Mini Update: Catholic Life in Bosnia - OOPS, There It Is: Jewish Cemetery Desecrated in Kosovo Capital

Mini Update: Catholic Life in Bosnia

Posted by Julia Gorin

Bosnia: Radical Muslims arrested for entering church
Sarajevo, 24 Nov. (AKI) – Bosnian police arrested two Muslims allegedly linked to a radical ‘Wahabi’ sect after they sought access to a Catholic church in Sarajevo on Sunday…Church of Trinity vicar Ivan Ravlic said the two men knocked on the door of the church late Saturday and asked to see inside the building.
“My answer was that there was no need for them to look at the church at that late hour and that was when they explained they were disturbed by the church bell,” Ravlic said. […]

September 30th 2014 03:35:58 AM

A Severe Case of Bimbo-itis. Or -isis.

Posted by Julia Gorin

******UPDATE******
It seems the Bosnian bimbo reported dead after she and her BFF joined Isis in Syria is still alive, and carrying an embryonic terrorist:
European teens who joined ISIS claim to be pregnant

…Samra Kesinovic, 16, and her friend Sabina Selimovic, 15, made claims on their purported social media accounts that they were both alive and pregnant in Syria, Central European News reports.
Kesinovic was originally thought to be dead when reports emerged Monday that she had been killed in combat. But a Tuesday conversation between an anonymous WhatsApp account believed to be the teen and her friends in Austria confirmed that those rumors weren’t true.
The duo, previously seen in photos brandishing AK47s, are believed to have married a pair of Chechen fighters in Syria, according to CEN. The two vanished earlier this year and were parading their involvement with ISIS on social media — leading Austrian media to dub them the new face of jihad.
Austrian police and Interpol continue to hunt the teens….The messages also said they had received new names featuring the word “umm” — which is Arabic for mother
Despite the numerous comments, Austrian officials pointed to the men of ISIS as the possible culprits behind such outlandish statements. They warned that the jihadists had complete control over the young girls’ lives and said the madmen would never allow them to use social media, according to CEN.
“We have no independent confirmation that either of them are [sic] dead or alive, or that either of them are [sic] pregnant, although we suspect both are married,” an Austrian police spokesman said…Authorities believe that ISIS is using Kesinovic and Selimovic to promote their cause and recruit other youngsters from the West to join them and spread bloodshed abroad, CEN reports. […]

One weird thing about this, which no one mentions, is that usually an Islamic headdress is flattering to the face and makes the wearer look better. Here’s me, for example:

But this is a rare case in which it actually gets worse:

This one, on the other hand, definitely looks better:

Just another corrective report:
Austrian Teenage Jihadi Brides Samra Kesinovic and Sabina Selimovic ‘Alive’ (IB Times Sep 16, 2014)

Two Austrian teenage girls who joined the Islamic State have reportedly used social media to refute claims that one of them is dead…However The Local claims Kesinovic and Selimovic have since written to friends on WhatsApp, confirming they are both alive and well.
“Neither of us is dead,” Selimovic reportedly wrote.
The pair, who are of Bosnian origin, are believed to have become radicalised in Vienna after coming into contact with Chechen youths.
They are believed to have subsequently become “jihadi brides” in Syria. Photos of them holding rifles and posing with masked gunmen started circulating online - although some experts argued the pictures might have been doctored, The Times reports.
In a letter to their families, the girls said they had gone to the Middle East “to fight for Islam” and were ready to die as jihadists.
“No point looking for us: See you in paradise…We will serve Allah and die for him,” they wrote.
Last week police stopped two other schoolgirls who were planning to travel to Middle East to join Islamic State militants. Authorities believed the pair aged 14 and 15 might have been inspired by Kesinovic and Selimovic.
Meanwhile the Austrian government is considering banning Islamist symbols including that of the Islamic State. Some 160 Austrian nationals are believed to be among the hundreds of Europeans to have joined Islamist fighters in Iraq and Syria. Dozens of women, including about 60 Britons, are known to have travelled to the region to support IS.

******END UPDATE******
I can certainly understand being a little girl with an idol. Mine was Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, and my sister’s was Isis. But her Isis looked like this:

Not like this:

I understand Isis being your idol, but this is ridiculous. Maybe the girls below were just confused? I mean, the goddess Isis was Egyptian, not Syrian:
Austrian teenage girl jihadist ‘killed in Syria’ (Telegraph, Sept. 15)
One of a pair of Austrian [ahem, Bosnian] teenage girls who left Vienna homes in April to join Syrian jihadists reportedly killed

Sabina Selimovic, 15, (left) and Samra Kesinovic, 16, travelled to Syria Photo: INTERPOL

One of two young Austrian women who travelled to Syria to fight with Islamic extremists has reportedly been killed just months after arriving in the country.
[No!]
Sabina Selimovic, 15, and Samra Kesinovic, 16, both the daughters of immigrant families from Bosnia, left their homes in Vienna in April with the apparent intention of fighting for Syrian rebels.
They are thought to have travelled to Turkey and then to have crossed the border into Syria, having become radicalised after attending a local mosque in Vienna and reading about jihad on the internet.
[Vienna? You don’t say!]
They posted on social media photographs of themselves handling assault weapons and wearing black, full length burkas.
But Austrian authorities now think one of them – they have so far refused to divulge which one – may have been killed during fighting.

Refused to divulge which one. Does it really make a difference?

…Austrian authorities fear that the two teenagers’ example is inspiring other young, radicalised Muslim women to travel to Syria and volunteer to fight.

Now, ISIL et al have taken violence to such a level that even al Qaeda has distanced itself from it, and yet something about the former’s methods clearly appealed to these Bosnian (of all things!) girls. Where might they have acquired this taste for blood? Surely they would have been so traumatized by their parents’ tales of the Bosnian war and the supposed Serb killing machine that they’d have no stomach for violence. Unless the tales — like the war itself — had precisely the opposite effect.

In Germany, meanwhile, an alleged jihadist went on trial on Monday, accused of fighting in Syria for Isil.
In the first German criminal proceedings involving Isil, Kreshnik Berisha, a 20-year-old born near Frankfurt to a family from Kosovo, has been charged with membership of a foreign terrorist organisation.

Well, if this isn’t the article that just keeps on articulating. A German first, and a Kosovo Albanian is involved. Who could have seen that coming throughout the ’90s?! Frankfurt and Kosovo. What a couple.

…Berisha is believed to have become radicalised when he fell in with a group of Muslim fundamentalists while on a job training programme.
Federal prosecutors say Berisha travelled to Syria via Turkey in July 2013 with other Islamists planning to join the fight to create an Islamist “caliphate” straddling Syria and Iraq.
Soon after his arrival, Berisha allegedly underwent firearms training and was put to work as a medic and a guard.
In the six months he spent in Syria, he is believed to have fought in at least three battles on the side of the jihadists against President Bashar al-Assad’s troops.
He returned home for reasons that are unclear to German authorities in Dec 2013 and was arrested at Frankfurt airport…

Now, if 15 and 16 sound young for Bosnian Muslims to be all about The V (violence), check out these over-achievers. They’re barely out of their terrorist twos. I mean, terrible twos:

Al-Hayat Media Center, the media wing of ISIS, posted a video showing Bosnian children playing with guns and chanting ISIS slogans in Syria. The video was posted on the Internet on July 12, 2014.
Closing with some more Kosovo Albanians being arrested:
Kosovo ‘imams held’ in raids on Islamic State recruitment (BBC, Sept. 17)

Fifteen people have been detained in Kosovo in an operation aimed at tackling recruitment of fighters for Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.
Among them are several imams, including the head of Pristina’s Grand Mosque, Shefqet Krasniqi, local reports say.
Some 200 Kosovo Albanians have gone to fight in Syria and several have died.
…
Kosovo police did not name those arrested, publishing only their initials, but said the operation had been carried out following threats and due to the importance of national security. [Which of course first would require a nation, but who’s keeping track. Oh yes, they are.]
Many of those held were from Pristina, Prizren or the flashpoint town of Mitrovica. [Wasn’t this ‘Serb’ sellout just talking about how lovely Prizren was?]
Islamist leader Fuad Raqimi was detained after a raid on his flat, reports said.
US envoy Tracey Jacobson, in a tweet, praised Kosovo’s “pro-active response against fighters and terrorism”.
[Again, Saudi Arabia arrests terrorists too.]
Last month, 40 people were arrested as police searched dozens of sites across Kosovo, including makeshift mosques thought to have been used as recruitment centres. […]

An additional early report about the female Bosnian duo, from NY Post:
Gun-wielding teen girls from Europe join ISIS (Sep. 10, 2014)

…Samra Kesinovic, 16, and Sabina Selimovic, 15, are the daunting duo feared to be encouraging young Austrian girls to flee their country and take up arms in Syria to help ISIS spread violence, Central European News reports.
Austria’s Interior Ministry has confirmed that two additional girls from Vienna — ages 16 and 14 — recently were nabbed trying to sneak out of the country and join the Islamic State jihadists.
They were caught when the mother of a third friend who was supposed to go with them to Syria grew suspicious when she noticed all the luggage her daughter had packed.
Little is known about the two, but their parents are believed to be from Iraq. Police are trying to piece together how the wannabe jihadis could have become radicalized and who may have lent a direct hand in getting them to Syria.
Kesinovic and Selimovic vanished from Austria earlier this year and paraded their terror involvement on social media, posting images of themselves holding AK47s as they stood among several armed men [NOT EXACTLY ISLAMIC-KOSHER. OR, HALAL. OR, ISLAMICALLY CORRECT], according to CEN.
Austrian media dubbed the girls the new face of jihad in Syria two weeks ago and warned that others just like them have started to become galvanized by their actions…He added that the problem with teenagers fleeing the country to commit bloodshed abroad is something that’s increased greatly and is difficult to fix.
“Once they have left the country, even if they then changed their minds, it is then almost impossible to get them back.” [Aw, darn.]
Up to 130 people from Austria are believed to be waging jihad across the globe, CEN reports. More than half of them are thought to have originally traveled from the Caucasus region and have valid residence permits in Austria.

