The mosquito-born West Nile Virus has claimed its first victim this past week and another two suspected deaths are being investigated as being related to the virus in Kosovo. The disease which is making a debut for the first time in the Balkans claimed three victims in Serbia last month where there were at least 35 confirmed cases. While up to 80% of infected persons will not suffer any symptoms, extreme cases of the virus can lead the swelling of the brain tissue, coma, and eventual death. For those that do contract the virus, common symptoms mirror that of the regular flu.
Now to the local news, this week there has been a large focus on the proposed travel of a large delegation from the Kosovo Government to the US for the UN Assembly meeting which would require 200-300,000 Euros from the limited Kosovo budget. The proposal and cost of sending such a large delegation (20-30 people) to the UN has been met with large skepticism by the opposition parties in the press.
Announced in the news today after reports earlier in the week of being spotted in Kosovo, Naser Kelmendi, who is on the US blacklist, was arrested by Kosovo Police on Thursday (20 September). Kelmendi, who is a Bosnian citizen, is reported to be one of the biggest drug bosses in the Balkans.
The results of the Kosovo census have been revealed. Excluding municipalities in the north of Kosovo who refused to take part in the census, the population of Kosovo has been declared to be 1,739,825 inhabitants. The last known official count of the population of Kosovo was held in 1981 with 1.5 million persons. In 1991, Albanians boycotted the census and the population was estimated to be 1.9 million.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Kosovo Granted Full Sovereignty
Last Friday, the Kosovo Parliament passed legislation officially ending supervised independence. Members of the International Steering Group on Monday declared Kosovo fully independent. Even with the end of supervised independence, the Kosovo parliament officially approved the extension of the mandate of EULEX through 2014 and the Deputy KFOR commander stated that NATO troops would remain in Kosovo for another 5-7 years.
With the end of supervised independence, many have been asking "what's next" or "what does it mean" and perhaps most importantly, Is Kosovo ready and what are the remaining challenges?
In other news, Serbian war crimes prosecutors say that they have a witness to the alleged organ trafficking by the KLA. In an interview on Serbian TV on Monday, the witness described removing the heart of a Serbian captive and how he was trained in organ harvesting.
With the end of supervised independence, many have been asking "what's next" or "what does it mean" and perhaps most importantly, Is Kosovo ready and what are the remaining challenges?
In other news, Serbian war crimes prosecutors say that they have a witness to the alleged organ trafficking by the KLA. In an interview on Serbian TV on Monday, the witness described removing the heart of a Serbian captive and how he was trained in organ harvesting.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
UN Secretary-General Visits Kosovo - Vetevendosje Strikes
Today the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki Moon of South Korea, will visit Kosovo. This is the first high-level visit from the United Nations since Kofi Annan visited in 1999. As preparations were underway for the visit, Vetevendosje paid a visit to the UNMIK Mission HQ to spray-paint the word "Fair" after the word UN near the main entrance of the compound.
Monday, July 9, 2012
The Worrying Kosovo Infant Mortality Rate
International and Kosovo health officials are concerned about the rate of infant mortality in Kosovo despite it dropping over the past 10 years. The rate is still higher than it should be with 17.1 deaths in 1000 births.
The lack of a true proper healthcare system and other factors such as poverty and education all contribute to the higher infant mortality rate in Kosovo.
We recently witnessed how frustrating dealing with the public hospital in Pristina can be when a friend of ours gave birth to a baby boy with a serious congenial heart defect that should have been detected by the gynecologist during pregnancy, a mistake that has infuriated the neonatologist at the Pristina Hospital. Because of the failure of the prenatal doctor identifying the heart defect, we have been struggling for two weeks to find a charity to assist sending the baby to another country and pay for the 150,000 Euro operation that will help to save the little boy's life as the medical treatment cannot be found in Kosovo. Luckily an Italian charity has come through and our friend's baby had surgery this morning in Tirana, Albania where an Italian doctor traveled to perform the operation.
Update - 12 July 2012 - I am saddened to report that despite receiving the much needed surgery in Tirana, our friend's baby passed away in the early hours of the morning. It is extremely frustrating to think that had the prenatal doctor identified the heart defect as it should have been and the medical care he needed been available in Kosovo he may still be with us today. It took more than two weeks to be able to get the baby into the desperately needed surgery because of funding and travel considerations and I can't help but keep thinking that it was two weeks too long.
