Court Finds Kosovo Bosniak Guilty of War Crimes

Ekrem Bajrovic was sentenced on Friday to 12 years’ imprisonment for his role in the beating, torture and killing of ethnic Albanian civilians who were fleeing towards Albania. The Prishtina Basic Court on Friday found Kosovo Bosniak Ekrem Bajrovic, a former member of Serbian forces during the Kosovo war in 1998-99, guilty of war crimes,…

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Second Generation Immigrants: Kosovo Albanians Making Their Mark in Swiss Business Landscape

The Kosovo Albanian community, once displaced by political turmoil and war, has recently been surging Switzerland’s business landscape at an incredible pace. The halls and offices of Google in Zurich, Switzerland, were buzzing with a harmonious blend of chit-chat and banter in Albanian and Swiss German as everyone enjoyed  the AI-inspired beer ‘Mu’Pi’ on the…

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Appeals Court Upholds Ruling in Favour of ‘Jeta në Kosovë’ Investigation on Solar Energy Monopoly

The Kosovo Court of Appeals upheld the first-instance decision to annul the Independent Media Commission’s ‘warning’ to the show “Jeta në Kosovë” after airing the investigative report “Unclean Energy: The Kosovar Who Would Own the Sun”, considering it as unlawful and unfair. The Kosovo Court of Appeals, on Wednesday, announced that it rejected the Independent…

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Kosovo Public Misinformed by Authorities About War Crimes, BIRN Report Warns

Public institutions in Kosovo, including government institutions, independent agencies and justice institutions, do not have platforms properly informing the public about war crimes and transitional justice, a BIRN report launched in Kosovo on Wednesday concluded. Kreshnik Gashi, managing editor of BIRN and Internews Kosova publication in Albanian, Kallxo.com, and co-author of the report ‘The Other’, Who…

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Accommodation Challenges in Kosovo: Can Airbnb Meet the Summer Demand?

The surge in summer tourism in Kosovo, marked by the organisation of large-scale international festivals, has underscored the accommodation challenges prompting an increasing reliance on platforms such as Airbnb to fill the void left by limited hotel capacities. Rreze Cuca, from Tuz, Montenegro, was not able to find accommodation in Prishtina in 2022 when two…

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Kosovo’s ‘Commander Wolf’ Convicted of War Crimes by Hague Court

Pjeter Shala was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the arbitrary detention and torture of at least 18 detainees, and the murder of one detainee, at the Kukes Metal Factory in Albania. The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Tuesday found former Kosovo Liberation Army member Pjeter Shala guilty of three war crimes…

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‘You Don’t Qualify’: Kosovo Massacre Survivor Struggles to Obtain War Victim Status

Twenty-three members of Liridona Deliu’s family were killed in a massacre in September 1998 – but she’s facing an uphill battle to be recognised by the Kosovo government as a war victim. Survivors of the Abri e Eperme/Gornje Obrinje massacre in the Drenas area of Kosovo, in which 23 members of the Deliu family were…

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Photographers Reflect on Documenting Kosovo’s 1990s Turmoil

Four photographers who showcased their work from the 1990s at BIRN’s Reporting House explain how difficult it was to document the hardships Kosovo faced until its liberation in 1999. Four wartime photographers recall the hardships of documenting daily life in Kosovo in the 1990s and the importance of remembrance . Their accounts, partially showcased in…

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Kosovo Court Convicts Ex-Policeman Over Village Massacre

Muhamet Alidemaj, a former member of the Serbian police, was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by the Prishtina Basic Court for participating in a massacre at Izbice during the Kosovo war in March 1999, when around 130 people were shot dead. The Prishtina Basic Court on Friday found Muhamet Alidemaj, a former member of the…

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