September 26th 2014 01:06:56 PM

Feminist Author: “Kosovo is Not Serbia.” Indeed. “Kosovo is Turkey.”

Posted by Julia Gorin

It’s always interesting, in a cringe-inducing way, to read the “traveler’s” take on Kosovo. This chick is a “feminist author and political activist,” so her ethnic identity naturally means nothing to her. Certainly not something worth defending, unlike those modern, generic, compulsory transnational values like gay and women’s rights. Not surprisingly, her observations read somewhat incoherent and self-contradictory:
Kosovo Is Not Serbia (Huffington Post, Sept. 9, By Jasmina Tesanovic)

…As one of our friends in the region put it, being an American in Kosovo is like being a pope. You will be asked all kinds of questions and told about all kind of injustices. Nobody in Kosovo has forgotten 1999, so the papal Americans are like angels of mercy with airborne bombs.
Being a Serb in a region that looks quite like Serbia, I walked around thoughtlessly talking in Serbian…With almost every Serb ethnically cleansed, there’s nobody left to speak it, just empty Orthodox churches turned into tourist attractions while the town abounds with pizza and burger joints with English-language menus…Especially notorious to me are the war crimes committed by Serbian military forces against the Albanian population, which led to the bombings by NATO in 1999.
It’s the globalized life in Kosovo that is really new — the crammed life of a young population stuck inside a frozen conflict, an ethnic canton, a tiny, not-yet-internationally recognized, European republic. Tensions abound in this little fishbowl of a country where all the great powers can look in, but none of the locals can escape. Unemployment, alcoholism, corruption, smuggling goods, smuggling people….
The shadow of another lost international regime, the Ottoman Empire, lies heavy here. There are still a few households where people speak old-fashioned Turkish, and besides, Turkey is nearby: NATO Turco-globalism, with Turkish soap operas, Turkish coffee, Turkish food, Turkish architecture and construction companies. Istanbul is the aspirational capital in southern Kosovo. If something is fancy, it’s in big-town Istanbul style.
The pride and joy of the locals is the major mosque built by the famous architect Sinan in the heyday of Suleiman the Magnificent. Muezzin towers abound in Prizren, and every one of them has a taped recital of the daily calls to prayer…The narrow streets of Prizren swarm with tourists, eating cheap, excellent street food paid for in euros. Kosovo is a NATO EU Muslim enclave; the “KFOR” units have been guarding it for the past two decades. Uniforms and jeeps mingle with the SUVs of wealthy local bosses, expensive private cars whose drivers despise the pedestrians. Modest Prizren has the pace of some much bigger city; locals seem tense and busy, and even the beggars are antic.
…Istanbul, Cairo, Baghdad are the urban shadows over this town, which is 90 percent Muslim…a projection about the Turkish soap opera industry stops them in their tracks…The coffee drinkers stop to cluster and marvel…These television dramas have fans in Greece, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Serbia, even — every district where Ottoman rule once held sway.
I myself have watched these serials, amazed and dazed. As an ex-Ottoman, ex-Yugoslav, ex-whatever-dies-next, it’s astonishing to see how much the Ottoman culture of unwritten laws, food and history persists in the 21st-century Balkans. The women in these soap operas don’t have any mild “first-world problems” — their dramatic conflicts involve child marriages, grandfathers who are tribal mafia, gangland honor killings. Some are cosmopolitan because they leave their state; others turn cosmopolitan because their empire bloodily crumbles around them.
…
On the way back to Serbia, there was a five-hour queue of cars on the Serbian border. Polite officers were deliberately slow, as if saying, “You wanted a border, and now you have it.” I remembered how, 100 years ago, my grandfather survived the Thessaloniki front, retreating through Albania with very few other Serbian soldiers who’d taken part in that war, far, far away from Serbia…My grandma never forgave my grandpa for fighting wars far away from his homeland as an idealistic fool. If he hadn’t come back, my mother never would have been born, and neither would I.
Time has come to quote Max Frisch, the Swiss writer in this useless, never-ending Serbo/Albanian conflict: I want to live for my country, not to die for it!

Must be nice to be above it all. And notice how the “Stop it already!” attitude we’ve come to expect from Western ignoramuses on this issue makes its entrance in typical fashion: following an illustration of Serbian bitterness or ‘misbehavior.’
Whether her title “Kosovo is Not Serbia” was meant in a political sense, or as a nutshell of her various observations about the place, I don’t know. But we already know that Turkish PM Erdogan agrees, as he made clear around this time last year:
Serbia: Turkish PM meddling with Kosovo statement (AFP, Oct. 25, 2013)

… “The declarations of the Turkish Prime Minister… represent a severe violation of international law and interference in Serbia’s internal affairs,” a Serbian government statement said. Erdogan’s comments “harm relations between Belgrade and Ankara and disturb efforts deployed by Serbia to normalise the situation in the region, notably in Kosovo,” it added.
Erdogan told a cheering crowd on Wednesday that “Kosovo is Turkey and Turkey is Kosovo,” emphasising the two nations’ shared history and culture. He was accompanied by his counterparts in Kosovo and Albania, Hashim Thaci and Edi Rama, respectively.
Turkey was among the first countries to recognise Kosovo’s independence.

It was also the first to tell Kosovo that, thanks to Turkey’s efforts, Pakistan would be recognizing its statehood; in fact, Kosovo is Turkey so much so that they were assigned the same Pakistani ambassador:
Pakistan recognises Kosovo (Dec. 24, 2012)

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday officially recognised Kosovo as an independent state…. “The Government of Pakistan has decided to accord recognition to the Republic of Kosovo. The decision has been made in accordance with aspirations of the people of Kosovo,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
Pakistan is the 98th country among 193 UN-member states to recognise Kosovo, which declared independence on Feb 17, 2008.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to Turkey has been accredited to Kosovo as the country’s envoy.
Turkey has played a major role in convincing Pakistan to recognise Kosovo. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan informed Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci about Islamabad’s decision even before it was officially announced.
…
Islamabad had supported Kosovo’s cause in the United Nations. However, it always shied away from officially recognising it because of implications of such a move. The unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo was seen as a precedent for resolving ethnic conflicts on considerations other than territorial integrity of countries. It was also feared that the Kosovo principle could at a subsequent stage be applied to other separatist movements.

Kosovo as Turkey also can be seen in Kosovo’s language treatment:

Overcoming language barriers in Kosovo (SETimes.com, Aug. 27, 2012)

…Albanian and Serbian are the official languages in Kosovo, and Turkish is in official use in the municipalities of Prizren, Gjilan and Mamusha…Nesa Milojevic, a Kosovo Serb from Kamenica, said[,] “…I see many times that the words [in Serbian] are written with grammatical mistakes and sometimes they sound funny…It might seem unimportant for the others, but being a Serb, those mistakes take your eye immediately.” …Shukran Bejtullahu, a member of the Turkish minority, says Turkish is not much used in Pristina in institutions or on official documents, “but it is much better in Prizren… [where] all institutions have their names written in Turkish as well.” […]

Serbia condemns Turkish PM Erdoğan’s remarks (Hurriyet Daily News, Oct. 25, 2013).....
http://www.juliagorin.com/wordpress/?p=3124

OOPS, There It Is: Jewish Cemetery Desecrated in Kosovo Capital

Posted by Julia Gorin

****UPDATE****
Reader Bojan points out that the AP’s resident Albanian writer, Nebi Qena, who was put on this story, “naturally portrayed organ-trafficker-in-chief Thaci as the good guy who ‘condemns’ the act; but the fact that the story was even reported is surprising to say the least.”

Jewish cemetery in Kosovo capital desecrated: ‘Jews out’ spray-painted on memorial for Jewish families who perished during World War II. (AP, via Israel News, Dec. 1)

Police in Kosovo are investigating who sprayed swastikas on dozens of tombstones in a Jewish cemetery recently restored by American and Kosovan students, a spokesman said Thursday.
Brahim Sadrija said police had sealed off the cemetery in the capital, Kosovo, and are looking for clues. The vandalism is believed to have happened Tuesday.
…
In June, a group of students from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and their peers from the American University in Kosovo restored the neglected cemetery by clearing debris from around the graves and cutting overgrown grass.
Rabbi Edward S. Boraz of the college’s Roth Center for Jewish Life held a dedication ceremony at the memorial site, with students taking turns to read out the names of Jewish families from the region who perished during World War II.

I remember those poor suckers, and have been meaning to write about that visit. Note that when it comes to Americans and the Balkans, even the Ivy League gets only a remedial-level education, as my follow-up blog will illustrate. In advance of the PR trip, a boob named Jason Steinbaum was dispatched from NY Rep. Eliot Engel’s office to tell the wiz kids all they’d need to know about Kosovo, a briefing that was more or less three general-issue paragraphs.

