By Stephan Israel

From Frankfurter Rundschau

During the day the shiny new vehicles clog the streets in the seasonably hot Pristina. Some are driving with tags from neighboring Albania, where as others have no license plate. One can see the latest models that just recently came off the assembly lines. On board are often young men with dark sun glasses and not much to say. The change of scene could not be more radical. Three months ago, when the NATO peacekeeping force arrived, Pristina was a ghost town.

Today primarily the young people use their freedom in the evening to meet in one of the bars. Business seems to be flourishing. From the loudspeakers boom the previously forbidden songs about the Albanian fight for freedom and the people in front of the bars crowd far out onto the terraces in the semi-darkness.

At the parties in the liberated city, one can acquire drugs of all kinds at ridiculously low prices. For Bryan Hopkinson, director of the”International Crisis Group” (ICG) in Pristina, that is an indication that organized crime presently has an especially easy game in Kosovo. And the expert of the nongovernmental organization adds that in poor Albania only criminals have the money for expensive luxury cars.

More than three months after the arrival of the NATO peacekeeping force, Kosovo is still a lawless territory. The attention of the international community is presently concentrated on the ethnic violence against the disappearing minority of the Serbs. “No one is thinking about economic crime,” Hopkinson criticizes. Kosovo is presently an ideal environment in which to make a lot of money in a short time. Everything is legal and illegal at the same time, for there is no control on the borders. Neither customs duties nor taxes have to be paid. Soldiers of the peacekeeping force (KFOR) have begun, however, to check the border traffic for weapons.The UN administration is just beginning to set up a customs authority. Initially just the flow of goods will be registered “for statistical purposes.” “That is the ideal environment for organized crime to establish a foothold,” Hopkinson warns.

There were mafia structures in Kosovo even in the days of the Serbian apartheid state. At that time it was the Serbian and supposedly Russia mafia that worked hand in hand with the Belgrade police. The embargo and sanctions against Yugoslavia made illegal trade of all kinds a lucrative business. Above all the smuggling of fuel flourished. And the Kosovar business people could pursue their activities only if they propitiated the police and authorities with “taxes” and other arbitrary payments. With the withdrawal of the Serbian authorities, the previous “market leaders” had to abandon the field. Supposedly various groupings are already in the process of dividing up the market again. Small entrepreneurs must pay protection money but no one talks about that openly. Some “tax collectors” present themselves as representatives of the interim government of the KLA-commander Hashim Thaci. Others come “on behalf of” rival groups.

Since the withdrawal of the Serb units, the vacuum in Kosovo is seamlessly joining the lawless territory in northern Albania. After the unrest similar to a civil war two years ago, the central government in Tirana has not been able to regain control over the northern parts of the country along the mountainous border. The police of Prime Minister Pandeli Majko essentially control only the area immediately around the capital city.To be sure, under international pressure the socialist government has begun an offensive in recent weeks against the best-known gang leaders in the country. So far, however, every attempt of the weak central government to curb organized crime has failed or become bogged down after a short time.

Albania is well known as the hub for the smuggling of people and as a transit country for drugs. Observer Bryan Hopkinson warns against the”green light” almost to the external border of the EU. The border between Kosovo and Albania does not exist at all. The controls from Kosovo over Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina to Croatia are at least porous and can be avoided with a little “outlay.”

The Netherlander Daan Everts, until recently stationed in Tirana and now mission chief of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe(OSCE) in Pristina, also speaks of an “open invitation” to organized crime.”It would have been better if the international community had come to Kosovo in full strength.” The summer vacation and the notoriously slow selection process above all in the UN bureaucracy are only a few of the reasons whythe development of the civilian institutions is proceeding so slowly.

At the same time, Everts is confident that the UN Interim Administation Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is about to get a firm footing. The international protectorate agency has little with which to oppose organized crime, fears Hopkinson from the “International Crisis Group,” however. The soldiers ofthe KFOR force must still take over police functions. The peacekeepers can hold presumed perpetrators for a longer time only in the case of serious crimes and clear evidence.

UNMIK has indeed named the first judges in the cities of Prizren and Pec. But it will be a while yet before the courts are allowed to begin investigations and pass judgments. A UN civilian police is soon supposed to take over the police work from the KFOR soldiers but so far only a few hundred of the promised 3,000 foreign police officers have arrived. It is already possible to see them strolling through Pristina in their colorful uniforms, a sometimes ridiculed attraction. Very few of them are already operationally ready and large contingents had to be sent back to their homelands because they did not pass shooting and driving tests.

For understandable reasons, the governments would not send their best people for UN missions, Hopkinson believes. What is a deserving police inspector from Halifax supposed to accomplish in Kosovo? The official can move in the often hostile environment only with an interpreter, does not understand the culture, and will be replaced after six months anyway. On behalf of the UN, the OSCE is in the process of establishing a police school for Kosovo in Vucitrn. About 20,000 Kosovars have applied for one of the coveted jobs. The first 200 cadets are supposed to be trained in an accelerated process in the next weeks and then sent forth under the supervision of UN civilian police. But valuable time has been wasted: ICG-man Bryan Hopkinson fears that the international efforts are coming too late: “There is a danger that Kosovo will become a Sicily of the Balkans or, even worse, a miniature Russia.”

© Frankfurter Rundschau 1999