The Sunday Times - World
The Sunday Times April 09, 2006
Rampage of the mafia may delay Kosovo independence
Tom Walker, Pristina
KOSOVO, the former Yugoslav province, is falling into the grip of
Albanian organised crime gangs, casting a shadow over attempts by the
international community to turn it into a fully fledged independent
state by the end of this year.
Participants in talks in Vienna, sponsored by the United Nations, on
the "final status" of Kosovo, are concerned that the mafia networks
that smuggled guns into the disputed province from Albania in 1997 and
1998 are using the same channels for a burgeoning trade in illicit
petrol, cigarettes and cement. Prostitution and drugs are also popular
staples of the black economy.
The profits are ploughed into shopping centres and hotels, which are
going up as part of a building boom in the province. Petrol stations
are especially popular - there are more than 2,000 of them catering
for a population of 2m in a territory the size of Devon. Many are
believed to be part of a money laundering racket, controlled by a few
of the largest clan families, involving oil smuggled in from
Montenegro.
Despite attempts by Soren Jessen-Petersen, head of the UN mission in
Kosovo, to downplay the extent of the problem, UN officials admit the
corruption extends deep into the heart of the Kosovo government.
"Crime groups have been able to operate with impunity," said Marek
Antoni Nowicki, Poland's leading human rights lawyer and the UN's
international ombudsman for Kosovo until last year.
"You have a criminal state in real power - it needs underground
illegal structures to supply it with everything to survive. These
networks can rely on the weakness of the public institutions to
sanction their operations."
On Friday the UN's internal watchdog, the Office of Internal
Oversight, accused Jessen-Petersen of turning a blind eye to widespread
fraud at Pristina airport. He protested that the accusation was
"entirely unwarranted".
Kosovo is still technically part of Serbia: Vojislav Kostunica, the
Serbian prime minister, argues that Belgrade must retain some form of
control.
The fight against corruption is complicated by the fact that the task
is shared between different bodies of varying degrees of competence.
"The aim is to keep the criminals under control," said Nowicki.
"The question is can the international community do it? It is very
doubtful."
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