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One bone of contention was a 67-page BND analysis about organized crime in Kosovo, produced in February 2005, and reported by Frankfurt journalist Jürgen Roth the same year in Weltwoche. The report accuses Ramush Haradinaj (head of government from December 2004 to March 2005), Hashim Thaci (prime minister since January 2008) and Xhavit Haliti, who sits in the parliament presidium, of being deeply implicated in the drugs trade.

According to the BND report, “Regarding the key players (e.g., Haliti, Thaci, Haradinaj), there exists the closest ties between politics, business and internationally operating OC [organized crime] structures in Kosovo. The criminal networks behind this are encouraging political instability. They have no interest in building a functioning state, which could impair their flourishing trade.”

Thaci is one of the founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and in 1999 led the Albanian delegation to the Rambouillet conference, which established the pretext for the NATO war against Yugoslavia. At this time, according to the BND report, Thaci controlled a criminal network “active throughout Kosovo.” In 2001, the report claims, “there were direct contacts with the Czech and Albanian mafia.” In October 2003, Thaci was “closely linked to extensive drugs and arms trafficking” with a clan that was also accused of money laundering and extortion.

The BND report says of Haradinaj: “The structures around Ramush Haradinaj, based on family clans in the area of Decani, are engaged in the entire spectrum of criminal, political and military activities, which substantially influence security conditions throughout Kosovo. The group consists of approximately 100 members and is active in smuggling arms and drugs and in the illegal trade of goods liable to customs duty. In addition, it controls local government organs.”

In December 2004, Haradinaj, who was considered a protégé of the US, became prime minister of Kosovo. However, he had to resign in March 2005 because the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia indicted him for crimes against humanity. Among other things, he was accused of the forceful abduction of civilians, kidnapping, unlawful detention, torture, murder and rape. He was acquitted in April 2008 for lack of evidence, after nine out of ten prosecution witnesses died violently and the tenth withdrew his statement after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt.

The Berlin Institute for European Policy report cited above also repeats the accusations against Thaci. Real power in Kosovo lays with 15 to 20 family clans who control “almost all substantial key social positions” and are “closely linked to prominent political decision makers,” the report states.

Weltwoche summarises the results of the study, saying, “The current Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is specifically incriminated.” It goes on, “‘Keyplayers’ like Thaci are responsible for ‘the close links between politics, business and internationally operating mafia structures.’ The political recognition accorded Thaci and other representatives of the Kosovo Liberation Army has given former terrorists a previously unsurpassed authority. Former criminals have won a reputation as politicians abroad, and enjoy parliamentary immunity at home, and the protection of international law abroad. This enables them to operate largely unchallenged in Kosovo and to put pressure on political opponents with the help of—officially forbidden—party secret service operations.”
It is interesting that the report by the Berlin Institute for European Policy also refers to substantial tensions between German and American bodies. “The German report is particular critical of the role of the US, which had obstructed European investigations and which had been opened up to political extortion by the existence of secret CIA detention centres in the grounds of Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo,” writes Weltwoche. “Doubts are growing about the American methods and also as a result of the ‘serious’ description of a high-ranking German UN police officer that the main task of UNMIK’s second in command, American Steve Schook, is ‘to get drunk with Ramush Haradinaj once a week’.”

These tensions have obviously grown considerably, with several articles suggesting that the CIA could have played a role in the arrest of the three BND agents