Organised crime problem dogs EU record on Kosovo

Four years after the EU’s biggest-ever police mission came to Kosovo it has not indicted any top suspects on organised crime, posing questions about its work and the integrity of Kosovo’s leaders.
Eulex itself is proud of its record. Its training of Kosovo police and customs is a success story. When the EU completes its Eulex review in the next few weeks, it is expected to reduce personnel to let local officers take over many day-to-day functions.
Eulex’ spokesman in Pristina, Nicholas Hawton, told EUobserver it also has “clear results” in chasing criminals in its war-scarred and politically complex theatre of operations.
He added it has 350 ongoing criminal investigations and that its judges have handed down 220 verdicts – 15 on organised crime and 20 on war crimes. One of the investigations concerns accusations that Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci used to run an organ trafficking gang. On the shocking case of Enver Zymberi – a Kosovar Albanian policeman murdered by a Serb sniper last year – its investigation has led Interpol to issue six arrest warrants.
A draft European Parliament report endorsed by the foreign affairs committee on Tuesday (24 January) urged it to “increase its efforts” in the Kosovar Serb enclave in north Kosovo and to “step up” its work on organised crime.
But it blamed EU member states for shortfalls: it noted EU countries are reluctant to send their best judges to Kosovo and it asked France, Italy and Romania to “reconsider” pulling home its so-called Formed Police Units – specialists in riot control.
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