Kosovo’s Interior Minister, Skender Hyseni, said at the 85^th session of the Interpol General Assembly taking place in Bali, Indonesia, that Kosovo is ready to become member of Interpol. Hyseni highlighted, what he said was the high level of professional readiness of the law enforcement institutions in Kosovo and pointed out that the Kosovo Police is one of the most trained and professional police force in the Western Balkans.  Hyseni therefore said Kosovo’s membership application deserves serious consideration.

Kosovo Centre for Security Studies (KCSS), today released a report entitled: "Gordian Knot: Kosovo's obstacles on joining international organizations: INTERPOL case." This analysis comes after failed attempts of Kosovo institutions to join international organizations such as UNESCO and the need for coordination and greater preparation for membership in other organizations, such as INTERPOL .

Kosovo’s Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Valdet Hoxha, met a group of experts from the UN headquarters in New York and discussed the developments in the field of rule of law, the security sector and the inclusion of women in the security mechanisms in Kosovo.

Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) MP Vjosa Osmani asked during today’s session of the Kosovo Assembly why UNMIK is issuing international arrest warrants on Kosovo’s behalf given that EULEX operates in Kosovo. “Yesterday we saw media reports that UNMIK has issued 36 international arrest warrants on behalf of the Republic of Kosovo. The spokesman of this mission [UNMIK] confirmed this saying that the arrest warrants are valid and that they were issued by the INTERPOL liaison office within UNMIK.

The head of the Interpol office in Bosnia-Herzegovina says that Hashim Thaci will not be arrested "as long as he is Kosovo's president."

The reason for this, Branko Pavlovic told the N1 broadcaster, is that "Interpol in Lyon (HQ) decided not to deal with the issue."

In an interview that will be broadcaster on Wednesday evening, Pavlovic also said that the arrest warrant for Thaci was issued ten years ago "but is now not active because he has immunity."

Bosnia and Herzegovina Security Minister Dragan Mektić said that the country’s authorities received information that Interpol has revoked arrest warrant against Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi, issued on request of Serbia. The announcement came after Thaçi’s travel to Bosnia to attend the Brdo-Brijuni leaders summit.

War crimes remain an object of investigation even 17 years after the liberation of Kosovo. War crimes cases were previously under the UNMIK competencies and were later transferred as part of EULEX executive powers. But the EU rule of law mission since 2008 has not managed to solve 213 cases of this nature and is currently addressing 40 of them.

Security analyst, Naim Maloku, said Kosovo authorities are powerless in securing the release of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) Ministry’s senior official, Gafurr Dugolli, arrested by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) police on an arrest warrant issued by Serbia. This, according to Maloku, is due to the fact that Kosovo is not a member of Interpol. All Kosovo authorities can do, said Maloku, is to plead to FYROM not to extradite Dugolli to Serbia which wants him on war crimes charges.

In a special operation of the Montenegrin police in the vicinity of Niksic, a Serbian citizen, Zoran Vukotic was arrested on a warrant from Interpol for the crime of "war crimes against the civilian population," police confirmed to the Podgorica daily Dnevne Novine.

According to unofficial information, the red Interpol warrant, published on the official website of the international police organization, was issued upon request of UNMIK, to conduct criminal proceedings in Kosovo.

The EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) and UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) are the only link that Kosovo institutions have with EUROPOL and INTERPOL, the news site reports. And even, it is these two missions, according to the news site, that decide what information to share with the local authorities. Meanwhile, the procedures for exchange of information with local institutions takes a long time, even in situations requring quick action. Donika Emini from the Kosovo Security Center says there are cases that take years to be processed.