, but there isalways something goingon at the pub, whether itis sport screenings orjust a good shindig.

Paddy O’Brien’sTringe Smajli Street,

by the Illyria HotelPrishtina: 045-420900

Friends Bar

Friends Bar is owned by a Swiss-Albanian couple. The modern interi-or and the calm terrace behind thebar will make your stay comfortable.They offer a wide range of beers,including Dark Lasko and Murphy’sIrish Red, which can rarely be foundin Kosovo. You can also try eight dif-ferent tastes and colours of vodka.Starting from May 14 there will bebarbeques every Saturday from 5pmto 9pm, and brunch every Sunday

from 9am to1pm. BBQ andbrunch will beoffered with awide choice oflocal andinternationalfood.

17, Rr.FehmiAgani

045244 498Facebook

Page: FriendsBar - Prishtine

OLIVE TAPAS BAR

After many years of working attapas bars in England andGermany as well as running thefirst in Prishtina, you can say thatmanagement knows its trade well.

Among the tapas and maincourses offered are: Rocket saladwith mixed cheeses; Spanish tor-tilla, omelet with vegetables &potatoes; and deep fried calamari.

Open Monday to Saturday7 am until 12 pm

Olive Tapas BarSt.Fehmi Agani 48/1

Tel. +381 38 321 132Cell +377 44 620 414

olivetapasbar@gmail.com

YMCK

17July 1 - 14, 2011

Timeout Contact Prishtina Insight if you would like your event to feature orto advertise your venue. Email marketing@prishtinainsight.com

By Shengjyl Osmani in Prishtina

Every day at 6 pm, 8 pmand 10 pm ABC Cinema isscreening the brand newmovie Hanna.

Award-winning directorJoe Wright creates a boldlyoriginal suspense thrillerwith “Hanna”, starringAcademy Award nomineeSaoirse Ronan (“The LovelyBones,” “Atonement”) in thetitle role. Raised by herfather (Eric Bana of “StarTrek”), an ex-CIA man, inthe wilds of Finland,Hanna’s upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. Theturning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeysstealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secretsof her own (Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling rev-elations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

The movie is directed by Joe Wright, starring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Olivia Williams, Cate Blanchett, JasonFlemyng, Jessica Barden, and is written by Seth Lochhead, David Farr, Joe Penhall, Joe Wright.

For ticket reservation or further information call ABC Cinema at 038 243 117 or visit them athttp://www.kinoabc.info

Friday, July 1, 2011

Filikaqa Karaoke night, from 9 pm,continues with traditional Fridaynights with karaoke.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Creme de la Creme Official Fridaynight crème de la crème music playlist

Str. Mujo Ulqinaku, Phone: +386 (0)49220 008, +386 (0)49 201 100; or con-tact@cremeprishtina.com,www.cremeprishtina.com

Friday, July 1, 2011

Full House, Tingulli 3nt and Dj Jungle, all night hip hop music,starting from 11 pm

Located at Youth and Sports Centre, fullhouseprishtina@yahoo.com,prishtinafullhouse@yahoo.com

Friday, July 1, 2011

Germia Park, Highland music event, starting 11 pm

Performers: Jimmy Van M - Satoshi Tomiie - Dooshine - DarioDesiena, and the second day, July 2, Bernays Propaganda - BloodyForeigners - The Glasses - Amon Mra & Gilesspie

Friday, July 1, 2011

Te Veni, Peyton from 9 pm

Live QuartetPentagram, fromPrizren, playing instru-mental old Balkansongs

Shenoll Tokaj, violin,Mentor Zajmi, clarinet, Adem Morina, guitar, Meriton Zajmi, perse-cution

http://kuartetipentagram.org/EN/repertuar.html

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Te Veni, old Balkan songs, with Visar Kuci, violin, and AgonXharra, harmonic, starting from 9 pm.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Jamiroquai Skopje con-cert

British jazz funk and acidjazz band formed in 1992,Jamiroquai were initiallythe most prominent compo-nent in the early-1990sLondon-based acid jazzmovement, alongside groupssuch as Incognito, the JamesTaylor Quartet, the BrandNew Heavies, Galliano, andCorduroy. Subsequentalbums have explored othermusical directions such aspop, rock and electronica. Jamiroquai have sold more than 40 mil-lion albums worldwide and won a Grammy Award in 1997.

The concert in Skopje will be held in the Sports centre “BorisTrajkovski” located next to the Hotel Alexandar Palace, Boulevard

September 8th, Skopje

Tickets are available from 18 euro (partner area), 25 euro (Fan Pitarea), and 20 euro (Tribune), 25 euro (Golden Seats), and Ultra VIP 33euro. For ticket reservation and stage order visithttp://www.kupikartizase.com/Events/Jamiroquai_2011 (site is onlyin Macedonian). Purchased tickets online might be picked up at thedoor entry, otherwise, tickets are on sale all around Macedonia, andin many location in Skopje.

For more check the Facebook page on the event.

DOKUFESTDOKUFEST, The International

Documentary and Short FilmFestival, is the largest film eventin Kosovo. The Festival is organ-ized in July in the picturesqueand historical town of Prizrenwhich attracts numerous inter-national and regional artists.

In this annually organized fes-tival films are screened twice aday in three open air cinemas aswell as in two regular cinemas.Except for its films, the festival isalso well-known for lively nightsafter the screening. Variousevents happen within the scopeof the festival: workshops,DokuPhoto exhibitions, festivalcamping, concerts, which alto-gether turn the city into a charm-ing place to be.

