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Country Reports on Terrorism 2007 - Kosovo
US Department of State ^ | April 30, 2008 | US State Department

Posted on 05/19/2008 7:10:09 PM PDT by Bokababe

Country Reports on Terrorism 2007 - Kosovo

The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) continued to monitor suspected terrorist activity with the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG). Officials believed that a few of the more than 400 NGOs operating in Kosovo were involved in suspicious activities, and sought to prevent extremists from using NGOs to gain a foothold in Kosovo. Consequently, municipalities authorized NGO use of public facilities for religious gatherings only if the relevant religious community consented.

The Kosovo Police Service (KPS) and UNMIK Police Counterterrorism Units (CTUs) were primarily responsible for Kosovo's counterterrorism efforts, but were small and lacked resources. They received information and analysis support from the UNMIK Central Intelligence Unit (CIU) and the UNMIK Police Intelligence Liaison Unit (ILU), but also relied on the KPS CTU's intelligence, surveillance, and investigations units. The KPS established its CTU in October 2006 and incorporated it into UNMIK Police's CTU in January 2007. Consequently, it focused on building up its unit, training and equipping its officers, and collecting information on potential terrorist threats. UNMIK Police CTU monitored, mentored, and advised their KPS CTU counterparts, and exercised executive authority over them.

Porous boundary lines that were easily crossed by individuals trafficking in people, weapons, and narcotics hampered Kosovo's counterterrorism efforts. The Kosovo border police service lacked basic equipment, and only had a mandate to patrol the green border (areas that lack official, manned border, or administrative boundary line gates) from two to three kilometers beyond the actual border and boundary lines. NATO-KFOR roving teams patrolled the green border right up to the actual border and administrative boundary lines, but numerous passable roads and trails that lead to Kosovo lack border or boundary gates. Moreover, poorly paid border and customs officials were susceptible to corruption.

Witness intimidation was also an obstacle to combating terrorism in Kosovo. UNMIK's Department of Justice reported that it created a Witness Protection Task Force to address this issue. The Task Force reportedly worked on constructing a new safe house in Kosovo, encouraged the use of video conferencing equipment now in place in Kosovo's district courts, and increased efforts to secure relocation agreements with other jurisdictions.

According to the UNMIK Department of Justice (DOJ), there were three terrorism-related convictions, and seven terrorism cases underway with local judges and prosecutors. International prosecutors and the Kosovo Special Prosecutor's Office (KSPO) also initiated four terrorism-related investigations and filed two indictments, which were pending confirmation at year's end. One of the indictments was related to Albanian National Army (AKSH) activity, and one of the investigations involved the Front for Albanian National Unification (FBKSH), the AKSH's political wing.

The AKSH, which UNMIK designated as a terrorist organization in 2003, continued to intimidate Kosovo citizens. In June, its Tirana-based spokesman, Gafurr Adili, told Kosovo media that AKSH members in several Kosovo towns had distributed leaflets threatening violence if the Serbian paramilitary group Tsar Lazar Guard ventured into Kosovo for the annual June 28th commemoration of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo. Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) war veteran leader Abdyl Mushkolaj also made similar threats, adding to concerns over the commemoration. As a result, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) issued an executive decision prohibiting the Tsar Lazar Guard or any paramilitary group from carrying out activities in Kosovo. The commemoration passed without incident.

In an October interview on Radio Television Kosovo (RTK), heavily armed, masked individuals in black uniforms bearing the AKSH insignia appeared from an undisclosed location described as an AKSH training facility near the administrative boundary line with Serbia. One of them told viewers the "boys of former wars" wanted to show they were ready to counter the threat of Serbian paramilitaries. Adili later claimed that the people RTK featured were AKSH and that they were "filling a void" created by KFOR's alleged abandonment of several villages near Serbia proper in the municipalities of Podujevo and Kamenica. AKSH had long claimed to operate only in areas outside of KFOR or Kosovo Protection Corps control, and was reportedly also active in southern Serbia and western Macedonia.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: albanian; kosovo; wot
So the borders are porous, corruption at the borders is rampant, we haven't funded counter-terrorism here, so we rely on the locals. Illegal drugs, weapons and people-trafficking is rampant, but "making friends with local Muslims" is so much more important....(eye roll)
1 posted on 05/19/2008 7:10:10 PM PDT by Bokababe
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To: joan; Smartass; zagor-te-nej; Lion in Winter; Honorary Serb; jb6; Incorrigible; DTA; vooch; ...