The lack of a true proper healthcare system and other factors such as poverty and education all contribute to the higher infant mortality rate in Kosovo.
We recently witnessed how frustrating dealing with the public hospital in Pristina can be when a friend of ours gave birth to a baby boy with a serious congenial heart defect that should have been detected by the gynecologist during pregnancy, a mistake that has infuriated the neonatologist at the Pristina Hospital. Because of the failure of the prenatal doctor identifying the heart defect, we have been struggling for two weeks to find a charity to assist sending the baby to another country and pay for the 150,000 Euro operation that will help to save the little boy's life as the medical treatment cannot be found in Kosovo. Luckily an Italian charity has come through and our friend's baby had surgery this morning in Tirana, Albania where an Italian doctor traveled to perform the operation.
Update - 12 July 2012 - I am saddened to report that despite receiving the much needed surgery in Tirana, our friend's baby passed away in the early hours of the morning. It is extremely frustrating to think that had the prenatal doctor identified the heart defect as it should have been and the medical care he needed been available in Kosovo he may still be with us today. It took more than two weeks to be able to get the baby into the desperately needed surgery because of funding and travel considerations and I can't help but keep thinking that it was two weeks too long.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Supervised Independence of Kosovo to End in September 2012
Yesterday, the International Steering Group for Kosovo agreed to end the supervised independence of Kosovo in September. The steering group is made up of 23 European countries, the United States, and Turkey. The Steering Group said that Kosovo had made significant steps to implementing the Comprehensive Settlement Proposal (CSP) which included laws for cultural and religion heritage protections and community rights.
What does the end of Supervised Independence mean for Kosovo? Well, the International Civilian Office (ICO), headed by Peter Feith, which hold executive authority to oversee independence will be closed down in September. The European Rule of Law Mission (EULEX), KFOR (NATO's Kosovo Force) and UNMIK will still remain in Kosovo.
In other news, Italian Member of Parliament Pino Arlacchi has sent a series of questions to the European Commission on the progress of EULEX investigations who stated that UNMIK and EULEX "has something to hide". Arlacchi has been requesting status reports on 11 cases handed over to EULEX from UNMIK which cited criminal conduct involving more than 60 million Euros related to the privatization of Kosovo's electricity.
Also, the sale of Post & Telcomm Kosovo (PTK) has restarted after it was stopped last year amid allegations of corruption and harmful contracts. The sale is in the pre-qualification stage where companies can express interest in purchasing the company. The Kosovo budget greatly relies on the sale of PTK which is expected to bring in between 300-600 million Euros.
What does the end of Supervised Independence mean for Kosovo? Well, the International Civilian Office (ICO), headed by Peter Feith, which hold executive authority to oversee independence will be closed down in September. The European Rule of Law Mission (EULEX), KFOR (NATO's Kosovo Force) and UNMIK will still remain in Kosovo.
In other news, Italian Member of Parliament Pino Arlacchi has sent a series of questions to the European Commission on the progress of EULEX investigations who stated that UNMIK and EULEX "has something to hide". Arlacchi has been requesting status reports on 11 cases handed over to EULEX from UNMIK which cited criminal conduct involving more than 60 million Euros related to the privatization of Kosovo's electricity.
Also, the sale of Post & Telcomm Kosovo (PTK) has restarted after it was stopped last year amid allegations of corruption and harmful contracts. The sale is in the pre-qualification stage where companies can express interest in purchasing the company. The Kosovo budget greatly relies on the sale of PTK which is expected to bring in between 300-600 million Euros.
Friday, June 29, 2012
House Hunting in Pristina
This past week has been extremely frustrating as we searched for a new house in Pristina. Being a family in Kosovo, we had special considerations (extra bedroom for the kiddies, bathtub for bathtime, no neighbors uptairs/downstairs to bother if the kiddies are noisy) that proved to be rather difficult to fulfill in our price range according to the three different rental agencies we tried to work with this week.
First the websites proved to be the old bait-and-switch tactic where houses were advertised that had already been rented many moons ago or the price changed due to ridiculous reason (well, the price listed is if you live upstairs in the three bedrooms and the landlord lives downstairs in the kitchen, living room, and bathroom. Huh?!)
Then when outlining our requirements for the number of rooms, bathtub, and maximum price, basically everything was ignored. One rental agency showed us houses that were double to quadruple our price range but assured us that we should just go look at the houses and they were sure the landlords would negotiate down because the houses had been listed for a long time (some for more than two years empty!) Basically that didn't happen. The one house we viewed that was double our price, the guy was happy to negotiate down but certainly not to half his asking price (even if the house has been empty for 1.5 years).