The 10th edition ofDOKUFEST this year will takeplace from July 23 to 31.

Prishtina Insight will updateyou will the full programme ofthe activities after the organisers

have finalized it, as 2000 applica-tions had been received. The sec-tions to be covered during the fes-tival are:• Int. Documentary

Competition (Feature andShort)

• Green Docs Competition• Int. Short Film Competition• National Film Competition• Human Rights Competition• Balkan Documentary

Competition• Audience Awardhttp://www.dokufest.com/2010/

Prishtina Diary

YMCK

July 1 - 14, 201118

Inside Prishtina

AKosovo Muslim group called“Bashkohu” said it would hold a newstreet protest in Prishtina during

Friday prayers at noon defying policewarnings not to block roads.

The head of “Bashkohu”, Fuad Ramiqi,said the protest would take place at thesame location as during the last two Fridayprotests.

“I don’t need police permission. I haveinformed them that the protest will be heldtomorrow,” Ramiqi said.

But interior minister Bajram Rexhepiinsists the main street must not be blocked;he was not against protests but againstroad blockades, he said. “I think the answer

is very clear. They cannot block the roads,”Rexhepi told journalists.

Ramiqi denied that the protests had anyconnection with the newly inauguratedCatholic cathedral in Prishtina, to whichsome Muslims object.

They say that Catholics, though a smallminority in Kosovo, encounter fewer obsta-cles than majority Muslims when it comesto obtaining permits for places of worship.

“We are not against the cathedral butMuslim believers need to have a newmosque in the centre of Prishtina,” Ramiqitold Prishtina Insight.

He said the Muslim community hadrequested a new mosque in Prishtina'sdowntown five years ago.

He also said that 22 mosques were notsufficient to accommodate the city's grow-ing number of believers. The protest enjoysthe support of Kosovo’s IslamicCommunity.

Last Friday, some 300 people prayed out-side the Carshi Mosque during a protest.

In an attempt to unblock the road, policescuffled with one person and took himaway for questioning.

Prishtina municipality, meanwhile, saysit has accepted the proposal from Kosovo’sIslamic Community for a new mosque inprinciple and was reviewing the plan.

“All such proposals must go through themunicipal assembly and the location isthen decided following mutual agreementbetween the municipality and IslamicCommunity,” Muhamet Gashi, municipalspokesperson, told Prishtina Insight.

Kosovo Muslims StepUp Mosque Protests Defying police warnings not to block roads, a Muslim group in Prishtinasays it will hold a new street protest on Friday, demanding a new city-cen-tre mosque.

Customers are shunning the Kafet eVolga area of Prishtina, known for itsalfresco coffee drinking, for a second

summer as the municipality continues withroadworks along this once popular stretch.

Businesses along Fehmi Agani Street toldPrishtina Insight that they may have toshut down because of the drop in visitors.

The municipality started replacing thewaterworks in spring last year and havestill not replaced the pavement to date.

“People of course don’t want to drinkcoffee and have the never ending noise ofthe ongoing works,” said Festim Fanaj,owner of Etno Bar.

He added that if works don’t stop end bythe start of next month, he might go out ofbusiness, as the monthly taxes paid to themunicipality and other monthly expensescannot be covered by the current situa-tion.

Muhamet Gashi, spokesperson for themunicipality, told Prishtina Insight thatthe works will be completed by the end ofthe July.

“The water pipelines in Fehmi AganiStreet and in UCK Street are in the finalstages,” he said. “The project needed coor-dination so that both streets are finishedat same time and the pavements and all theroad works were completed at same time,”added Gashi.

But, owners of small coffee bars in Kafete vogla area do not believe that the workswill be completed this summer.

Fisnik Lajqi, owner of Track Cafe, saidthe works had drastically affected his busi-ness, particularly as this is the secondsummer, usually the most lucrative time ofyear.

“It is not fair to us to have these worksongoing for two years,” he said. “It is veryrare that a street is dug up for threemonths, but this water pipeline took morethan a year to be replaced, and then wehad to wait another year to for the UCKstreet to be completed so our pavementscan be fixed too.”

Soho Street Bar, Gallery cafe, Kafja evogel, and five other small cafe bars toldPrishtina Insight that since the workshave started, their businesses have suf-fered drastic financial losses.

Spokesman Gashi said that the workscould not have been completed any faster.

Little Cafes FacingClosureVenues in Prishtina’s popular drinkingquarter – the little cafe neighbour-hood – are struggling through anoth-er summer of roadworks

Looking for a smart accessoryfor that outfit or perhaps agreat gift for your lady

friend? On Off Accessories Shopoffer something different to cus-tomers in Prishtina: a decentselection of handmade, locallyproduced jewellery, such asPrizren filigree, and internationaldesigner goods.

The recently opened outlet in

Youth and Sports Centre inPrishtina is the third of its kind inthe capital and stocks leather bagsand purses, belts, scarves, watch-es, jewellery and handmade fili-grees.

In a bid to promote handmadehandicrafts from Prizren, On OffAccessories also takes order for fil-igree jewellery. Filigree cufflinks,which cannot be found in anyother place in the town, are alsoavailable.

Beside the filigree, you can findsilver, stainless steel, and pearlitems.

Their silver specialty are the

name necklaces, which will costyou only 45 euro, no matter howlong the name is.

The filigree jewellery costs from20 euro up to 60 euro for a set ofearrings and necklaces. Thewatches are good looking with lowprices, from 25 to 30 euro.

