Kosovo Premier: Fight against Crime Should Not Be Politicized

Albin Kurti (BetaPhoto/Armenija Zajmi Besevic)

Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti said in Skopje on Oct. 14 that Serbian and Albania were cooperating perfectly and that it was wrong "to give a national connotation to or politicize Pristina's struggle against organized crime."

At a Western Balkans summit organized by the British The Economist, Kurti addressed tensions in the north, in the wake of a police operation against smuggling, saying that "the Kosovo authorities will not allow the stability of crime" and that criminal groups, both Serbian and Albanian, needed to be cracked down on.

"On the morning of Oct. 13 we conducted police operations in four different cities in Kosovo. In Pec, Pristina, North Mitrovica and South Mitrovica, where criminals, Albanian and Serbian, are cooperating. The judge for previous proceedings and the prosecutor who ordered the raids are Serbs. Many Serbs were among the police officers. Some of the injured officers are Albanian, some are Serbs," Kurti reiterated.

Montenegrin Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said that organized crime and corruption were big problems in the Western Balkans and that without their elimination stable institutions could not be created.