Jason Steinbaum, “expert”; senior foreign affairs committee staffer for Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.
According to the article about the cemetery desecration, it seems the Albanians haven’t forgotten their German. Well, almost:

On Thursday the hate graffiti “Jud Raus” - a misspelling of the German “Juden Raus,” which means “Jews out” - could still be seen at the foot of a memorial.
President Atifete Jahjaga and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci condemned the act.
“The damaging of cemeteries presents an act in complete contradiction with the traditions and values of the people of Kosovo, based on tolerance and full respect for all the dead and all the monuments,” Jahjaga said in a statement.

For all the dead? Really? In that case, where have such statements from Kosovo officials been for the countless Orthodox cemeteries lying in ruins all across Kosovo? Those cemeteries that are regularly destroyed, including after restoration, forcing Serbs to dig up their dead and rebury them in Serbia? So…what is the contradiction today with Kosovo’s traditions and values?


(Flashback: “[Radmila] wished to be buried alongside her late husband in the Orthodox Christian graveyard, which has been the target of persistent attacks and vandalism since June 1999…Apparently to be buried there is seen as a provocation to ethnic Albanians, but it seems that no one sees the continual vandalism of Christian graves or churches by Albanians as provocation. Incidentally, the old Jewish graveyard adjacent to the Orthodox graveyard has also been vandalised.“)
Back again to the current article about the Jewish cemetery:
............
http://www.juliagorin.com/wordpress/?p=2755
Kosovo police arrest 2 suspected Islamic radicals (AP, Aug. 14)

Kosovo police say they have arrested two suspected Islamic radicals including a cleric considered by the authorities to be the main recruiter for Kosovo’s jihadi fighters in Iraq and Syria.
Police said the cleric is believed to be “one of the main sources of inspiration for jihad” among Kosovo’s faithful. He was identified by Kosovo media as Imam Zekerija Qerimi, the leader of prayers in city of Gnjilane, eastern Kosovo.
Both of those arrested are suspected of recruiting followers for terrorist activity and participating in terrorist organizations.

Gnjilane? You don’t say! First we had an Albanian saying the ISISniks are doing no different from the “secular/moderate/reasonable” U.S. partners, the KLA. Now, we have the main recruiter — a religious Muslim Albanian — having led prayers in Gnjilane, a 1990s KLA stronghold, hotbed of violent separatism, and Serb-torture Central.
******APPENDIX******

KLA, 1999. So what’s different between ISIS and KLA other than their designated enemies?
KLA Cut Off People’s Heads (Vecernje Novosti, Nov. 2, 2003)
Members of the notorious so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who waged a campaign of terror in Kosovo and Metohija for many years, especially against the Serbian population (in 1999 the KLA had approximately 20,000 armed men) continue to roam the southern province today wearing different badges and under different names, doing everything possible to achieve their grand dream - an independent, Albanian Kosovo.
…
Exposing themselves to the possible risks that investigations of this sort entail, the journalists of “Novosti”, after some days of searching and cross-referencing facts from multiple sources, arrived at information that enabled them to “revisit” this case with relative reliability and “revive” this photograph of a horrible scene.
THE PLAYERS: The Albanian in the middle of the victory celebration is Sadik Cuflaj, KLA member from the Decani area.
The young man to his left is his son Valon Cuflaj, born in April 1981 in the village of Prilep, municipality of Decani. He has an UNMIK identity card and is now a member of the Kosovo Protection Corps with the rank of lieutenant. He works in the inspector’s office in Pec. UNMIK has taken disciplinary measures against him on two occasions.
It is assumed that these murderers belonged to one of the units commanded by Ramush and Daut Haradinaj, which operated in the zone of Decani - Pec.
With great caution and piety, after cross-checking, our reporters were led to the assumption that the visible human head on the right is the head of Bojan Cvetkovic, born in Nis in 1972. A comparison with a photograph published in the book “Junaci otadzbine” [Heroes of the Fatherland] also leads us to the same assumption.
…
His days as a soldier were few. On April 11 [1999] he was abducted by members of the vicious KLA on the Prizren - Pristina road near Suva Reka.
Four other soldiers were captured at the same time: Zarko Filipovic, Dragoljub Tanaskovic, Dragan Vucetic and Zivota Topalovic.
…
Another photograph reveals a horrific spectacle: Sadik Cuflaj is placing one of the severed heads in a large bag!
Is the bag full of the heads of young Serbian men?
This story and these photographs are just a small part of the crimes by ethnic Albanians committed by members of the so-called Liberation Army.
Today these same men wear the uniforms of the Protection Corps (approximately 5,000 members of the former KLA are in the Corps), establishing “multiethnic order” in devastated Kosovo.
Thus, they are protected by the international community. Thus, all their crimes have been forgiven. Thus, their wartime leaders and their commanders, now dressed in elegant uniforms, can travel to the capitals of the world and participate in roundtable discussions where they supposedly discuss peace. […]

In a roundup of Balkans terrorism, extremism, and “militant Islamism,” a painstakingly researched article this past February by Gordon Bardos, former assistant director of Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, included some interesting details (excerpted below) about Our-Friends-the-Docile-Balkans-Muslims. The headline “Our Goal is Jerusalem,” is a reference to the earlier-mentioned Bajram Ikanović cited in Serbia’s Politika magazine last July after an interview he gave to the Bosnian website Source.ba (thanks to Serbianna.com’s Mickey Bozinovich for tracking down the original). This Bosnian Muslim recruiter — and by some newspaper accounts a rebel leader — had gone to Syria “to establish Allah’s law on Earth,” adding that he and his compatriots “have as a goal to die ‘especially in battle against Jews…Syria absolutely does not matter to us, our goal is Jerusalem. I am not viewed as citizen of Bosnia, we think the same from Kazakhstan to Iceland.’”

The blue-eyed ‘White al Qaeda” they told us they’d activate. This could have been an ad for trail mix, but that just wasn’t austere enough for Bajro.
“Our Goal is Jerusalem” – Militant Islamists in Southeast Europe (Feb. 8, 2014, Gordon N. Bardos)

Das Versagen der Westlichen Aufbau Helfer, welche nur Korruptions, Betrug, Aids und Verbrechen brauchten im Balkan

• Bulgaria: Pessimism and Protest
• Bosnia: Protest and Illusions
• Fear of Protests – Cynics and Autocrats
• Education in Kosovo – a Matter of Books
• Thank you and best wishes
• Best of ESI in 2014

Dear friends of ESI,
2014 was a year of protests: from Ukraine to Bulgaria, from Bosnia to Macedonia. Some protests had dramatic consequences: in Ukraine, after snipers took aim at a crowd of demonstrators, the president fled the country and a new era began. Other protests triggered early elections, as in Bulgaria. And some protests, such as those in Bosnia, made headlines for only a moment, changing almost nothing.
Let us begin our end of year newsletter with some reflections on protests, and two new ESI publications.

Bulgaria: Pessimism and Protest

Bulgarians are the least happy people in Europe. At least according to the latest World Happiness Report that ranked Bulgaria 144^th out of 156 nations, behind Iraqis and Afghans, Congolese and Haitians. Last year Bulgaria made international headlines when young people killed themselves in spectacular ways in public places. In March 2013 a young man set himself on fire in Varna to demand the resignation of the mayor. Five others did the same in early 2013. In November 2014 a woman tried to set herself ablaze outside the president's office.
Bulgaria also remains the poorest EU member state, with the GDP per capita less than half of the EU average. Almost a quarter century has passed since Bulgarians first held democratic elections in 1990 and began their transition. Within the European Union Bulgaria has long been cited as an example to illustrate the limits of the transformative power of the EU.
Today more than eight in ten Bulgarians (84 percent) tell Eurostat that corruption is widespread in their country. Has the process of EU enlargement as a motor of change failed in Bulgaria, as the conventional wisdom in many EU capitals suggests?
In a new essay in our 12-part series "Return to Europe Revisited", supported by ERSTE Stiftung in Vienna, we take a closer look:

Transition and happiness – a Bulgarian paradox?

We conclude that the narrative of Bulgaria's failed transition, and its image as hopelessly poor, corrupt and desperate, is unconvincing.
Bulgaria's pessimism is also not the pessimism of an apathetic society. Dissatisfaction with the present instead turns into a motor for further change and transformation. In recent years Bulgarians have increasingly taken to the streets. There have been protests against shale gas exploration, the construction of a new nuclear power plant, amendments to the forestry law favouring the timber industry and planned construction in the "Strandzha" natural park. In early 2013 there were mass demonstrations against a rise in electricity prices and against the mayor of the coastal city of Varna. In summer 2013 tens of thousands demanded the resignation of a newly appointed head of the State Agency for National Security. These protests continued until mid-2014. What is striking is that these protests had an impact and are driven by the desire to catch up.  As Georgy Ganev, a Bulgarian economist, explains, "Once a Moskvitch was better than a Trabant or a Zaporozhets. Now an Opel is much worse than a BMW." This is unlikely to change any time soon. For now, there is still a lot of life left in Bulgarian pessimism.