While the bags, which are hand-made leather, designed in Italy,cost from 35 euro to 120 euro.

On Off AccessoriesYouth and Sports Centre

Prishtina044 305 256

Open hours 10 am – 8 pm,

Shop Review

On Off Accessories Shop

By Petrit Collaku

By Shengjyl Osmani

By Shengjyl Osmani

YMCK

July 1 - 14, 2011 19

Inside Prishtina

Pris

htin

a th

roug

h th

e Ey

es o

f:

Fried chicken. Just seeing thewords makes my mouth water. It’smuch more than poultry parts

dipped in batter and cooked in hot oil.When you bite into that crunchy coatingand sink your teeth into juicy, tendermeat, it can be a religious experience.

Prishtina has a temple of fried-chick-en devotion. Its name is Click Food. Themotto, “It’s fingerclicking good,” evokesKentucky Fried Chicken. But do forgivesuch asinine marketing because Click’schicken puts to shame anything thatever came out of the Colonel’s fryers.

The centrally located Click Food, onFehmi Agani Street, resulted from adream to open a McDonald’s franchise.Spurned by the Golden Arches, the own-ers have in turn accomplished some-thing far more special. They created afast food eatery that is sort of a tributeto McDonald’s and Kentucky FriedChicken and apparently uses much ofthe same equipment as the Americanjuggernauts.

Burgers and fried chicken formClick’s foundation, alongside a fewsandwiches, salads and pizzas. Think ofit as the greatest hits from the world offast food, with the addition of Peja beeron draught. Ordering happens at thecounter, but the food comes to you in atwist of elegance that suits the classydining room and delightful patio.

Chicken sometimes requires a bit of await, perhaps ten minutes or so. Thatmay seem like an eternity at a quickservice restaurant, but it’s well worth it.The fried chicken is nearly pitch perfect.Anything dipped in battered and thendeep-fried will be good on some primallevels. But Click pays the bird its due.Available in several seasonings and inorders of two or three pieces, whichusually includes at least one drum stick,the chicken arrives hot in a yin-and-

yang of the spicy, fried indulgence onthe outside and the delicate moist chick-en on the inside. The kitchen is conser-vative with its spicing and salting so youcan actually taste what you’re eating:exceptional chicken. The presentationis simple. The chicken is served on a bedof French fries and few random vegeta-bles. Once, my order came with a myste-rious kaymak-like sauce. It was a wel-comed Balkanification of dish most athome in the American South.

If for some mysterious reason thechicken doesn’t entice, Click makes adecent burger. Served on a fluffysesame-seed bun, they come in severalvarieties, including an especially deli-cious pershute and mushroom one. Butthey suffer a condition nearly ubiqui-tous among Kosovo burgers: pljeskavicasyndrome. The beef patties, while tastyand seasoned with love, are not made ofthe ground meat required for a properburger. They amount to masses of flat-tened cevapi, which is just a different

kind of pleasure. The burgers go best with fries, which

you can get with a soda in combinationmeals for less than 3 euro. Click cooksthe fries golden brown to just the preciselevel of external crispiness. They alsohappen to taste like potatoes. Thekitchen clearly understands the art ofdeep-frying.

While Click’s owners might belamenting the fact that McDonald’s did-n’t want any Kosovo franchises. Theyhave struck good with fast-food fusionthat outshines their corporate inspira-tions, and in the process, givenPrishtina fried chicken worthy of song.

Click FoodStreet ‘Fehmi Agani’ No. 5

Open daily, 8 a.m. - midnight049 580 508

Bar Review, LOGINRecently opened in Peyton

area, Login Bar & Restaurant isoffers a pleasant spot to grabsome Prishtina classics.

On the menu you’ll find theusual selection of omelettes,salads, sandwiches, pastas, piz-zas and grill fish and meet.

LOGIN isn’t going toblow you away with itsoriginality, but it is adecent spot to grab somekeenly priced lunch.

For orders call at 044806 496 or visit them inPeyton, PerandoriJustinia street (next toBenetton shop)

LoginBar & Restaurant

Perandori Justiniastreet

Peyton area

What surprised you most about Prishtina?That it is such a colourful, lively and charming

city, irrespective of some tiny flaws.

What's your favourite hangout?It´s more a “Top Three” than one favourite

hangout: Tingell Tangell, Dit e Nat and Créme dela Créme.

What is the best thing about Prishtina?In Prishtina, you are never alone. It can be a bit

annoying from time to time, especially when youwant to sleep and you have the loudest Karaokeparty you´ve ever heard next door, but everyoneis so friendly and open that I never felt lonely inthis city.

What is the most annoying thing aboutPrishtina?

Probably the condition of sidewalks andstreets – Chapeau to all these brave girls you seeevery day and who manage to walk there in killerhigh heels without breaking their legs.

If you were mayor of Prishtina for the daywhat would you change?

I would hire a lot of traffic policemen to stopcars from chasing after pedestrians.

How many macchiatos do you drink a day?Maybe one or two, but if it´s allowed to count

Turkish coffee as well, the number increases con-siderably.

What's your favourite Albanian word andwhy?

It is simply “jo” Because in the Bavariandialect I speak, it means “yes” and already led tomany confusing situations here in Prishtina.

What landmark do you use to tell taxi driv-ers where you live?

