PRISTINA/BERLIN (Own report) - A new mafia scandal involving Berlin's Kosovo partner is creating unrest in Pristina. A former agent of the Kosovo intelligence service explained that a close associate of Kosovo's incumbent Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, had commissioned the assassinations of political opponents. According to his report, spies from Thaci's entourage were also responsible for threats and assaults on witnesses, who were to testify against former UCK commanders before the ICTY war crimes tribunal. The European Union, who's "Rule of Law Mission" (EULEX) has known of the accusations for months, is still dragging its feet. Hashim Thaci, who, from the beginning has been rumored to have been involved in organized crime, has been collaborating closely with Berlin and Brussels. In the German capital, he is considered to be the guarantee for preventing unrest in Kosovo, whose secession is being examined for its compatibility with international law by the International Court of Justice since last week. Whereas German jurists, with eccentric argumentation, are seeking to lend the illegal secession from Serbia an appearance of legality, Spanish jurists are confirming that the act was illegal.

Commissioned Assassinations

The newest mafia scandal involving Pristina's secessionist regime was set in motion by the former secret agent Nazim Bllaca. Bllaca alleges that he had been in the employ of the secret service, SHIK, since the end of the war waged against Yugoslavia in 1999 by NATO and the troops of Kosovo's terrorist UCK militia. This secret service had been created by the UCK during the war and placed under the command of former UCK commander, Hashim Thachi's Partia Demokratike e Kosoves (PDK, Democratic Party of Kosovo) founded in 1999. Agents of the SHIK were active in organized crime. (Thaci is also rumored to have been heavily involved in organized crime.)[1] The agents extorted protection money and were mainly dealing in real estate.[2] One of their victims was a Pristina architect, who had wanted to take steps against the extremely widespread illegal construction activities. Bllaca explained that he had personally committed 17 crimes in the course of his SHIK activities, including extortion, assassination assaults, torture and serving as a contract killer. He reported that the SHIK crimes were also aimed at Thaci's political rival, Ibrahim Rugova and his party assistants in the Lidhja Demokratike e Kosoves (LKD, Democratic League of Kosovo). As a matter of fact, since 1999 several people from Rugova's close entourage had been killed.

Sexual Slave Trade

Bllaca is making grave accusations, directly implicating the entourage of Kosovo's Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci. For years Berlin and the EU have been cooperating with Thaci and are using his clan's influence to maintain control over Kosovo. No one has illusions about his activities. Already three years ago, a study commissioned by the German military, noted that on "the international level," Thaci is in control of wide ranging "criminal networks."[3] The German Foreign Intelligence Service, BND, concluded even earlier, that Thaci has commissioned "professional killers." Whether this was referring to the professional killer, Nazim Bllaca, is not yet known. Bllaca says that he received his orders for contract killings from Azem Syla. Syla, who in the 90s had been the UCK general chief of staff, is one of Thaci's close collaborators. Today he is honored as a businessman in Pristina. According to Bllaca, another high-ranking politician in Thaci's entourage had given SHIK agents criminal contracts - Xhavit Haliti. Haliti is currently a member of the Kosovo Parliament's Presidium and its foreign policy committee. Years ago, the BND has accused him of being involved in organized criminal activities, particularly the sexual slave trade.[4]

Intimidation of Witnesses

It is not yet clear what role the EU's "Rule of Law Mission," EULEX is playing in this current scandal. Bllaca claims to have confessed to EULEX months ago, to permit them to solve the crimes. It is unknown that EULEX has undertaken necessary measures. A few days ago, Bllaca found himself forced to go public with his confession and divulge additional information. Since then he has been jailed and placed under EU guard.[5] The evidence he has exposed could prove helpful for the UN's ICTY war crimes tribunal, for example that SHIK agents had threatened and assaulted witnesses, who were supposed to testify against the UCK before the tribunal. Several suspected war criminals had been acquitted because witnesses repudiated their previous testimonies or had even been murdered. Bllaca, who will now stand trial for his alleged murders, has not been able to find a defense lawyer willing to take the risk of defending him in a Pristina courtroom.

Entity

While the new accusations against Hashim Thaci and his entourage are stirring unrest in Pristina, the International Court of Justice in The Hague opened its hearing, December 1, into the case surrounding the secession of Kosovo. Following the secession of its southern province, Serbia had filed suit to receive confirmation of the secession's illegality. Last week three German international jurists testified, seeking to create the impression that the secession was legal with very eccentric argumentation. For example, the German government's legal advisor, Susanne Wasum-Rainer, claimed that in the aftermath of the invasion by NATO troops and the installation of a UN administration, Kosovo became an "entity," to which the principle of territorial integrity could not apply.[6] A "declaration of independence" had not been prohibited by international law and was therefore acceptable. The international jurist from Heidelberg, Jochen Frowein, who on various occasions has been commissioned by the Berlin government, admitted that secession could be in violation of international law, if it is achieved through the intervention of external powers, but this was not the case in Kosovo.[7]

Non-Binding

The representative of the Spanish government at the hearing in The Hague proved not quite as imaginative. Spain, along with four other EU nations [8] and more than two-thirds of the other nations around the world, does not recognize the secession of Kosovo. In The Hague, Madrid's international legal advisor pleaded her case on the basis that Serbia is a nation and therefore enjoys its claim to territorial integrity. The Western nations under German-US American leadership had deceived the United Nations in their recognizing this secession. "In light of their policy of faits accomplis," she said, "we are appealing to the power of rights."[9] In case The Hague, rather than succumb to Berlin's legal fantasies, upholds prevailing law, declaring the secession illegal, media organs in Germany are already spreading the rumor that the decision of the International Court of Justice is non-binding. In such a case, Germany will recognize the Kosovo secessionist Mafiosi regime that has illegally declared the province independent - even against the verdict of the UN's International Court of Justice.

Further information on German cooperation with criminal structures in Kosovo can be found here: Political Friendships, "Thank You Germany!", Arbitrariness in Power, In Accordance With NATO Standards and The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

[1] see also Organhandel and Die Mafia als Staat

[2] Angeblicher Killer erschüttert Kosovo; Basler Zeitung 02.12.2009

[3] see also "Thank You Germany!"

[4] see also Unter deutscher Aufsicht

[5] Angeblicher Killer erschüttert Kosovo; Basler Zeitung 02.12.2009

[6], [7] Berlin: Kosovo ist kein Präzedenzfall; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 03.12.2009

[8] Neben Spanien erkennen auch die EU-Mitglieder Slowakei, Rumänien, Griechenland und Zypern die Sezession des Kosovo nicht an.

[9] España apela al derecho internacional para declarar ilegal la independencia de Kosovo; El País 08.12.2009