Bosnia: Protest and Illusions

On 7 February 2014 violence broke out in Tuzla, the regional capital of Tuzla Canton in Northern Bosnia. War veterans, unemployed youth and football supporters of the local club took to the streets. The core group of protestors were former workers in socially owned enterprises. Demonstrators entered the cantonal government building and set it on fire. The same day violent clashes spread to other Bosnian cities, Zenica, Sarajevo, Mostar and Bihac. Already on 7 February Tuzla protestors published a declaration that stated that "Today in Tuzla a new future is being created."
A group of protestors in the city of Bihac called itself "Bosnian spring." The people, one observer noted, "had been sleeping for two decades," but had now woken up. "Politicians have been drinking our blood", one protestor told a journalist, "If we shed some of their blood in the process, so be it." In fact, nobody died, although hundreds of people, among them a large number of police officers, were injured.
One year later it is obvious that the February protests did not change Bosnia. They did not change the debate on its economy. They did not bring about the rise of new parties. They did not bring legislative change. Why?
After February citizens' assemblies sprang up in city after city. And they formulated demands. In Tuzla protestors called for the "establishment of a technical government" of people who had never been in government before, to be chosen by "workers and students." This government of experts was to annul the privatisation of a number of specific firms in the canton and to "return factories to workers… to start production in those factories where it is possible." Other demands focused on paying outstanding social security contributions to former workers in socially owned enterprises, and to look better after the interests of veterans. As we argue in a new report, this was a thinly veiled call to return to the golden era of socialist self-management:

Protests and Illusions – How Bosnia and Herzegovina lost a decade

For this reason we are also reissuing a shorter version of a report we published one decade ago. In fact, Bosnia has lost much more than a year in lack of progress. It is currently the only country in the Balkans where a report written to describe how development was failing in 2004 remains completely relevant in 2014, since so little has changed.
The biggest challenge for leaders in Bosnia in 2015 will be to carry out reforms in the face of strong illusions about the causes of the Bosnian development crisis.

NEW Rumeli Observer on a winter of discontent:
Bosnians care but will protests change things?

27.000 Serbische Angestellte verlieren ihre Jobs im Öffentlichen Dienst

Serbia to Cut 27,000 Public Sector Jobs

Serbia’s parliament started discussing a draft budget for 2015 which contains plans to reduce the number of workers in state-owned companies and the public sector by five per cent.
Read in browser »

Serbs Trust Govt and Police More than Courts

A recent survey showed that while most Serbs do not trust the courts, they have more  confidence in the police and the government.

Die Grünen Pädophilen Partei und die EU Idioten jammern nun herum, wegen dem South Stream Desaster

Raussland hat ja der EU gesagt, dann sollen sie die Gas Pipeline selber finanzieren, wenn man Vertrags brüchig nun in allen möglichen Varianten überall wird und nun will die EU plötzlich weiter verhandeln, sprich: Die EU ist ein Erpresser Club geworden, wo die Dümmsten sich Kommissare nennen. Das South Stream Desaster, ist schon einmalig in der Welt mit den Verbrechern aus der Ukraine organisiert.

Deutschlands Grüne: Absurd, absurder, am absurdesten

Die Grünen Deutschlands, deren Stammwähler mutmasslich zu einem grossen Teil aus der Pädophilen-Szene kommen, haben jetzt mit einem absurden Vorschlag für Aufsehen gesorgt. Anlässlich des Weihnachtsfestes sollen muslimische Lieder in den Kirchen gesungen werden....

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South-Stream: EU-Jammeris in Panik

Bulgarien wird jetzt alle erforderlichen Berechtigungen für den Start der South-Stream-Pipeline ausstellen, sagte der bulgarische Ministerpräsident Borissov Freitag am Rande des EU-Gipfels in Brüssel. Das Gejammer um die verpasste Chance ist riesengross in den EU-Staaten. ...

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Stavros Markos um SManalysis - vor 23 Stunden

China pledges to help Russia overcome economic hardships Published time: December 22, 2014 [image: Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. (AFP Photo/How Hwee Young)] Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. (AFP Photo/How Hwee Young) 11.1K5798 Tags China, Crisis, Currencies, Politics, Russia, Sanctions China’s foreign minister has pledged support to Russia as it faces an economic downturn due to sanctions and a drop in oil prices. Boosting trade in yuan is a solution proposed by Beijing’s commerce minister. ... mehr » 

BBC-Reporter macht sich zum Volldeppen

Lux um ЛЮЦИФЕР - vor 2 Stunden

Wenn der Fragensteller die Crème de la Crème des englischen Journalismus darstellen soll, dann bleibt nur noch "*ruhe in Frieden**, du Land der Angeln*" zu sagen. Der Kerl erinnert an die bereits enttarnten Mietmäuler seiner Zunft, aber ganz gewiss nicht an die hohe Schule des Journalismus. Putin antwortet dem "*letzten Aufgebot*" der BBC in gewohnt souveräner Weise. Und doch kann er seine Wut über diese Mischung aus chauvinistischer Respektlosigkeit, krimineller Niedertracht und pathologischer Realitätsverweigerung nur schwer verbergen. Putin hatte alles Recht der Welt besessen, ... mehr »

 

Der normale Wirtschafts Lobbyist im Balkan in kriminellen Geschäften: Massimo Romagnoli in Podogorica festgenommen, wegen Waffen Handel für die Kolumbianische FARK

Etliche Minister wurden schon von Berlusconi und der Forca Italia festgenommen, als Vertreter der Ngharadetha, und der ehemalige Abgeordnete Massimo Romagnoli, wollte Waffen einkaufen für die Kolubianische FARK. Wirtschafts Lobby Verbände sind im Balkan, Ukraine und Weltweit hoch gefährliche Verbrecher Organisationen des Lobbyismus, der Bestechung kompletter Regierungen, und von Waffen Handel. Partner im Drogen Handel und Geldwäsche ohne Ende. Die EU Partner haben vor vielen Jahren das als Standard Modell ihrer Politik entdeckt, und in Berlin sowieso.
Montenegro, arrestato ex deputato
di Forza Italia Massimo Romagnoli

Il fermo su mandato di cattura delle autorità statunitensi. L'accusa di traffico di armi con le Farc. Con lui in manette anche due romeni

di Redazione Online

shadow

L’ex deputato italiano Massimo Romagnoli è stato arrestato a Podgrica, in Montenegro, insieme a due cittadini romeni con l’accusa di traffico d’armi a favore delle Forze armate rivoluzionarie colombiane (Farc). Come riferiscono a Bucarest l’agenzia Mediafax e il quotidiano Rumania libera, l’arresto dei tre - i due romeni sono stati identificati come Cristian Vintila e Flaviu Virgil Georgescu - è avvenuto su mandato di cattura delle autorità statunitensi. Nell’ambito dell’operazione sono state effettuate perquisizioni sia a Podgorica che a Bucarest.....

http://www.corriere.it/cronache/14_dicembre_18/montenegro-arrestato-ex-deputato-fi-massimo-romagnoli-e80ab468-86ab-11e4-bef5-43c0549a5a23.shtml

Der Deutsche Kopf Abschneider in Bosnien: Reda Seyam, ist wohl im Irak als "Terrorist" eliminiert wurden

16. Dezember 2014, 18:00 

 

Terrormiliz im Irak Deutscher Islamist in IS-Führung

Bild vergrößern

Reda Seyam im Januar 2003 in Indonesien, wo er zu zehn Monaten Haft verurteilt wurde.

(Foto: AFP)

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• Einer von Deutschlands radikalsten Islamisten, Reda Seyam, soll bei Gefechten im Irak ums Leben gekommen sein.
• Nach Informationen von SZ, NDR und WDR hat er unter dem Namen Dhul Qaranain im vom IS besetzten Mossul zwischenzeitlich als Bildungsminister amtiert.
• Seyam pflegte engen Kontakt zu Dennis Cuspert, der als Gangster-Rapper unter dem Namen Deso Dogg bekannt war und inzwischen in Syrien für den IS kämpft.

Von Marie Delhaes, Hans Leyendecker, Georg Mascolo

Unter all den radikalen Islamisten in Deutschland war der Deutsch-Ägypter Reda Seyam die wohl auffälligste Erscheinung: Die ARD widmete dem Deutsch-Ägypter schon vor Jahren eine TV-Dokumentation. Er galt als wirklich gefährlicher Gefährder, was ihm sogar gefiel, denn der schlagwütige Mann stellte sich Fremden schon mal mit "Reda Seyam, Al-Qaida-Mitglied" vor. Das fand er lustig.
Offenbar hat er es noch weiter gebracht. Aus deutschen Sicherheitskreisen ist zu erfahren, dass der einige Jahre in Berlin-Charlottenburg lebende Islamist, der sieben Kinder hat, zwischenzeitlich Bildungsminister in der vom IS besetzten Stadt Mossul geworden sein soll. Er soll dort nach Informationen von SZ, NDR und WDR unter dem Namen Dhul Qaranain amtiert haben.

Die Regierung in Bagdad bestätigt seinen Tod

Seyam, der es für eine "Pflicht" hielt, "Ungläubige umzubringen", soll unter anderem verfügt haben, dass die Fächer Musik, Kunst, Philosophie und christliche Theologie an Universitäten und Schulen in der zweitgrößten irakischen Stadt nicht mehr unterrichtet werden durften. Nach unbestätigten Informationen einer irakischen Nachrichtenseite soll er Anfang Dezember bei Gefechten nahe Mossul getötet worden sein. Auch die Regierung in Bagdad bestätigte am Dienstag seinen Tod.

