Headlines - 15.04.2014

Procedure to establish special court commences (Koha)

In a front-page report, the paper notes that Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga has sent a letter to EU High Representative Catherine Ashton with a request to extend the mandate of EULEX and to establish a special court that will look into war crimes allegations committed by the former Kosovo Liberation Army.

“The letter of the President of the Republic has been sent to the European Union and now we are awaiting a reply from the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security. Following the exchange of letters, the letter will be sent to respective institutions,” Arber Vllahiu, a spokesman for President Jahjaga, told the paper. “The President of Kosovo ensures institutional coordination, in line with the Constitution and laws of Kosovo, and in such cases continued activities with the international community, bearing in mind that previous letters for the EU mission were also sent by the President.”

The paper further notes that Brussels has already prepared a reply and that the institutions of Kosovo are familiar with the content. Ashton will reportedly confirm that she has received Jahjaga’s letter and will confirm that EULEX’s mandate will be extended for another two years and that the special court will be established. “The work of the Special Investigations Task Force and all other legal proceedings will continue until the Council of the European Union informs Kosovo that investigations and procedures have been concluded. Kosovo shares the European perspective with the rest of the Western Balkans. During the implementation of its mandate, EULEX will contribute to facilitating Kosovo’s progress toward further integration in the EU,” Ashton writes in her letter.

Special court will change Constitution (Tribuna)

The paper reports on the front page that the Constitution of Kosovo will have to be amended again, this time as a result of the establishment of the special court that will look into war crimes allegations. Unnamed sources told the paper that this process is inevitable, and the amendments are expected after elections and the establishment of new institutions. In addition to the special court, the current Assembly will have to vote on the amendment of 12 laws that derive from the process.

A senior state official, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the paper that constitutional amendments are inevitable. “There are elements that are imposed and they need to be included in the document. Constitutional amendments need to make sure that the court will be under Kosovo’s authority. But this is expected to happen at a later stage and not now on the eve of elections,” the official added.

Dialogue to continue after creation of new government in Belgrade (Tribuna)

Brussels will wait for the establishment of the new government in Belgrade before it summons Kosovo and Serbia’s prime ministers for the next meeting. Citing reliable sources, the paper reports that Serbia’s outgoing prime minister, Ivica Dacic, told the office of Baroness Ashton that he and his government cannot do anything more about the implementation of agreements reached so far. Brussels is now aware that the burden for resuming talks and implementing agreements falls on the future government that will be led by Aleksandar Vucic. The new government in Belgrade is expected to be formed before 27 April.

Hoxhaj requests recognition from Vatican (Lajm)

Kosovo Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj started a two-day visit to Italy where he is expected to meet with senior government officials and visit the Vatican. On Monday, the Foreign Minister met with the Secretary for Foreign Relations of the Holy See, Monsignor Dominique Mamberti. Hoxhaj repeated the request for recognition from the Vatican in the near future. Hoxhaj had visited the Holy See earlier in an effort to lobby for recognition.

120 persons expected to be arrested for 320 missing Serbs (Botapress)

The paper notes that US prosecutor Clint Williamson seems to have a thick file in his hands which he will hand over to the judges of the special court that will look into war crimes allegations raised by Dick Marty. Sources told Express that the file includes the names of 120 KLA leaders, who are expected to be charged with the disappearance of around 320 Serbs from the region of Rahovec/Orahovac.

Sources also said that all suspects are expected to be arrested once the legal infrastructure for the special court is set up. Express claims to have seen the file and most of the names are leaders from the regions of Dukagjin and Drenica. There are also names of people who operated in the northern part of Albania along the border with Kosovo.

The name of Prime Minister and PDK leader Hashim Thaci is not in the file, but his name was mentioned in Dick Marty’s report.

Bechtel-Enka employs former US ambassador to Kosovo (dailies)

Several dailies have run an article originally published in The Guardian which notes that former US Ambassador to Kosovo Christopher Dell, who pushed through the deal for Bechtel Corporation to build the highway to Albania, has now been hired by the construction company.

Dell took on a role as an African country manager with Bechtel late last year, months after ending a three-decade career at the State Department.