And lastly, in searching on our own and through the rental agencies, we found that almost none of the houses we looked at had "House for Rent" signs. It was almost impossible to know that the houses were available for rent. The exception to this is the Dragodan neighborhood where nearly every second or third house has a sign.
Some people swear by using a rental agency because it saves them time and effort. We found that we wasted days of our time by using the agencies. However, if you are searching for a house and would like to use an agency, here are a couple that I would suggest (if not only to get an idea of what's on the market). We finally ended up finding a house through "a friend who knew someone who had a friend that was looking to rent" and found exactly what we were looking for :)
Rental Agencies in Pristina
First the websites proved to be the old bait-and-switch tactic where houses were advertised that had already been rented many moons ago or the price changed due to ridiculous reason (well, the price listed is if you live upstairs in the three bedrooms and the landlord lives downstairs in the kitchen, living room, and bathroom. Huh?!)
Then when outlining our requirements for the number of rooms, bathtub, and maximum price, basically everything was ignored. One rental agency showed us houses that were double to quadruple our price range but assured us that we should just go look at the houses and they were sure the landlords would negotiate down because the houses had been listed for a long time (some for more than two years empty!) Basically that didn't happen. The one house we viewed that was double our price, the guy was happy to negotiate down but certainly not to half his asking price (even if the house has been empty for 1.5 years).
And lastly, in searching on our own and through the rental agencies, we found that almost none of the houses we looked at had "House for Rent" signs. It was almost impossible to know that the houses were available for rent. The exception to this is the Dragodan neighborhood where nearly every second or third house has a sign.
Some people swear by using a rental agency because it saves them time and effort. We found that we wasted days of our time by using the agencies. However, if you are searching for a house and would like to use an agency, here are a couple that I would suggest (if not only to get an idea of what's on the market). We finally ended up finding a house through "a friend who knew someone who had a friend that was looking to rent" and found exactly what we were looking for :)
Rental Agencies in Pristina
- Capital Ring (www.ringks.com)
- Omega Real Estate (www.omega-ks.com)
Many Injuries as Serbs clash with Kosovo Police - Fist Fight in Kosovo Parliament
Yesterday marked St. Vitus (Vivodan) celebration for Serbians and it was estimated that more than 50 people were injured between clashes between Serbian celebrants and Kosovo Police. The Kosovo Police reportedly deported several buses of young, drunk Serbians traveling to Gazimenstan for the celebrations. After crossing the border, the youths began to throw stones at the Kosovo Police and reportedly also fired shots. 32 Kosovo Police were treated for injuries and 20 Serbs were seen for injuries.
In a separate incident, a bus carrying Serbians was stoned and a Molotov cocktail was thrown at it as it passed on the highway through Pristina. I actually got to see the still smoking Molotov cocktail as it smoldered in the road near Hotel Victory on the Pristina-Skopje highway. My inital reaction was "why is that beer bottle burning?" and the next thought was "holy crap, that's what a Molotov cocktail looks like!"
In a totally unrelated incident, Vetevendosje and PDK members of parliament engaged in two separate fistfights in the Kosovo Parliament Building yesterday over SHIK. At this time no charges have been filed but if medical reports are provided, criminal charges can be filed according to the Pristina Municipal Prosecutor.
Yesterday, the Kosovo Police denied the entry of the Serbian Kosovo Minister, Bodganovic, due to his support for parallel structures in the North of Kosovo.
In a separate incident, a bus carrying Serbians was stoned and a Molotov cocktail was thrown at it as it passed on the highway through Pristina. I actually got to see the still smoking Molotov cocktail as it smoldered in the road near Hotel Victory on the Pristina-Skopje highway. My inital reaction was "why is that beer bottle burning?" and the next thought was "holy crap, that's what a Molotov cocktail looks like!"
In a totally unrelated incident, Vetevendosje and PDK members of parliament engaged in two separate fistfights in the Kosovo Parliament Building yesterday over SHIK. At this time no charges have been filed but if medical reports are provided, criminal charges can be filed according to the Pristina Municipal Prosecutor.
Yesterday, the Kosovo Police denied the entry of the Serbian Kosovo Minister, Bodganovic, due to his support for parallel structures in the North of Kosovo.
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