Filikaqa Sports Bar or Vetevendosje

TeresaFischer Intern at Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New tapas bar is perfect place to waste

afternoon

Bar Review:

Epic Sangria is King at Olive

By Gravlax

Restaurant Review:

Click Food: Silly name,Serious Fried Chicken

By Nate Tabak

YMCK

July 1 - 14, 201120

OpinionIf you would like your NGO to appear in

our Making a Difference feature, pleaseemail info@prishtinainsight.com

If you logged on to a Greek news site lastweek, you wouldn’t have foundmuch coverage of the “Ancient

Warrior”, that is, the statue ofAlexander the Great, erected a fewdays ago in Skopje.

In years past, such “historicalusurpations” would have made head-line news. But Greeks are far more pre-occupied with the debt crisis that hasthreatened their way of life and madebright futures more of a wish than agoal.

The recommendation of bothAthens and Brussels was that theFormer Yugoslav Republic ofMacedonia, FYROM, ought to be morepre-occupied with its destiny, too.Owing to the “name issue”, that partic-ular road passes through Greece.

Since FYROM declared independ-ence in 1991, Greece has had a nationalapoplexy over use of the name“Macedonia”, which is also the nameof a northern province of Greece - andclaims to the heritage of Alexanderthe Great as a Hellenic figure.

Greek political parties have won andfallen from power over the “name”issue and at key moments, such as atthe NATO Bucharest summit in April2008, touching that nationalist nervehas summoned an otherwise non-exis-tent sense of political unity amongGreeks.

But at this moment, even Alexandercannot distract Greeks from double-digit unemployment, from a 23 percent sales tax and from the constantuneasiness of living in a near-bank-rupt state, propped up by despisedbailout packages from theInternational Monetary Fund, IMF, theEuropean Union and EuropeanCentral Bank.

The “name” issue has become a sortof Guantanamo Bay for Greece’s gov-ernment. It would like to see this inter-nationally embarrassing issue closedas soon as possible. But any move inthat direction would result in cries ofnational, ethnic and historical trea-son.

Foreign guests boast about howGreek ministers themselves admit thatthe name issue is “stupid” and taintsGreece’s otherwise progressive visionin the Balkans – a crucial agenda forthe country’s own, unfinishedEuropean integration.

The scar tissue from this issue marsthe consciousness of the Greek public.In 1999, the American historian,Eugene Borza, wrote of how nearly adecade after FYROM’s independence,Greeks firmly believed claims that notonly was the Star of Vergina (a symbolof Ancient Macedon, unearthed in1977) originally on their neighbour’sflag, but that Skopje airport had beenrenamed after Alexander the Greatand that Alexander stood, alreadyerected, in the city’s central square.

These claims back then were ludi-crous. But in the last decade theybecame true, as Nikola Gruevski’sVMRO-DPNE party pursued a policy of“antiquity-isation” that has won elec-tions while stalling FYROM’sEuropean Integration.

So Greek politicians are in a box.They desire leadership in the region,but it is unacceptable domestically tocondone a neighbour’s “usurpation” ofGreek history.

Greece’s unspoken strategy has beento have … an unspoken strategy.

The Greek foreign ministry has donewhatever it can to avoid publiclyaddressing the “name”, focusing moreon functional aspects of partnershipand development, like environmentalcollaboration on Lake Prespa.

The official stance on solving the“name” issue is to have a geographicalqualifier added to the wordMacedonia, such as “North”, or“Vardar”, rather than an ethnic or his-torical marker such as “Slav” or“New”.

That Athens offered such a compro-mise is itself a sign of progress.Greece long ago admitted what wasunthinkable in the early 1990s - thatgeographical Macedonia is splitbetween Greece, FYROM and Bulgaria,with the majority of the territory inGreece.

Both of Greece’s major parties haveadopted this position but a settlementto the issue would take a healthy doseof political courage from the Socialistadministration of George Papandreou.The opposition centre-right NewDemocracy party is edging theSocialists in the polls under the leader-ship of Antonis Samaras, and Samarasmade his reputation on the “name”issue in the 1990s.

Any settlement, no matter the terms,would likely get the same negativespin treatment that the various auster-ity packages have received.

Nonetheless, Greece’s current strat-egy has turned the tables, a rare posi-tive foreign policy development forAthens.

For years Greece was globally lam-pooned for denying its neighbour’sname – whatever the arguments – con-sidering FYROM’s rousing underdogstory and simmering ethnic tensions.The Western media gave up on theFYROM acronym even beforeWashington and more than 100 othergovernments did so officially. Toalmost every non-Greek it simply doesnot make sense to tell a people theycannot be called what they want to becalled. It is also exceedingly difficulteither to say or type the words FormerYugoslav Republic of Macedonia overand over. The Greek acronym PGDM(ΠΓΔΜ) is entirely unpronounceable.

But if Greece is losing the publicrelations battle over the nameMacedonia, she is winning the war forhistory. If telling a country what it canbe called is absurd, so is a country lay-ing claim to its neighbour’s mostbeloved historical figure- whatever thearguments and rationalizations. Inclassrooms from Berlin to San

Francisco to Sydney, Western schoolchildren are taught that Alexander theGreat spread Greek culture through-out the Near East, influencing theregion for centuries, if not millennia.

Such monuments in another countryseem quite bizarre, starting with there-naming of Skopje’s airport in early2007 after Alexander the Great.

“At first, friends of [FYROM]thought this must be some sort of one-off joke designed to gain a rise out ofthe Greeks, who believe that theMacedonians are trying to expropriatesymbols Hellenism,” Tim Judah wrotein the Economist on November 22,2010. “It was not.”