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Zwanzig Jahre lang war der gelernte Mathematiker an der Front im Heiligen Krieg. Nach Erkenntnissen von Sicherheitsbehörden soll er 1994 nach Bosnien gezogen sein, um den Glaubensbrüdern im Krieg gegen die Serben zu helfen. Offiziell war er für die Organisation "Menschen helfen Menschen" im Einsatz. Vermutlich war das nur Tarnung. Er soll die Mudschaheddin mit Waffen und Geld unterstützt haben.
Seine frühere Frau, eine Deutsche, hat unter dem Pseudonym Doris Glück ein Buch über die Ehe mit dem Islamisten geschrieben. Sie erzählt, auf dem Balkan habe Seyam Kontakt mit Ramzi Binalshibh gehabt, einem der Planer der Anschläge vom 11.................
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/terrormiliz-im-irak-deutscher-islamist-in-is-fuehrung-1.2269804 

Reda Seyam: "Abu Daud" alias "Hans Kreis" alias Reda Seyam ist ein alter Bekannter in der deutschen Dschihadisten-Szene. Er ist eigentlich ägyptischer Staatsbürger, lebt aber seit 1987 in der BRD. In Ägypten machte er eine Ausbildung zum Mathematiklehrer. Als Kameramann arbeitete er angeblich für den TV-Sender "Al Dschasira" (Qatar), allerdings erwies sich sein Presseausweis dieses Unternehmens als Fälschung. Zunächst wohnte er in Ulm, wo er im damaligen Multi-Kultur-Haus verkehrte, das in den neunziger Jahren ein wichtiger Treffpunkt der lokalen Islamistenszene war.

Im Jahre 1994 zog er vorübergehend nach Bosnien. Zunächst wohnte er in Zenica, danach in einem Ausbildungslager in Guča Gora bei Tuzla und in Bočinja, seit Oktober 1997 in Sarajevo. Hier arbeitete er für die Tarnfirma Twaik, über die das saudische General Intelligence Directorate (GID) dschihadistische Gruppierungen finanzierte. Zusammen mit Dr. Yahya Yusuf gründete Reda Seyam das Hilfswerk Menschen für Menschen, um die bosnischen Mudschaheddin zu unterstützen. Angeblich ging es nur um humanitäre Hilfe, aber einmal transportierte Reda Seyam 1,5 Millionen DM in den Hohlräumen seines Kofferraumes. Möglicherweise wurden über die (vermeintliche) Hilfsorganisation auch Waffenlieferungen abgewickelt. Deswegen wurde er 1996 vom damaligen Bundesgrenzschutz vorrübergehend festgenommen. Reda Seyam schleuste wiederholt Dschihad-Kämpfern nach Bosnien, so z. B. Ramzi Binalshibh. Außerdem betätigte er sich als Kameramann. Darüber berichteten später die Stuttgarter Nachrichten: 

http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/40/40594/2.html 

Terrorfinanzierung: Deutscher mitverantwortlich für Bali-Attentat Spiegel Online, 20. März 2004

Der Gotteskrieger und seine Frau (Version vom 6. Februar 2009 im Internet Archive), ARD-Reportage von Gert Monheim, 26. Februar 2007

In Bahrain angeheuert, als in Wirklichkeit von den CIA Kriminellen, des Bill Clinton. 

Weiße Qaida in Bosnien: "Mit Motorsägen zerstückeln"

"Kein General durfte uns Befehle erteilen", berichtet der ehemalige Qaida-Aktivist Ali Hamad über seine Zeit als Kommandeur einer Mudschahidin-Einheit im Bosnien-Krieg. Im Interview mit SPIEGEL ONLINE warnt der frühere Terrorist vor einem "Schläfer"-Netzwerk auf dem Balkan.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Sie haben im Bosnien-Krieg als Kommandant einer Qaida-Einheit gekämpft, im Auftrag Bin Ladens. Heute bezeichnen Sie sich als dessen erbittertster Feind. Weshalb haben Sie dem Terrorismus abgeschworen?

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Renate Flottau / DER SPIEGEL

Ali Hamad: "Hauptsache, Hunderte Feinde mit in den Tod gerissen"

Hamad: Ich wurde mit 17 Jahren von Qaida-Offizieren in Bahrein angeworben.

 

10 % der Kroatischen Tankstellen, haben schlechte Qualität

16 Dec 14

Croatia to Fine Gas Stations Selling Dodgy Fuel

After state inspections found that around 10 per cent of the gas on sale at tested gas stations was poor, a minister said the companies will be taken to court and fined.

Sven Milekic

BIRN

Zagreb

Economy minister Ivan Vrdoljak says companies selling low-quality fuel will be fined.

The results of two-week state inspection of gas quality on Croatian gas stations have revealed that 10 per cent of the analyzed fuel was not up to standards and could potentially cause vehicles to malfunction.
Low-quality fuel was on sale at gas stations in the capital, Zagreb, but also in the cities of Split, Osijek and Varazdin.
Government officials have so far refused to name the companies that are selling low-quality, hazardous fuel.
The assistant minster for the Economy, Ismar Avdagic, stated on Monday that “he understand the interest of consumers” in knowing which companies are selling bad gas, but that the ministry could not reveal the names just yet.
“The goal [of the inspection] was special prevention, to punish those who are cheating, and general prevention, to send a message to others that they cannot behave in such a manner,” Avdagic said.
During the weekend, the economy minister, Ivan Vrdoljak, announced sanctions against the companies, which will range from 39,000 to 78,000 euro. The companies can be publicly named only after the final judgment.

Vor dem "China Summit" in Belgrad, erfolgt auch eine Überprüfung der Aktivitäten der "Falun Gong"

Die "Falun Gong" Sekte, ist entgegen der verbreiteten Auffassung, eine auch von der EU Politik geförderte Politische Gruppierung, welche engste Kontakte nach China pflegen. Zu den oft US, aber auch aus Deutschland gehörenden subersiven Elementen, auch für Demonstrationen gehört Falun Gong. Der Westen finanziert überall hunderte von NGO's, unter der Tarnung von Menschenrechten und Demokratie, kauft man die korruptesten oft naiv dummen Gestalten ein.

Secret Services are checking 3.500 people

Chinese oposition organization "Falun gong" is planning to organize a street protest in Belgrade, but Serbian police will...»

Die EU und US Ratten verkaufen neue Waffen nach Athen und Jean-Claude Juncker, hat seinen Mafiösen Auftritt

 Das soll erneut Demokratie in Europa sein? Man kauft Politiker und installiert mit viel Geld irgendwelche Ratten, die käuflich sind.

 "Doch in Brüssel traut man Tsipras nicht über den Weg. Kommissionschef Juncker, der mit Tsipras im Wahlkampf sogar Fernsehdebatten geführt hatte, versucht nun, ihn als Radikalen abzustempeln. Die Griechen sollten sich vor einer "falschen Wahl" hüten und keinen "extremen Kräften" ihre Stimme geben, gab Juncker bei einer Debatte in Brüssel zum Besten. Bei der Präsidentschaftswahl in Griechenland, die am 17. Dezember beginnt, würde er "bekannte Gesichter" bevorzugen. Selten hat sich ein Kommissionschef so direkt und so dreist in eine Wahl in einem EU-Land eingemischt."

Juncker gegen Tsipras

Eric Bonse 13.12.2014

Wie die EU gegen den Chef der griechischen Linkspartei kungelte - und eine neue Griechenland-Krise auslöste

Griechenland ist wieder im Krisenmodus. Seit der Ankündigung vorgezogener Präsidentschaftswahlen am Dienstag (Eurogruppe lässt griechische Regierung wackeln) sind die Aktienkurse an der Börse Athen im freien Fall. Noch am selben Tag wurde der stärkste Tagesverlust seit 1987 gemeldet. Gleichzeitig gingen die Risikoaufschläge für griechische Staatsanleihen rasant in die Höhe. Die Ausschläge im Laufe dieser Woche waren die größten seit dem Höhepunkt der Eurokrise 2012.

Das griechische Parlament. Bild: W. Aswestopoulos

Die Anleger fürchten sich vor einem Wahlsieg von Linken-Führer Alexis Tsipras, der in den Umfragen vorn liegt - so weit jedenfalls die offizielle Darstellung. Was die wenigstens wissen: Die Europäische Union, die sich gerne als "Retterin" Griechenlands feiern lässt, ist an der neuen Krise mitschuldig. Mit einer ganzen Reihe von Fehlentscheidungen und einer geheimen Absprache hat die EU die jüngsten Turbulenzen sogar erst ausgelöst.

Monatelang hatte Brüssel die lästige Frage verdrängt, wie es nach dem zweiten Hilfspaket weiter gehen sollte, das Ende dieses Jahres ausläuft. Rund um die Europawahl wurden sogar bereitwillig Erfolgsmeldungen verbreitet.

Niemand in Brüssel widersprach dem konservativen Premier Antonis Samaras, als der lauthals verkündete, sein Land brauche keine Finanzhilfen mehr und könne sich fortan selbst wieder an den Märkten finanzieren. Auch Samaras' frohe Botschaft, die umstrittene Troika aus EU-Kommission, IWF und EZB werde das Land nicht mehr malträtieren, blieb unwidersprochen.

Jean-Claude Juncker, damals noch Spitzenkandidat der Konservativen, versprach im Sommer sogar, die Troika gleich ganz abzuschaffen. Doch nun, da der vom LuxLeaks-Skandal gebeutelte Politiker die Brüsseler Behörde leitet, will er von all dem nichts mehr wissen. Die Troika macht weiter, als wenn nichts gewesen wäre - natürlich mit Vertretern aus dem "Team Juncker".

