American Council for Kosovo - Organized Crime in Kosovo

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The American Council for Kosovo is an independent U.S. nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting a better American understanding of the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija and of the critical American stake in the province's future. The Council's mission is to make accurate information and analysis about Kosovo available to officials of the Executive and Legislative branches of the U.S. Government; to think tanks, media, NGOs, religious and advocacy organizations; and to the general public. In particular, the Council’s educational activities will generate a heightened American awareness that an independent Kosovo – forcibly and illegally detached from Serbia, as is now being contemplated by the international community – would be harmful to U.S. national interests and to European and global security.

Important Notice Concerning Fraudulent “American Council for Kosova“ Website:
It has come to our attention at the American Council for Kosovo that there still may be some confusion about an unauthorized mirror site, created by persons styling themselves the "American Council for Kosova." This deceptive site closely patterns the appearance of the genuine American Council for Kosovo site (www.savekosovo.org) but with a pro-Albanian separatist, anti-Serbian, pro-Kosovo independence message. Indeed, suggestions even have been made that we at the American Council for Kosovo are also behind the mirror site in order to "work both sides of the street," on the pro-Albanian side as well as the pro-Serbian side.
Nothing could be further from the truth! The pro-Albanian "Kosova" site appeared within days of our creation of the genuine American Council for Kosovo site. Its purpose was clearly to detract from the effort we had launched on behalf of the Christian Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija under the guidance of Vladyka Artemije. It is characteristic of the pro-separation advocates that they are afraid to engage on the facts and international standards concerning Kosovo -- both of which favor the Serbian position -- and need to stoop to cheap tricks and deception in a feeble attempt to undermine our increasingly successful message. In that sense, we take their efforts -- which, given the activity of the fraudulent site, clearly are quite well-funded -- as a compliment to our work and evidence of increasing fear on the Muslim Albanian side that the the pro-separatist agenda is in deep trouble.
We at the American Council for Kosovo have been asked (1) why we did not preempt the available internet addresses for the fraudulent site, and (2) why we don't take legal action to shut them down. The short answer is that doing so would take away time and resources from our own activities, which given the formidable opposition we still face, we cannot afford to spare. Conversely, we are confident that intelligent readers, if they do chance across the fraudulent mirror site will soon see it for what it is: just more of the dishonest and misleading "Kosova" propaganda to which the world has been subject for the past decade and more. We ask the critical reader to make the appropriate comparisons and dismiss the fraulent mirror site to the oblivion it so richly deserves.
Media requesting further information about this matter may contact press@savekosovo.org

December 2006

Organized Crime in Kosovo

We torched everything!

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source: Vecernje Novosti

By Zeljko Pantelic

Monday, 15 May 2006

Organized Albanian criminal groups involved in the sale of drugs, people, illegal immigration, etc. were behind the March 2004 pogrom against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. This conclusion follows from taped telephone conversations between leaders of Albanian mafia organizations which since 2003 have been illegally transferring hundreds of illegal emigrants per year from Kosovo to Italy, and who were uncovered by Italian police at the beginning of this week.

By wiretapping the conversations of Albanian criminals, investigating prosecutors in Bari, led by prosecutor Giuseppe Scelsi discovered that the killing of 19 Serbs, the expulsion of several thousand Orthodox Christians and the torching of their churches was pre-planned and orchestrated.

"Hell, torch all the churches," one of the mafia bosses ordered in a telephone conversation.

"We've already torched them all," his collocutor on the other side responded.

Several conversations were also taped in which the criminals vaingloriously called their friends to tell them they had torched the churches and to turn on the television so they can see the results of their work.

The Italian police operation uncovered several Albanian organizations from Kosovo which ran illegal emigrant routes with the help of tourist agencies, falsified documents and fictitious marriages. At the top of the Albanian criminal hierarchy were Jashar Bitiqi (35) residing in Treviso, who piloted the work of three tourist agencies which served as fronts for illegal emigration. These were the agencies "Jaha Tours" in Treviso, "Saba Tours" in Suva Reka and "Poluxha Tours".

There were three channels for illegally entering Italy. The first was Prizren (Suva Reka) - Drac - Bari - Treviso and the "ticket" for transportation to the Apennine peninsula cost 3,300 euros. Whoever wanted to legalize their stay in Italy could get a fictitious wife or husband with regular papers for 8,000 euros, and a valid residence visa as a family member. The second channel was a minor variation of the first; the disembarkation was in Brindisi, not in Bari, and the price ranged from 3,000 to 3,500 euros. The fourth route, from Kosovo through Macedonia and Greece to Ancona in Italy, was the cheapest at 2,500 euros.

Investigators also found a fourth channel for illegal emigration leading to Italy through Serbia, Hungary and Austria. The procedure was very simple: those interested in emigrating from Kosovo would pay the asked for amounts and in exchange receive false documents and visas. They would be loaded onto supposed tourist buses and enter Italy as false tourists, where would then illegally remain.

TRANSCRIPTS OF TAPED ALBANIAN CONVERSATIONS

EVERYTHING IS BURNING, BURNING...

"Novosti" encloses a part of the transcript of the recorded telephone
conversation between two Albanians, Hazer (H) and Muharem (M):

M: Hello
H: Hi, Rema, how are things going?
M: Alright.
H: You're still asleep?
M: Yes.
H: Why don't you ask your brother where he is?
M: Why, you're in Mitrovica, right?
H: No, I'm not in Mitrovica... We've torched all the churches in Prizren.
M: Hell, torch them all!
H: We've already torched them all, turn on the television so you can see
them burning!
M: I just turned it on.
H: They're showing Prizren right now... All the church have been torched,
not one is left.

In a conversation between Hazer and another, unidentified man (U), the
latter appeared to be quite cautious and did not want to talk about torched
churches by telephone:

H: - Where are you?
U: - At Bujar's.
H: - We burned them all, the bitches... everything is in flames, all of
Yugoslavia.
U: - I know, I was there until just recently...
H: - You were there? And at that church...
U: - And the church was torched?
H: - The local church... I was proposing that we make an agreement... KFOR
pulled back and a little later they told me we had torched it.
U: - Don't talk like that, you'll destroy us all.
H: - (laughs) Oh, why are you afraid, my brother.
U: - Leave it alone, you know they tap the phones. Don't talk [about this]
over the telephone.
H: - Come on, don't worry…

Translated by sib on May 17, 2006

Organized Crime in Kosovo

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