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The commentary I translated irritated me for the reason that the author made the blanket statement that both sides were guilty in the organized crime wave, thus no one should point fingers.

I, in my perhaps naive logic, would ask if the organized crime problem had always existed in Kosovo.

If the answer to that is false, then I would ask when it started.

If there were any conspicuous events that coincided with the start of the lawlessness (such as the influx of refugees with a history of such behavior in their land of origin), I would re-consider any blanket statements as to who was causing what.

There were German cities, at least in Rheinland-Pfalz, already complaining about law and order problems with their Albanian refugees in the late 90's 'fer crissakes. The author of the "Die Welt" commentary might as well be smoking what the Albanians have to offer if he doesn't know that.

I'm trying letting off a little steam, here. If I'm completely wrong about this, I wouldn't mind being told that, it may make me calm down a little.

longjack

Most of Europe decries the Albanians who live there. Some countries refuse to allow them in. The drug running and prostitution came in after the Albanians moved into Kosovo. I am pinging Joan to correct me if I err here, but this is how I understand the more recent history.

Albania was having horrible depression and poverty and there was no requirement at all to move across the border into Kosovo. Additionally some many years ago, some of it had been part of a larger ( greater) Albania.

Typical of muslim expansionist approaches, they began to move into Kosovo and dilute the population to their own favor. Eventually they began to speak about take overs. I think the Serbs at some point were harsh in that they refused to allow them their own language in the schools, some thing along those lines.

After that I think it pretty much just became ugly. I hope that Joan can add something to this. This is the history as given to me by a young guy who had a website while we were bombing Kosovo five years ago, name of Voji. It was called something like Under the Gun. He would post each day during the bombing.

The news that I read say that Serbs in Kosovo live in enclaves, guarded by KFOR, surrounded by Kosovo Albanians (said to be 90 % of population). Now Serbs live in military camps guarded by the same KFOR solders.

I have hard time imagining Serbs contributing to organized crime from Kosovo that threatens Europe with drugs etc. I beleive that this blank statement is typical exercise in damage control over results of '99 NATO military intervention.

(Introducing longjack for those who don't know him. He's tirelessly translated articles from the German press for us here on FR. I pinged him to this thread to help out with a question and he gallantly replied. Now we need to help him out with his questions. Thanks in advance for your help. And I'm sorry to any I forgot to ping.)

Yes, the problem was already there, longjack. It began in real earnest with the rise of the UCK/KLA in the latter nineties. And one side (Albanian) is mainly responsible for the drug/gun/white slave smuggling. Yes, there are Serbs, Bulgarians, Macedonians, etc. also involved (just as there are Germans, Swiss, Spaniards, Brits, etc. involved on the "delivery" end) but it's not called the "Albanian mafia" for nothing.

There was a really good article in the Times of London about it all back in late 1998/early 1999. I'm using a different computer now and no longer have the link.

About law and order problems with Albanian refugees in Germany. I don't know anyone who worked directly with Albanian refugees from Kosovo in Germany, but I did know a Red Cross official who worked with them in Switzerland (this was '98 and first half of '99). She told me that most of the refugees were themselves non-KLA Albanians (and very nice people) who were much more afraid of the KLA than they were of Serbs. She also said that the KLA mafia goons came around to all the refugees in her area of Switzerland extorting money from their poor little refugee allowances for the "KLA cause" and that the refugees were terrified of these guys.

I occasionally read the German-language Swiss newpapers back in the 90s, and noticed were also a number of articles about KLA mafia crime in them in the late nineties, especially gun-running and drug-dealing. (I once lived in Switzerland.)