Skopje has realised the West’s dis-may to some extent, thus the messydesignation of the 23-metre statue asan “ancient warrior”. It was too little,too late. Washington and Brussels havecriticized Skopje all this year for hid-ing behind the name issue instead ofaddressing fundamental weaknessesin its state institutions, quality ofdemocracy and ethnic relations.

European Union EnlargementCommissioner Stefan Fule soundedexacerbated in his much-circulatedquote from last Monday, following thestatue’s unveiling, which has beendubbed a “Yellow Card”.

“Seriously,” Fule said. “If you have aneighbour, and I'm not talking abouttwo states now, and there is an issuebetween the two of you, whatever thenature of that issue is, and you are try-ing sincerely to solve it, I guess youwould avoid doing anything that yourneighbour might call a provocation.This is simple logic.”

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_21/06/2011_395365

This ‘yellow card’ was accompaniedby a warning that FYROM could loseits recommendation for a state date forEU membership negotiations. Onlyanemic advances have been madesince FYROM received candidate sta-tus in 2005. Since then, Romania andBulgaria have become part of the bloc,and Croatia will soon join them.

Both the European Union and NATOhave tried to get across to Skopje’sleaders that the country will make nofurther progress on the Euro-Atlanticpath merely to stave off conflict inter-nally or within the region. To becomea full, productive member of the clubthere have to be good neighbourly rela-tions – no matter how absurd the issue.

Whether out of sympathy or cun-ning, Athens’ restrained response thatSkopje should build bridges ratherthan statues set a tone that there is apossibility to be productive. Both sideswill have to be, since each has biggerthings to worry about than a 23-metrestatue.

George Mesthos is an independentjournalist and analyst of Balkan poli-tics.

As a Greek-American, and a regularreporter/researcher in Athens, theauthor chooses to use the 1995 InterimAccord designation, the formerYugoslav Republic of Macedonia[FYROM].

Skopje Warrior Fails to MakeGreek Headlines Debt-ravaged Greeks appear content to let Europe chastise Skopje over its new statue of an ‘ancient warrior’.

“Blimey, where has everyone gone?” This was myinitial reaction when faced with the fact thatKosovo has 1, 773, 872 citizens according to the

Statistical Office of Kosovo (SOK). This figure is theend result of the census held last April in 34 munici-palities of Kosovo, excluding the lawless Northernpart of the country and the Diaspora.

Though the data should be taken with a pinch ofsalt, it is evident that even with the error emanatingfrom the registration methodology, which has notbeen stated in the SOK website, the results ought tobe in this region. A surprise for everyone, but whatdoes it mean for Kosovo in the whole and what couldits implications be?

Ever since the end of the war we had been boast-ing that Prishtina has half a million citizens, in thisway trying to paint a rather cosmopolitan and mod-ern picture in the eyes of the foreign visitors.

It turns out we do not even reach 200, 000 inPrishtina as the census concludes that Prishtina has198, 214 citizens including its villages. It also tran-spires that the Serbs, who left the city in 1999, havebeen replaced by Albanians in an equal proportionand there has been no substantial net growth in theoverall count of the city.

Although Prishtina has a special status over allother municipalities due to being the capital ofKosovo, this figure will inevitably open discussionsabout the distribution of funds to Prishtina in com-parison to other municipalities. This would especial-ly be the case with Prizren, which is only 20, 102 citi-zens behind Prishtina and would therefore ask forsimilar treatment allocation of funds.

On a bigger picture, Kosovo could undergo somechanges in its political arrangement and alterationsin the decision-making power of minority groups asmore data emerge in the coming days.

There has been a growing pressure over the lastyears to introduce Turkish as an official language inPrishtina from the Turkish community in the capi-tal, who at times feel slightly left behind. However,fighting their corner might prove challenging forTurks following recent reports in the media that peo-ple had been peer-pressured to register themselves asTurks, despite their original Albanian nationality.Nevertheless, their only hope for tangible results toaddress their requests would be their headcount inthe census.

Secondly, Montenegro has been very keen on push-ing forward the idea of recognition of Montenegrinsas a minority group in Kosovo. The publication ofresults based on nationalities living in Kosovo couldbe a major step up in materialising Montenegro’sefforts. This in turn would lead to changes in the par-liament seats whereby Montenegrins would be allo-cated guaranteed representation in parliament.

Conspiracy lovers will be yelling that the censuswas manipulated for some unknown political reasonand that the figure really is 2 million.

Fuelled by irony about the results, a reader of oneof the online portals quipped the following: “If theSerbian Academy of Sciences [notorious for its insti-tutionalised anti-Albanian agenda] organised thecensus, we [Albanians] would have been larger innumbers!”

With all that in mind, I can already imagine thetangle of inter-ethnic and inter-religious debatesthat will accompany Kosovo during the muggy sum-mer as various sides try to make sense of the figures.

By Kreshnik Hoxha

Outside InKosovo’s census: Are we shrinking?

By George Mesthos

21July 1 - 14, 2011

opinions

There is a time for contestation and atime for reconciliation. After localelections on May 8, Albania is at a fork

in the road.Instead of trying to overturn Edi

Rama’s razor-thin defeat in the race formayor of Tirana, the Socialist Partyshould assume its role as loyal oppositionand cooperate on a consensus planadvancing Albania’s candidacy to join theEuropean Union.

No more drama. It’s time for gover-nance.

Both parties had big stakes in Tirana’smayoral election. As mayor of Tirana, astronghold of the Socialist Party, Ramadoled out lucrative construction con-tracts to cronies who provided kickbacksand political support.