His employment at Bechtel, America’s largest engineering and construction firm, has ignited a debate over the controversial road-building project, named the "Patriotic Highway".

Pieter Feith, the senior EU diplomat in Kosovo when the contract was secured, criticised the way the US ambassador pushed through the deal, and has called for an inquiry. Feith accused Dell of withholding information about the Bechtel contract, and lobbying Kosovo to agree to what he describes as an ill-advised deal with a US company, which placed enormous pressure on the fledgling country’s budget.

It is routine for western ambassadors to push the business interests of companies from the countries they come from. But it is unusual for a former diplomat to land a job with a major corporation after using their sway to secure lucrative government contracts.

After he was appointed ambassador in 2009, Dell had huge influence in Kosovo, where the US is widely viewed as a supervising power and is feted for its role in securing independence for the tiny Balkan state.

As the International Civilian Representative in Kosovo between 2008 and 2012, Feith was the other major figure in the country, entrusted with wide-ranging powers by the US and EU, including the ability to overrule Kosovo officials. For several years, Feith and Dell served side by side, as the two most senior foreign officials supervising Kosovo’s campaign for recognition.

At the time Dell was encouraging Kosovo’s government to sign the highway contract, Feith said he had grave concerns about awarding the enormous contract to a consortium consisting of Bechtel and its partner, the Turkish firm Enka. Feith believed the deal risked undermining Pristina’s finances.

Feith said he clashed with Dell over the logic of an impoverished, nascent country undertaking such a huge infrastructure project, and instead argued that the money should be spent on tackling Kosovo’s unemployment rate, which stood at 40%.

Feith also said he asked to see details of the contract, which he believed was part of his mandate, but was denied access by the US embassy. “Information was withheld, and all of a sudden we were presented with a fait accompli of this contract being concluded and being a liability on the budget,” he told the Guardian.

The Bechtel-Enka deal was signed in April 2010, despite concerns from the IMF, the World Bank, EU diplomats, Feith, and the Kosovo government's own legal adviser. Dell and the State Department declined requests for comment. Bechtel defended its employment of the former ambassador and said any suggestion that his appointment was improper was “unfair and offensive”.

But Andrea Capussela, who served as head of Feith’s economic department in Kosovo and was a vocal critic of the road-building scheme, said: “Ambassador Dell's employment at Bechtel raises a rather serious question mark over the whole project.”

“This contract was irrational for Kosovo, and caused considerable damage to it,” he added. “The State Department would do well to investigate this."

Feith declined to comment on Dell’s employment at Bechtel. However, he did say a wider inquiry into the probity of the highway deal was warranted, although he did not specify which organisation would conduct such an investigation.

“We have been involved in the fight against corruption in Kosovo, and anything that can help, ex-post, to clarify, elucidate or provide transparency about what has happened is beneficial for the future of the young state,” he said. “If there is an investigation, I would welcome it.”

The government in Pristina argues that the Patriotic Highway has connected northern Albania and Kosovo, replacing crumbling mountain roads with a four-lane highway, and will provide an economic injection into the region. However, critics point out that its costs have more than doubled from the original estimate.

The initial offer was to complete the Kosovo section of the highway for $555m (€400m). The price subsequently rose to $916m (€660m), to pay for 102km of road. In the end, the project cost $1.13bn (€820m) for what turned out be only a 77km stretch of highway. By comparison, Kosovo's total government budget in 2012 was €1.5bn.

The highway project was completed last year, but it has been mired in allegations of corruption on both sides of the border. The Kosovo side of the highway deal is currently under investigation by the EULEX, a source at the mission has confirmed.

Last week, the Albanian government announced it was launching a fresh corruption probe into the financing of its portion of the highway. The former minister of transport in Tirana, Lulzim Basha, was earlier cleared of "abuse of power" charges when the case against him was blocked by the Supreme Court over a legal technicality. He denied all wrongdoing.

There is no evidence to suggest Bechtel or Dell are implicated in the corruption investigations, the details of which are confidential.

Earlier this year, the Kosovo government awarded Bechtel another contract, worth $833m (€600m), this time building a road to neighbouring Macedonia. The company said Dell played no part securing the Kosovo to Macedonia contract.