American Council for Kosovo - Organized Crime in Kosovo

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The American Council for Kosovo is an activity of Squire Sanders Public Advocacy, LLC, and Global Strategic Communications Group, which are registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as agents for the Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija. Additional information with respect to this matter is on file with the Foreign Agents Registration Unit of the Department of Justice in Washington DC.

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

BALKANS: CHILD TRAFFICKING ON THE RISE, UNICEF

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source: www.adnki.com

Wednesday, 30 August 2006

London, 30 August (AKI) - Child trafficking in the countries of southeast Europe, particularly in Serbia’s Kosovo province, has been on rise and is reaching worrying proportions, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Wednesday. In a report, Action to Prevent Child Trafficking in South-Eastern Europe, released in London, UNICEF stated that said that many children were smuggled from southeast Europe into west European countries, "to be used in the sex trade, slavery or for begging". It noted that 1.2 million children were trafficked across the world annually, while 246 million kids world-wide were involved in illegal child labour.

"We know that child trafficking within Kosovo borders is on rise,” said UNICEF regional director for southeast Europe, Maria Kalavis. “Children are being recruited for certain jobs and forms of exploitation,” she added. After visiting Romania, Moldova, Albania and Kosovo, the countries most frequently named in child trafficking, one of the reports' authors, Mike Dottridge, said that the trafficking could be fought only by “addressing root causes of the problem. The traffickers themselves are very well organized, very flexible and very ruthless, yet the systems that are in place to deal with them are inflexible and unharmonized,” he added.

Kalavis told the BBC it was absurd that UNICEF's presence in Kosovo wasn’t felt more strongly, despite the fact that the province, whose majority ethnic Albanians demand independence, has been under United Nations control since 1999. “Kosovo’s priorities have been so far the establishment of the rule of law and the reform of institutions” and we, “as UN agency caring for children want to point out that this area of protection has been neglected”, said Kalavis.

Kalavis praised Serbia's efforts in preventing child trafficking. “Serbia is a good example how to prevent child trafficking, because they are eliminating causes which make the children vulnerable,” Kalavis concluded.

(Vpr/Aki)

Organized Crime in Kosovo

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