Lulzim Basha, the Democratic Partycandidate, ran a strong campaign, har-nessing the power of social media. Thewinning party is well placed for nationalelections in 2013.

The government of Albania workedwith experts from the Council ofEurope’s Venice Commission to draft theelection law, which was endorsed by theSocialist Party. Both international andlocal election observers were present atpolling stations with agreed proceduresto verify the validity of each ballot.

In voting for a slate of different localgovernment positions, voters wereinstructed to deposit their ballots for dif-ferent offices in designated boxes. Somevoters, especially young first-time vot-ers, mistakenly deposited their ballots inthe wrong boxes.

Even Albania’s president was caughton film misplacing his ballot.

Albania’s electoral law had an unfore-seen flaw. There was no provision for bal-lots that were deposited in the wrongbox.

Without prejudice to the outcome, theCentral Elections Commission deter-mined that failure to count votes put inthe wrong box would disenfranchise vot-ers and undermine the will of the people.It ordered a recount in some districts.

Though Rama led by 10 votes after theinitial tally, a partial recount put Bashaahead by 78 votes. The Socialistslaunched a legal appeal to overturn thedecision to count some misplaced bal-lots.

The court ruled in favour of theSocialist Party, determining that fair-ness would be best served by counting allmisplaced ballots, not only those in spe-cific districts. Contested ballots in 368boxes were added to the final tally andBasha was finally declared the winner by93 votes on June 25.

Despite Basha’s victory, the overallresults show that Albania remainsdeeply divided. In addition to a virtualdraw in Tirana, the Democratic Partywon the popular vote nationwide whilethe Socialists won most municipalities.Rama has a history of obstructionismand of placing his personal interest over

the national interest.After parliamentary elections in 2009,

the Socialists were outmaneuvered bythe Democratic Party that formed acoalition to lead the government.Socialist deputies refused to take theirseats in parliament.

Rama’s strategy was to create grid-lock, delegitimize the government anddemand early elections.

The strategy failed. Having become aNATO member in 2008, Albanians want-ed additional reforms so as to gain visaliberalization from the EU. In a historicdecision, the EU decided to grantAlbanian passport holders visa-free trav-el in October 2010.

At a time when Europe is deeply con-cerned about immigration, the decisionwas a measure of Albania’s progresssince the desperate exodus of manyAlbanians to Italy following the 1997financial collapse.

Becoming a candidate for EU member-ship is Albania’s next milestone. The EUCouncil of Ministers recently enhancedAlbania’s European perspective by iden-tifying 12 areas requiring reforms inorder to become a candidate country.

The European integration agenda is along road. Membership requires compli-ance with 60,000 pages of rules and regu-lations. By spelling out a reform agenda,the EU has offered Albania a significantopportunity incentivizing reformsaimed at harmonizing legislation withthe EU’s acquis communautaire.

Rama and the Socialists need to stopcomplaining and focus on working inclu-sively to realize the country’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. Albania’s reputa-tion has suffered enough.

Rising above the fray, Prime MinisterSali Berisha should issue an appeal fornational reconciliation and calling for adialogue on the development of a consen-sus action plan advancing Albania’s EUcandidacy. Albanians must focus on thegreater good setting national interestsahead of personal gain.

Rama and the Socialists will be tempt-ed to act as spoilers. Rama has threat-ened street protests to overturn the elec-tion result in Tirana. This is a risky and

dangerous course, both for the SocialistParty – and for Albania.

On January 21, 2011, Rama’s support-ers rallied to protest corruption allega-

tions against a coalition member of thegovernment. Four protesters were killedwhen the crowd stormed the prime min-ister’s office. Albanians are tired of con-frontation.

This time around, Rama’s appeal couldfall on deaf ears. If nobody showed up toprotest, it would rub salt into the woundsof his electoral defeat.

There is also a growing malaise amongyoung members of the Socialist Partywho are dissatisfied with Rama’s leader-ship. Provoking a confrontation is a tac-tic that could backfire against Rama,sparking an internal revolt within theSocialist Party and his removal from thechairmanship.

European countries are tired ofAlbania’s polarized politics. At this crit-ical crossroads, Albanians need to over-come internal divisions and focus ontheir shared vision of a Europeanfuture.

David L. Phillips is Director of theProgram on Peace-Building and Rights

at Columbia University’s Institute for theStudy of Human Rights and a Fellow of

the Future of Diplomacy Project atHarvard University.

Less Drama From Albania’sSocialist Leader Edi Rama’s strategy of confrontation and gridlock ill-serves his party and his country. Time for a new approach.

By David L. Phillips

ATTENTION WESTERNERS Do you want to make a difference? Do you want to help Kosovo grow and develop? Do you want to get involved in teaching from primary through to university level classes? Are you interested in a volunteering or part-time admin job in the education? Universum College in Prishtina is an accredited institution and offers studies both at pre-university and university level. We are looking for people interested to join our enthusiastic staff of local and international faculty and administrators who want to make a difference. Whether you want to volunteer, have a part-time administration job or teaching at any of the subjects you feel comfortable, please contact Chris Lydon at chris.lydon@universum-ks.org or 049 137 286 to discuss the options. More information on our schools can be found at: www.universum-ks.org www.universumcollege.org www.agaxhitecollege.org Join Us! Make a difference! Anglia Network Europe and Universum College are organizing the 4th

ANGLIA SUMMER SCHOOL 2011July 4 8, 2011

August 22 26, 2011

Learn English in Action. Full week of intensive English.English through activities, games, quizzes, presentations.