Beim Treffen der Eurogruppe in Brüssel am Montag dieser Woche führte dies zu Spannungen. Denn die Troika fordert nicht nur "Nachbesserungen" an den Reformen, die Griechenland für das laufende Hilfsprogramm aufoktroyiert wurden. Sie möchte das Land auch nicht aus der Kuratel entlassen; von einem dritten Hilfsprogramm oder einer Verlängerung des zweiten um sechs Monate war die Rede.

Samaras war wütend, schließlich hatte er seinen Bürgern ein Ende der Spar- und Reformdiktate versprochen. Höchstens ein paar Wochen dürfe die Troika länger bleiben, so der griechische Premier. Samaras fürchtet um seine Regierungsmehrheit - und um eine Schlappe bei der anstehenden Präsidentschaftswahl. Wenn er keine Mehrheit zusammenbekommt, kommt es zu Neuwahlen; Samaras wäre dann wohl weg vom Fenster.

Das letzte Aufgebot der "Euroretter" gegen Alexis Tsipras

Dennoch musste er am Ende einer zweimonatigen Verlängerung des Hilfsprogramms - und der Troika-Überwachung - zustimmen. In Brüssel wurde dies als Erfolg und als großzügige Hilfe verkauft; sogar von einem günstigen "Dispokredit" war die Rede. Doch ein wesentliches Detail der Einigung wurde verschwiegen. Es sollte erst drei Tage später durchsickern.

Offenbar gab es eine geheime Absprache zwischen Samaras und den EU-Vertretern, darunter auch Bundesfinanzminister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU). Der Deal geht so: Samaras willigt in eine zweimonatige "freiwillige" Verlängerung des Troika-Programms ein. Im Gegenzug hilft die EU bei vorgezogenen Präsidentschaftswahlen - und schickt den früheren EU-Kommissar Stavros Dimas ins Rennen........................

http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/43/43613/1.html

US approved to sale 10 Chinook helicopters [image: [linked image]] December 12 2014 WASHINGTON, Dec 11, 2014 - The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Greece for CH-47D Chinook helicopters and associated equipment, parts and logistical support for an estimated cost of $150 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today. The Government of Greece has requested a possible sale of 10 CH-47D Model Chinook Helicopters to include 23 T55-GA-714A Engines ... mehr » 

Domino-Effekt

20.01.2015

BERLIN/THESSALONIKI

(Eigener Bericht) - Mit massiven Eingriffen in die staatliche Souveränität Griechenlands sichern Berlin und die EU ihre politische Herrschaft über Südosteuropa. Wie Dokumente der in Athen ansässigen EU-Kontrollkommission unter Führung zweier deutscher Beamter belegen, erhält die Athener Regierung Anweisungen, wie das griechische Parlament zu umgehen sei. Den absehbaren Folgen dieser Eingriffe, die Proteste hervorrufen und das Lager der Oppositionsparteien stärken, begegnet Berlin mit Zahlungen an griechische Journalisten, Kirchenvertreter und Künstler. Die Einflussnahmen gelten der griechischen Öfferntlichkeit, sollen lauter werdende Forderungen nach Begleichung von Schulden aus NS-Verbrechen neutralisieren und sind geeignet, eine Klage der jüdischen Gemeinde von Thessaloniki gegen die Bundesrepublik Deutschland zu unterlaufen. Die Finanzierung hat das Auswärtige Amt übernommen, um die griechische "Zivilgesellschaft" mit dem deutschen Elitenmilieu zu vernetzen.

In der als "Streng vertraulich" bezeichneten Korrespondenz zwischen der EU-Kontrollkommission und der griechischen Regierung werden Gesetzesvorhaben mit Randnotizen wie "wird abgelehnt" oder "reicht nicht aus" kommentiert.[1] Massenentlassungen sollen demnach außerhalb der parlamentarischen Beschlussfassung angeordnet werden, heißt es in einer Mail der EU-Kontrolleure an die Athener Regierung: "Es wäre nicht richtig, eine parlamentarische Unruhe zu erzeugen, wenn wir andere Lösungen vorschlagen und umsetzen können, um unser Ziel zu erreichen". Bei den verantwortlichen EU-Beamten in Athen handelt es sich um die Deutschen Matthias Mors und Klaus Masuch. "Die Dokumente sind Zeugnis einer antidemokratischen Politik", die nach Wegen suche, "Gesetze vorbei am Parlament umzusetzen", schreibt das Athener Investigativ-Magazin Hot Doc.[2]

Einhundert Milliarden

Die Enthüllungen bestätigen die Wähler der griechischen Linksparteien und lassen Berlin befürchten, unter einer neuen Regierung könne es zu ultimativen Forderungen nach Schuldenausgleich wegen der in Griechenland begangenen NS-Verbrechen und kriminellen Finanztransfers kommen. Während der deutschen Besetzung starben etwa 520.000 Menschen, darunter Geiseln und Insassen der KZ Athen/Chaidari und Thessaloniki. Griechenland verlor 7,2 Prozent seiner Vorkriegsbevölkerung.[3] Die nie endgültig berechneten Personen- und Sachschäden einschließlich Zinsen belaufen sich auf weit mehr als 100 Milliarden Euro und sind Gegenstand offizieller griechischer Erhebungen (german-foreign-policy.com berichtete [4]).

Einseitige Maßnahmen

Devote Bitten um Restitution, die das griechische Staatsoberhaupt Papoulias dem deutschen Bundespräsidenten 2014 vortrug, erwiderte Gauck mit dem Verdikt: "Der Rechtsweg (ist) abgeschlossen".[5] Allenfalls sei "Deutschland ... bereit, die moralische Schuld anzuerkennen" [6], ließ sich Gauck herab. Gleichzeitig stellte der Bundespräsident einseitige deutsche Maßnahmen in Aussicht, die Restitution durch politische Symbolhandlungen ersetzen und Wohlfahrtsmaßnahmen ohne Rechtsanspruch vorsehen. Erste finanzielle Instrumente liefert das Auswärtige Amt.

Eine Ente

Unter der Haushaltsstelle 0502 weist das Berliner Außenministerium eine Million Euro für einen "Deutsch-Griechischen Zukunftsfonds" aus, der zwar deutsch, aber nicht griechisch ist - die griechische Regierung ist finanziell nicht beteiligt, Papoulias bei seinem Staatsbesuch im September 2014 in Berlin vor vollendete Tatsachen gestellt worden. Papoulias' damalige Anwesenheit im Bundespräsidialamt wurde gleichzeitig genutzt, um die angebliche Gründung eines "Deutsch-griechischen Jugendwerks" bekanntzugeben - eine Ente des staatsfinanzierten Senders Deutsche Welle.[7] Um ihre einseitigen Maßnahmen für das angebliche "Jugendwerk" zu forcieren, legte die deutsche Seite im Schloss Bellevue lediglich eine "Absichtserklärung" vor, die der griechische Botschafter zu unterzeichnen hatte, ohne dass grundsätzliche Fragen geklärt worden wären; besonders über die Behandlung der deutschen Kriegsschulden und die kriminellen Finanztransfers des Deutschen Reichs besteht keinerlei Einigkeit.

Lockangebote

Mit der Anschubfinanzierung aus Haushaltsstelle 0502 wirft das Auswärtige Amt in Griechenland Netze aus, um griechische Journalisten, orthodoxe Kirchenvertreter und kritische Jugendliche Berlin zuzuführen. Ähnliche Lockangebote gelten griechischen Kulturschaffenden, die in Athen, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Florina und Korfu angeworben werden - mit der Aussicht auf gemeinsame "Projekte" und deren Finanzierung durch den deutschen Staat: angesichts des sozialen Elends mit Arbeitslosenquoten bis zu 50 Prozent und leeren Staatskassen ein aussichtsreiches Unterfangen, um auf die griechische Öffentlichkeit einzuwirken und deren meinungsbildende Teile mit dem deutschen Elitenmilieu zu verknüpfen ("Netzwerke mit Gleichgesinnten aus Deutschland ... bilden").[8]

Gesamtstrategie

Am 15. Dezember 2014 zog das Auswärtige Amt diese Netze erstmals ein und empfing bezahlte "Besuchergruppen aus Griechenland" mitsamt "Vertretern der deutschen Zivilgesellschaft" im Berliner Ministerium. Gegenstand war die Einspeisung "spannende(r) Ideen" der Gäste in deutsche Einflusskonzepte, die zu einer "politische(n) Gesamtstrategie" führen sollen.[9] Sie gilt der unbedingten Vermeidung jeglicher Restitution für die Milliardenschäden, die Deutschland in Griechenland hinterlassen und nie beglichen hat.

Ohne Rechtsanspruch

Dabei geht es dem Auswärtigen Amt "insbesondere" um "Vertreterinnen und Vertreter der Opfergemeinden","vor allem (um) Menschen aus den jüdischen Gemeinden und Opferdörfern". Ihnen wolle man ein "Angebot ... der Versöhnung" unterbreiten, heißt es in völliger Verkehrung der tatsächlichen Beziehung zwischen den Tätererben und den Nachkommen der Überlebenden.[10] Laut dem Staatsminister im Auswärtigen Amt Michael Roth (SPD) solle auf dieser Grundlage "ein Dialog mit der griechischen Zivilgesellschaft" entstehen, um eine gemeinsame "Kultur des Erinnerns" zu begründen, statt die deutschen Schulden zu bezahlen. Mit dem durchsichtigen Appell an angebliche Gemeinsamkeiten von Tätererben und Überlebenden bietet Roth "Gesten der Versöhnung" an - eine Umschreibung für billige deutsche Gnadenakte ohne Rechtsanspruch der griechischen Opfer.

