Extremists in Kosovo are well equipped and trained to carry out attacks and they pose a danger for the constitutional order of Kosovo, claims the executive director of the Center for Security Studies in Pristina, Florian Cehaja. He assessed that a joint action of the police in the region is needed for successful fight against the Islamic extremists.

Couple days ago, following a two year investigation, Kosovo police has arrested 40 persons in several Kosovo towns under charges for participating in wars in Syria and Iraq.

In the RTK2 morning program Florian Cehaja talked about threats which suspects pose in view of the security situation in Kosovo.

“Following the war in Kosovo, many NGO’s have arrived to Kosovo from Arab countries and have managed to spread a different religious setup, which was never present in Kosovo. International community, which used to have full authority at that time, didn’t manage to prevent their influence. At that time the threat-level was at the low level, it was more about the social threats. Currently, if we compare the trends, following their departure to war zones in Syria and Iraq, we can say that those individuals are trained for combat, they have equipment for carrying out attacks and pose a threat to the constitutional order of Kosovo,” argues Ceahaja. He warned that Syrian Islamists have set Kosovo on their map, hence the threat refers to the region as well.

“The Islamic state ‘Caliphate’, as dubbed in Syria, has put Kosovo on its map in order to realize its goals, by using force and without choosing means. This problem hasn’t befall Kosovo exclusively, the threat from extremists’ actions are posed to Serbia, Bosnia and Sandzak, as well.”

Cehaja went on to say that Kosovo doesn’t have any developed strategy in fight against extreme groups, however the precondition of a successful fight is a joint approach of states in the region, first of all of Kosovo and Serbia.

“When it comes to danger which could be caused by those extreme groups, the problems is in the lack of a joint approach of the police of states in the region. Cooperation between Kosovo and Serbia’s police doesn’t exist. In certain cases there is cooperation, but exclusively through mediation of EULEX,” said Cehaja.

“Rumors in public that certain imams of the Islamic community are supporting such groups should be the matter of Kosovo police, which didn’t close the investigation, instead it continues to investigate and prevent possible violence.

Cehaja concluded that despite problems with the extreme groups, Kosovo still belongs to a group of safe territories, although the security is not yet at the expected level.