Country Reports on Terrorism 2010 - Kosovo

Overview: The Government of Kosovo cooperated with the United States on terrorism-related issues and made progress in passing legislation to fight terrorism, including the Kosovo Security Strategy, the Law on Trade of Strategic Goods, and the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. The government's capacity to enforce security-related legislation remained a concern, however. The Kosovo Police Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) was still developing its capacity to conduct effective counterterrorism operations, and needed to develop effective cooperation and coordination between departments within the Kosovo Police.

Legislation and Law Enforcement: Kosovo made progress in adopting counterterrorism legislation. The Kosovo Security Strategy was approved by the Kosovo Assembly on September 23. It outlines the responsibilities of the Kosovo Police (KP), Kosovo Customs (KC), the Kosovo Border Patrol (KBP), and the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (AKI), to coordinate their counterterrorism efforts and "ensure that Kosovo will not become a host to individuals or groups that intend to incite violent extremism and train or equip potential terrorists."

The KP's CTU was primarily responsible for Kosovo's counterterrorism efforts. Its capacity to conduct effective operations remained under-developed. The CTU increased to 27 officers, and it continued to train and develop the capacities of its officers. Training took place in conjunction with U.S. funded programs, the OSCE, and European partners – especially Turkey – in areas including surveillance, interrogation, investigation, and counterterrorism intelligence and analysis. The CTU's operational efforts were hampered by a lack of inter-departmental coordination and cooperation.

Kosovo continued to process travelers on entry and departure at one international airport and at 11 land border sites with the Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System.

Countering Terrorist Finance: On September 30, with U.S. government technical assistance, Kosovo adopted a comprehensive anti-money laundering law, the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (LPMLTF). The law imposed international and Financial Action Task Force-compliant reporting obligations, including reporting suspicious and structured transactions. The LPMLTF also established an independent Financial Intelligence Unit, which must report any transaction above 10,000 Euros, suspicious transactions, and structured transactions.

Regional and International Cooperation: Within the constraints posed by its financial situation, the Government of Kosovo has expanded its efforts to cooperate with international partners to address the flow of individuals illegally transiting Kosovo and to identify and screen potential threats both domestically and from abroad. The KBP leadership holds regular monthly meetings with their counterparts from Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro, and the KP is pursuing a border operations initiative, which includes cross border cooperation and communication, the sharing of intelligence, and joint operations with the border police of the three countries. The KP also supported regional law enforcement relationships and worked with the governments of Bulgaria and Turkey on border related issues.

During the year, the Kosovo government cooperated closely with the United States in an attempt to extradite a Kosovo national to face criminal prosecution on terrorism-related charges in the United States. The Office of the State Prosecutor and the Special Prosecution Office of the Republic of Kosovo presented the United States' request for the fugitive's extradition, but a panel of the Kosovo Supreme Court, composed of two EU Rule of Law Mission Supreme Court judges and one Kosovo Supreme Court Judge, denied the extradition request.