Erpressung

Die Strategie zielt erkennbar darauf ab, die 2014 eingereichte Klage der jüdischen Gemeinde von Thessaloniki beim Europäischen Gerichtshof in Strasbourg zu unterlaufen und weitere Klagevorhaben zehntausender Überlebender zu neutralisieren. 1942 hatten die deutschen Besatzungsbehörden von den jüdischen Einwohnern Thessalonikis mehrere Milliarden Drachmen erpresst und dafür die Freilassung von etwa 10.000 Gemeindemitgliedern versprochen. Nach Zahlung des Geldes wurden die Verhafteten kurzfristig entlassen, aber zwei Monate später mit der Reichsbahn nach Auschwitz deportiert. Insgesamt 50.000 griechiche Juden kehrten aus den deutschen Vernichtungslagern nicht zurück. Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland weigert sich seit Jahrzehnten, die erpressten Gelder zurückzuzahlen. Weitere Milliardenbeträge hatte Athen als ein Kriegsdarlehen an Berlin zahlen müssen, ebenfalls ohne dafür je restituiert worden zu sein.

Prioritär

Bei Verhandlungen mit einer neuen griechischen Regierung, die nach den Wahlen am kommenden Sonntag mehrheitlich aus den jetzigen Oppositionsparteien bestehen könnte, ist der Ausschluss jeglicher Finanzforderungen aus NS-Verbrechen für Berlin prioritär - gleichberechtigt mit der Regelung der griechischen Schuldenkrise, da die finanziellen Verluste einer eventuellen Restitution weit höher sein könnten als der Ausfall der deutschen Bankgarantien. Wie es im Auswärtigen Amt heißt, hätten selbst kleinste Zugeständnisse beim Ausgleich für NS-Besatzungsschäden in Griechenland schädliche Folgewirkungen insbesondere in Italien ("Domino-Effekt"). Das römische Verfassungsgericht hat Zivilklagen gegen die Bundesrepublik Deutschland wegen Massakern der deutschen Wehrmacht und der NS-Mordkommandos jüngst ausdrücklich zugelassen.

[1] Wie die Troika in Athen regiert. www.zeit.de 15.01.2015.
[2] Troika verrät sich in Mails. www.n-tv.de 16.01.2015.
[3] Martin Seckendorf: Europa unterm Hakenkreuz, Band 6. Berlin/Heidelberg 1996.
[4] Deutschland soll Griechenland elf Milliarden Euro schulden. www.spiegel.de 12.01.2015. S. dazu Erbe ohne Zukunft.
[5] Begegnung mit der Vergangenheit. www.juedische-allgemeine.de 11.03.2014.
[6] Gauck erwähnt Pläne zur Gründung eines deutsch-griechischen Jugendwerks. www.dija.de 12.03.2014.
[7] Deutsch-griechisches Jugendwerk gegründet. www.dw.de 12.09.2014.
[8] Rede von Michael Roth, Staatsminister für Europa. www.auswaertiges-amt.de 15.12.2014.
[9] Deutsche-griechische Beziehungen: Wolfgang Tiefensee fordert Gesamtstrategie. www.gegen-vergessen.de 10.06.2014.
[10] Rede von Michael Roth, Staatsminister für Europa. www.auswaertiges-amt.de 15.12.2014.

http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/59035

 

Alpine Bau’s Balkan Black Hole - Betrugs Desaster ohne Ende

Mrs Helena Aluta-Oltyan
Wie ein Gangster Ehepaar, einen Bankrott herbeiführte, wo Geschäfte mit Freunden, eigenen Firmen zum Standard Programm wurde, wie überall bei der Balkan Mafia.

DATUM: Das Alpine-Bau-Debakel am Balkan

Veröffentlicht: 11.12.14, 11:54 | Aktualisiert: 11.12.14, 11:54

  http://02elf.net/oesterreich/datum-das-alpine-bau-debakel-am-balkan-873872

Wien - Das Monatsmagazin DATUM berichtet in seiner Onlineausgabe (www.datum.at) von den Hintergründen der größten Insolvenz der Zweiten Republik. Die Alpine Bau GmbH, ehemals zweitgrößtes österreichisches Bauunternehmen, meldete am 19. Juni 2013 nach 48-jährigem Bestehen Insolvenz an. Die Alpine hatte zuvor eine halsbrecherische Expansion in neue Märkte unternommen und bei Großprojekten enorme Verluste hinnehmen müssen. Neben Deutschland und Polen sticht vor allem der Balkan hervor: DATUM enthüllt ein Sittenbild nachlässigen Managements und dubioser Geldflüsse sowie die Geschichte einer Seilschaft von Alpine-Managern, die unter der Führung von Ex-Alpine-Miteigentümer Dietmar Aluta-Oltyan und seiner Ehefrau Helena auf die Balkan-Niederlassungen der Alpine beträchtlichen Einfluss ausübten.
Ein Prüfbericht der Wirtschaftsprüfungsagentur BDO, der DATUM vorliegt, kritisiert die mangelnde Aufsicht und Kontrolle der Dependancen am Balkan durch die Zentrale in Salzburg, wo Dietmar Aluta-Oltyan als “starker Mann” auch ins operative Geschäft eingriff, obwohl er neben seiner Miteigentümerschaft nominell nur als Aufsichtsratschef der übergeordneten Holding fungierte. Die Intransparenz der Balkangeschäfte führte dazu, dass exorbitante Verluste nicht rechtzeitig erkannt wurden.
DATUM liegen zudem interne Dokumente vor, die dubiose Geldflüsse im Umfeld der Alpine-Niederlassungen in Mazedonien und Albanien aufzeigen. In Mazedonien konnten Alpine-Mitarbeiter über Jahre hinweg Aufträge an Firmen vergeben, die sie selbst besaßen oder denen sie nahestanden. Über Scheinrechnungen und Beratungsstudien flossen innerhalb von zwei Jahren mindestens sechs Millionen Euro in dunkle Kanäle.
Die einjährige investigative Recherche ist das Ergebnis einer Kooperation zwischen DATUM und dem Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).
...............

Republik

Blackbox Balkan

Wie die Alpine Bau in Südosteuropa die Kontrolle verlor und in die größte Insolvenz der österreichischen Nachkriegsgeschichte schlitterte. Ein Sittenbild.

Alpine Bau’s Balkan Black Hole
A year-long investigation reveals the inside story of how construction giant Alpine Bau’s breakneck expansion into the Balkans played a major part in its destruction.
Moritz Gottsauner-Wolf, Saska Cvetkovska, Erjona Rusi, Bojana Jovanovic, Ivan Angelovski and Lawrence Marzouk BIRN Vienna, Skopje, Tirana, Belgrade, London In the early afternoon of June 18, 2013, more than a 100 senior managers at construction giant Alpine Bau settled at desks in offices across the world for a mass conference call.
Austria’s second largest construction corporation had built some of the biggest infrastructure projects of our time – everything from football stadia for World Cups to European highways in the Balkans and the controversial arena for Azerbaijan’s lavish Eurovision Song Contest.

Baku Crystal Hall Photo: Wikipedia

Yet it could no longer pay its bills and was forced to file for bankruptcy the next day in Austria’s biggest insolvency since 1945.
The orders from the Austrian headquarters were clear: Close all construction sites, mothball the machinery, secure documentation and inform the 15,000 employees. Alpine Bau’s myriad subsidiaries would not receive any payments until further notice.
Finally, a manager based in the Balkans asked the question: “Should we stay where we are, or flee?”
The drama of the question was matched by the dire state of Alpine Bau GmbH’s projects abroad: 3.2bn euros of debt, 15,000 creditors and a worldwide trail of unfinished construction sites.
During the past year, the Austrian magazine DATUM and journalists from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), have been investigating Alpine Bau’s abrupt collapse, obtaining confidential documents and conducting more than 100 interviews and off-the-record briefings from senior former staff in six countries.
Official records and testimonies from former staff paint a damning picture of systemic management failures, dubious loans and contracts, and suspicious transfers of money to off-shore accounts.
At the heart of the collapse was the Balkans – accounting for half of the firm’s losses while representing a much smaller proportion of the business – and the man who is accused of leading the disastrous expansion there, Dietmar Aluta-Oltyan, whose power went virtually unchecked despite holding no managerial role.
An onslaught of legal action has followed the bankruptcy with allegations of embezzlement, accounting fraud, bankruptcy offences and failure to apply for insolvency in due time, all currently being investigated by prosecutors. There is, however, no indication that Mr Aluta-Oltyan is among those being probed.
Until today, only fragments of news have emerged from the bankruptcy hearings in Vienna, which remain at least one year away from beginning disbursing funds to unpaid contractors.
Disproportionate losses in the Balkans
In contrast to its overseas operations, Alpine Bau had been making a profit at home in Austria.
While the bankruptcy was sudden, almost 80 per cent of the Austrian workforce found jobs within a few weeks as outstanding projects were quickly picked up by competitors.
Alpine Bau was brought down by its foreign debts, despite having pumped more than 1.3bn euros into its overseas subsidiaries and branches over a decade, a September 2014 report by accounting and tax consultancy firm BDO concluded.
The largest yearly profits the company ever recorded from its overseas operations totalled just 36m euros, and that was back in 2005, according to the firm’s 2011 annual report.