2 posted on 05/19/2008 7:13:24 PM PDT by Bokababe ( http://www.savekosovo.org)
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To: Bokababe

“So the borders are porous, corruption at the borders is rampant, we haven’t funded counter-terrorism here, so we rely on the locals.”

Its just that much easier for some other countries to deal with when the time comes.


3 posted on 05/20/2008 4:10:35 AM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated)
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To: Bokababe

In before the Albanian terrorist (am I being redundant?) supporters!


4 posted on 05/20/2008 7:24:46 AM PDT by F-117A (Mr. Bush, Condi, have someone read UN Resolution 1244 to you!!!)
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To: F-117A

no you’re not. As Saint Slobodan said:

“you understand we know how to deal with these Albanians. We’ve done this before.”

And I said, “Well, when- when was that and where? And how did you deal with them?” He said, “In Drenica in 1946,” he said. “They were murderers and bandits and killing their own kind.” And “Well, what did you do, Mr. President?” He said, “We killed them. We killed them all. It took several years, but we killed them all.”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kosovo/etc/script1.html

Serbs have been nothing like terrorists with the non-Serbs. Just the entire Westerm world, including George Bush, Rice, Cheney, Rumsfeld have got them wrong.


5 posted on 05/20/2008 9:49:54 AM PDT by old-and-old
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To: old-and-old
Those quotes are referring to the criminals only, not the innocent people. There wouldn't be any Albanian population if they went after the non-criminals.

The Kosovo Albanian population ROSE under Yugoslavia and under Milosevic's rule from the late 1980's through the '90s. Albanians grew and increased their families all during this time.

6 posted on 05/21/2008 8:55:31 AM PDT by joan
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To: old-and-old
"Just the entire Westerm world, including George Bush, Rice, Cheney, Rumsfeld have got them wrong."

More Iraqi civilians, many times over, have been killed since the Iraq invasion than the entire death toll of the '90s Balkan wars including soldiers. 600,000 Iraq civilians were claimed to have died by the fall 2006.

Plus you have the different Muslim factions blowing up each other's mosques in the last few years.

Why aren't you and all those Balkan propagandists so unconcerned with all the Iraqi mosques - older, bigger, grander and arguable much more beautiful than those in Bosnia - being blown up?

7 posted on 05/21/2008 8:59:06 AM PDT by joan
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To: joan
GW Bush, has not told US soldiers to rape, kill and main civilians and destroy their entire lives like your leaders did. If a US soldier does something bad, they'll be sent to jail. Now you're trying to say "We're Christians." A little too late, especially since you don't want to admit what you have done but instead blame the victims.

Keep trying to compare Bush with Milosevic and Seslej and Arkan. You do realize that you are in an American board, right??

Freepers: See who is a Serbian hero /licensed by Milosevic and nationalists. it includes a brief history of the conflict.
8 posted on 05/21/2008 9:06:59 AM PDT by old-and-old
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To: old-and-old
There is no evidence of the rape of Muslims, much less no orders.

The Bosnian Serbian women were the first to send 800 documented claims of rape and rape camps to the UN Security Council in October 1992. Before that the Muslims and international community had no rape camp propaganda claims.

After receiving the Serbian women testimony, the Muslims, suddenly and with no documentation nor evidence, claimed an astronomical number of raped women.

The investigators never discovered any rape camps of Muslim women, never was there any medical examinations and collection of DNA evidence, there are no rape babies brought forward or paternity tests for these babies/children which only seem to exist in imagination/propaganda.

There was no increase in the birthrate to support all the claims at all.

You are going with pure propaganda hype which was the favorite of the media.

9 posted on 05/21/2008 9:39:50 AM PDT by joan
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To: old-and-old
And who ordered the U.S. soldiers to do this torture and perversity.





10 posted on 05/21/2008 9:51:02 AM PDT by joan
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