Criminal clans rule Kosovo

Criminal clans rule Kosovo

April 21, 2008

Political power in Kosovo is in hands of criminal clans and the international community has been passively looking at it for years, reads the article of the German weekly Spiegel.

That renowned magazine points that

Kosovo is a clan-based society in which a handful of criminals are keeping their own people as hostages while EU bureaucrats are ignoring that writes Spiegel.

Spiegel says that the international community has done nothing during the ten years of the UN rule to curb the corruption. Nor has the Albanian organized crime in Kosovo been curbed even though the police forces and governments of western countries have known for a long time that the province is the main Balkan crossroad for drug and arms dealing, as well as for people trafficking in Europe.

Europol says that the Albanian organized crime gangs are controlling 80% of the drug market in northern Europe, and some 40% in Western Europe, notes Speiegel.