Visits, Excursions, BBQs. Presentations from the UK Embassy officials.Native Speaking Teachers.

For international students: You can stay at a host family or in the campus dormitory. Afull program of activities is foreseen for the boarding students.

APPLY NOW! Few places left!

Contact Halil Bashota at halil.bashota@universum ks.org or 044 260 243 for moreinformation on the summer school and application procedure.

More information cab be obtained from www.anglianetwork.eu or www.universum ks.org

marketing

community focus22 July 1 - 14, 2011

YMCK

Do you want to help savechild's life today? Dueto a shortage of funds,

children being treated atPrishtina’s main public hospi-tal are not being given poten-tially life-saving tests to detectcancer, Prishtina Insight hasdiscovered.

This newspaper has decidedto join the charity Help forChildren with Cancer to tack-le this tragedy.

Editor Lawrence Marzouksaid: “There are many, manyworthy causes which peoplecan support in Kosovo so it isdifficult to pick one above oth-ers.

“But when we heard aboutthis story, we were struck athow easy it would be to have areal impact on children’s lives

and felt it important to helpout. The test is incrediblyeffective and simple – all Helpfor Children with Cancercharity need is financial sup-port to ensure that these testshappen.”

Help for Children withCancer has already raised40,000 euro to buy the neces-sary equipment, but a further15,000 euro is needed to pur-chase the essential reagents,and this is where you step in.

Your donation will gotowards purchasing reagentsso these tests can be carriedout and Leukaemia, and othercancers, can be diagnosedearly, saving lives.

Prishtina Insight is distrib-uting collection boxes across

the city to raise funds.Already almost 20 interna-tional organisations haveagreed to take part.

If you would like to takepart and help raise funds, or

simply install a collectionbox, please emailShengjyl@birn.eu.com or call+381 38 24 33 58

Please Be Generous andHelp Save a Child’s Life Today.

Prishtina Insight LaunchesChild Cancer Campaign

Eleven students fromDartmouth College andten students from the

American University inKosovo, AUK, have restoredthe rundown JewishCemetery in Prishtina.

Dartmouth College in theUS, for the tenth year, took agroup of students of differentethnic, religious, and socioe-conomic backgrounds toEastern Europe to carry out arestoration project.

Alongside peers from AUK,the students set about improv-ing the cemetery for the oncevibrant Jewish community inKosovo.

Debris was cleared and theovergrown grass cut back atthis neglected Jewish ceme-tery, a lone remaining sign ofa dwindling community inthis majority Muslim country.

After the 1999 war, these

graves have been abandonedand forgotten, although aCzech scheme launched in2008 also attempted to restorethe site to its former beauty.

The Czech Embassy inKosovo and the KosovoMinistry of Culture, Youthand Sports spent 13,000 eurofor the improvements, whichwere unveiled in October 26,2009, at which the CzechAmbassador, JaninaHrebickova, as well as thenMinister of Culture, Valton

Beqiri, spoke on the impor-tance of preserving and pro-tecting a site that bears testi-mony to a civilization thatlived in Kosovo for so long.

However, the site soon fellback into disrepair.

Max Yoeli, a Dartmouth stu-dent, visiting Kosovo for thefirst time, said that the experi-ence in Kosovo had been dif-ferent than the previous onesin Eastern Europe.

“For the first time we areworking with local peers whoreally helped us a lot to foundout more about the genocidehistory of this newly borncountry,” claimed Max.

Lauren Pace, one of theteam leaders from Dartmouthstudents, agreed with Max’sstatement and added that theexperience in Kosovo is onethat they will remember forgood.

“As my second year onProject Preservation, I amproud to have been one of theleaders of this year's trip. Thework we did was enhanced somuch by the friendships thatwe made with our peers at

AUK. I am so proud of whatwe have done in Prishtina,”added Lauren.

Susan Matthew, the otherleader of the Dartmouthgroup, claimed that they areproud of the new look of thecemetery, and hope thesegraves remain as such for along time.

“We worked under the sun,from the morning ‘til the after-noon, and our hard work goesto all these buried people sothat they are remembered asonce having been inhabitantsof this city,” added Susan.

Dradan Hajrizi, the teamleader of AUK students, saidthat “it is very important forKosovo people to still keep thememory of Jews who lived inKosovo”.

“As my grandfather told meonce about the dark history ofJews during the Nazi period,through this project finally Igot the opportunity to contin-ue the family tradition, to helpJewish people again, this timethrough the cemetery. I hopeKosovo will continue to showhow helpful and tolerant weare as a nation.”

Anesa Colakovic, AUK stu-dent from Mitrovica, addedthat this experience hadhelped her understand thatduring the history many peo-ple had suffered in the Balkanand across Europe.

“The Project Preservationmade me think further aboutthe people who suffered dur-ing WWII and their dark end-ing, a similar picture to whatwe had once gone through,”concluded Anesa.

Community News

US and AUK Students restoreJewish Cemetery in Prishtina

There’s an end-of-ter m feeling about.Not only are Kosovo’s schools on holi-day, and summer plans hatching, but

donor-funded projects are wrapping upbefore new initiatives start in Septemberand it’s a time when members of the inter-national community are shipping out.

This year I’m aware of these cycles a little bitmore because the work I’m involved in is benefit-ting from them. Word has spread that The IdeasPartnership is distributing clothing to Roma,Ashkali and Egyptian families in need in FusheKosove, and that we’re in need of resources andequipment for the classes we’re running for kidsunable to register in school.

So a big thank you to all those who have heftedbin bags of unwanted clothing down their stairsto our waiting car, have driven bulky items out tothe mahalla in Fushe Kosove, have passed on sta-tionery and equipment from offices closing downor wardrobes slimming down. And if anyone elsehas appropriate items needing rehoming do getin touch.

Of course we are not the only possible homefor such surplus – I’m not just posting a ‘wanted’advert here. Everyone will have their preferredrecipient, whether it is through a charitableorganization, or a spontaneous offloading ontosomeone seen begging on the street, or the case ofa family known privately to be facing difficulty.The moral and environmental imperative is topass on our unwanted clothes or household oroffice items responsibly.

Despite the existence of initiatives like ours atThe Ideas Partnership or the Red Cross’ muchbigger operation, there are really very few for-malised ways for people in Kosovo to redistributeunwanted possessions. No Freecycle here, nocharity shops. Informal systems are fairly wide-spread among Kosovars, but – you’ll be familiarwith this in Kosovo – they usually depend on hav-ing personal contact. And that can make thingsawkward when it’s a matter of passing onunwanted possessions – it means looking some-one in the eye as you hand over the trousers withthe saggy seat, or admitting to having boughtthat unwise dress in the first place. If you are aforeigner in Kosovo it also restricts you becauseyour access to communities in desperate need islikely to be limited. When an internationally-posted family moves on from Kosovo, their clean-er or the driver at work, or the lady in the flatdownstairs will probably do well out of theircast-offs, but the unemployed, the marginalized,the family from the village - the forgotten – arelikely to remain forgotten.

And perhaps all this contributes to the fact thatin the bins of Pristina you can see heaps of per-fectly usable clothing and objects which had plen-ty of life left in them, now tainted with coffeegrounds and old nappies and usable by no-one.Of course these then go to landfill and turnanother few square meters of Kosovan country-side into stinking, unusable garbage heap.

As you downsize, outsource, clean up or moveon this summer, here’s to new homes – for indi-viduals and also for the items they leave behind.

Elizabeth Gowing is a founder of The IdeasPartnership, a Kosovan NGO working on educa-tional, cultural and environmental projects. She

can be reached at theideaspartner-ship@gmail.com

By Elizabeth Gowing

Ecosovo

When secondhand isnot second best

By Shengjyl Osmani

The now tidy cemetery

Help for Children with Cancer

YMCK

23July 1 - 14, 2011

Classified Contact Prishtina Insight if you would like to advertise Email marketing@prishtinainsight.com

Embassiesand LiaisonOffices inPrishtina

AmericanAddress: "Nazim Hikmet" no. 30Arbëria/Dragodan, 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 549 516AustrianAddress: "Ahmet Krasniqi" no. 22Arbëria /Dragodan, 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 249 284BelgianAddress: "Taslixhe" I, 23 A 10000 Pristina Phone: +381 (0) 38 734 734BritishAddress: "Ismail Qemajli" no. 6Arbëria /Dragodan, 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 254 700BulgarianAddress: "Ismail Qemajli" no. 12Arbëria /Dragodan, 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 038 245 540Danish Liaison Office in PristinaAddress: "Mark Isaku" no. 3010000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 246 594DutchAddress:" Xhemal Berisha" no. 12Velania, 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 224 61FinnishStr. Perandori Justinian No. 19Pejton10 000 Pristina Phone: +386 43 737 000 FrenchAddress: "Ismail Qemajli" no. 67Arbëria /Dragodan, 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 22 45 88 00GreekAddress: "Ismail Qemajli" no. 68Arbëria /Dragodan, 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 243 013GermanAdress: "Azem Jashanica" no. 17Arbëria /Dragodan, 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 254 500ItalianAddress: "Azem Jashanica" no.5 Arbëria /Dragodan, 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 244 925JapaneseAddress: "Rexhep Malaj" no. 4310000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 249 995LuxemburgAddress: "Metush Krasniqi" no. 14Arbëria /Dragodan, 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 226 787MalaysianAddress: "Bedri Shala" no. 48 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 243 467NorwegianAddress: "Sejdi Kryeziu" no. 6 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 232 111 00Saudia ArabianAddress: Dardania SU 7, building 2, #110000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 549 203SlovenianAddress: "Anton Ceta" no. 610000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 244 886 SwedishStr. Perandori Justinian No. 19Pejton10 000 Pristina Phone: +381 38 24 57 95SwissAddress: "Adrian Krasniqi" no. 1110000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 248 088 TurkishAddress: "Ismail Qemajli" no. 59Arbëria /Dragodan, 10000 PrishtinaPhone: +381 (0) 38 226 044

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munity through Prishtina Insight’ classified ads. Almost every international organisation, embassy, NGO and many others subscribe to Kosovo’s only English language newspaper, which

is also on sale at newsstands in seven cities and received in electronic format by scores of paying clients across the world.

Easy

1 9 2

4 5 7

8 6 3

7 2 8

2 3

9 8 4

4 7 3

9 6 2

4 8 1y | y

Medium

2

8 6

3 6 9 5 2

6 3 5 4

4 3 1 8

7 2 9 5

7 1 9 4 5

9 5

9| y

Hard

3 1

7 4 8 6

3 6 7 8

1 8 6

3 1

6 5 4

8 5 4 7

5 3 4 6

7 2| y

Y

M

CK

July 1 - 14, 2011 marketing24