Alpine buildigs Photo by: FOLTIN Jindrich / WirtschaftsBlatt / picturedesk.com

Outside of Austria, Alpine Bau left behind ramshackle construction sites, unfinished or poorly executed roads, hundreds of job losses and a long line of creditors.
Alpine Bau’s liquidators commissioned the BDO report to find out what had gone wrong.
It claims Alpine Bau operated outside of Austria without sufficient controls and points to its rapid expansion in the Balkans – alongside Germany and Poland – as key to its downfall. Of the 1.3 billion euro lost investment in foreign projects, nearly half was funnelled to Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Macedonia. This was a disproportionally large amount considering the construction work in these countries.
The Balkans was seen by outsiders as the jewel in the corporation’s crown. Alpine Bau had pioneered large projects in the region since 2001 –becoming arguable the region’s biggest builder – but the millions invested were being progressively flushed away.
Spiralling highway costs in Serbia

Beska bridge Photo by: Zoran Zestic, Ministry of Transport

In 2006, Alpine Bau in Serbia won a bid to build a bridge over the Danube in Beska, 20 kilometres northwest of the Serbian capital, Belgrade, for 34m euros. But insiders told BIRN the project was beset by technical problems and the cost escalated to in excess of 100m euros.
Alpine Bau had to settle for a fee of 54m euros after arbitration and protracted arguments with the Serbian government and state-owned road firm Putevi Srbija, documents secured under Freedom of Information laws confirm.
Putevi Srbija is now pursuing a claim against Alpine Bau for, coincidentally, 54m euros for unfinished and poor work on the bridge and other projects.
Alpine Bau was commissioned in 2010 to construct part of the pan-European highway between the Serbian city of Nis and the Bulgarian border but the scheme did not progress.
An internal report seen by DATUM and BIRN predicted losses of 45m euros in 2012 for this project alone.
And according to Serbian prosecution documents, part of the highway was built with construction material unlawfully sourced from Zvonko Veselinovic, a controversial protest leader and businessman from troubled northern Kosovo.
Millions ‘missing’ in Macedonia
Not only did large-scale construction contracts in Macedonia fail to turn a profit, but millions of euros were spent on suspect loans and contracts, according to a KPMG inspection report dated June 2012 and an internal audit dated June 2013, obtained by reporters.
The documents reveal a network of firms, many owned by or closely linked to employees, received “dubious loans” and contracts. The auditor singles out Gjoko Dinev, the general manager of Alpine Bau GmbH Skopje from 2009, for particular criticism.
Consultancy contracts worth more than 3m euros were awarded between 2010 and 2012 to a company owned by some of Alpine’s Macedonian employees. This despite the fact the company did not have any employees and did not produce any evidence the work was carried out, according to the internal report.
More than 6m euros of suspect payments are outlined in the report, amounting to almost one third of Alpine Bau GmbH Skopje branch’s entire revenue for 2012.
“Behind every single contract and every payment was a [legitimate] service, at least during my time as general manager,” insists Dinev.
When asked who authorised payments, Dinev named Croatian Ivica Borosak, who was listed as the second general manager in Macedonia and head of the Alpine branch in Croatia.  Borosak failed to return our calls and emails.
After Alpine went bust, Borosak and Dinev were employed by firms owned by
Mrs Helena Aluta-Oltyan, the wife of Dietmar Aluta-Oltyan, a former shareholder and managing director of Alpine Bau.
Mrs Aluta-Oltyan took an active role in Alpine’s Balkan activities – even describing herself as the ‘Alpine representative for the Balkans’ – although insiders have said her true position in the company was far from clear.  She has failed to respond to our request for an interview or written response.[Link to the “Balkan Family”]
Albania: Money transferred to tax havens
In Albania, 1.4m euros was transferred during 2012 to a mysterious Cypriot company called Windforce Estate Limited, which had been owned by another offshore firm registered in the Marshall Islands. Ownership was later signed over to employees of a Cypriot law firm.
The transfers were questioned in a Deloitte report, which was still employed as the auditor in Alpine Bau branch in Tirana in 2013, and obtained by DATUM and BIRN.
The payments to Windforce throughout 2012 were for work including “acting and advising, material assistance in any meetings, discussions and briefings”, according to invoices obtained by reporters.
The bills were addressed to Tirana managers Manfred Deppe and Amadeo Garcia, but auditors were unable to find any other documents related to the payments, including a contract between Alpine Bau and Windforce referenced on the invoices.
This consultancy work was in connection to two highways Alpine Bau Tirana Branch and its Greek partner AEGEK were building, after Alpine won the contract in 2008.  The projects were paid for from EU and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development funds.
But the roads, between the towns of Vlore, Tepelene and Levan, spiralled in cost, forcing the government to return to donors for more money. Even then, the projects were dogged by technical problems and sparked violent protests by villagers whose land was being built on.
One section remains unfinished almost five years after its estimated completion date of 2010.
Deloitte complained the consultancy firm Windforce had provided no proof the work was carried out and failed Alpine Bau in Albania’s audit for the financial year 2012 as a result.
The auditors noted that the recipient of the payments and sole shareholder of Windforce had died in a Greek hospital in April 2013 and as a result was unable to provide further details of what services it had provided.
It is not known who the true owner of Windforce Estate was as those currently listed as secretary, director and shareholders are employees of a legal office in Cyprus – a common and legal ploy employed in the notorious tax haven to ensure anonymity.
A former senior member of Alpine Bau Tirana branch, who said she had sight of every contract being signed, revealed: "I worked for years for Alpine and I'm shocked by the amount of money we paid Windforce Estate Limited as I had never seen any contract or relevant document related to this company."
While cash was being funnelled out of the firm to tax havens, sub-contractors were left with multi-million pound debts.
Construction firm Alban Tirana is owed 2.5m euros after successfully taking Alpine Bau Tirana Branch to court claiming the Austrian firm unfairly dismissed it in favour of AEGEK. The firm has not received a penny and fears it will never do so now.
Emails exchanged between the manager of Alpine Bau Tirana branch and the Albanian liquidators during May 2014 and obtained by DATUM and BIRN show Alpine in Albania was not able to file for bankruptcy months after its subsidiaries went bust in 2013.
In the end, Alpine Albania didn’t have enough funds to pay the fees to file for bankruptcy.
 Fatal management failings
In the BDO report commissioned by Alpine Bau’s liquidators, the authors claim the firm’s rapid expansion overseas was “sales-oriented and not profit-oriented” and that this was driven “by long-time co-owner and ‘strongman’ of Alpine Bau, Mr Aluta-Oltyan, and the Spanish majority owner FCC”.
“The strategy of gaining market share and the consequent entry into new markets had a devastating impact on the profitability of the Alpine Group,” the report concludes.

Dietmar Aluta-Oltyan Photo by: Michel Heidi / Verlagsgruppe News / picturedesk.com

Dietmar Aluta-Oltyan is considered the mastermind and visionary of Alpine Bau.
The 70-year-old joined the company in 1968 and worked his way up to become a shareholder and managing director.
Around the turn of the millennium, under his leadership, Alpine began to expand abroad. But his co-shareholders Georg Pappas, the founder of Alpine, and engineer Otto Mierl kept a tight rein on their more adventurous colleagues.
The tide appeared to be turning against the ambitious Aluta-Oltyan when he was convicted of corruption in Germany in February 2006, related to a fee he paid to secure the construction contract for Bayern Munich’s landmark Allianz Arena.
He was given a two-year suspended sentence and a 1.8m euro fine, having already stepped down as managing director of Alpine Bau, the construction arm of the group.
Aluta-Oltyan then took up the job as executive director of Alpine Holding, the umbrella firm which managed Alpine Bau, its biggest company, but was ordered not to meddle in the construction firm’s work
But at that time, Spanish construction firm FCC snapped up shares from the more cautiously minded Pappas and Mierl in the last quarter of 2006, emerging as majority owners. This left the path clear for Aluta-Oltyan to unleash a turbo-charged expansion into the Balkans and beyond, despite the fact he no longer held an executive role, say company insiders.
The BDO audit reinforces this view, describing Aluta-Oltyan as the “strongman” of Alpine Bau, who was “active on the executive level without any checks and balances worth mentioning”.
“The management level responsible for the implementation of proper controls was dominated by Mr Aluta-Oltyan through to the beginning of 2012,” the report reads.
“This was the case despite the fact that he was not formally functioning as general manager nor was he on the supervisory board of Alpine Bau GmbH.
“This leadership style, tailored to one individual, and the accompanying corporate culture contributed decisively to the identified deficiencies in terms of structures, controls and transparency.”
A lawyer for Mr Aluta-Oltyan said in a statement that their client was bound to commercial confidentiality and could not answer our detailed questions about his “strongman” position and role leading Alpine Bau into foreign markets.
The lawyer added: “In the name of our client I would like to point out that numerous remarks and assumptions on which the questions are based are in part evidently incorrect. The image that is conveyed of my client is therefore incorrect as well.”
FCC, sole shareholders at the time of Alpine Bau's bankruptcy, did not respond to our requests for a comment.
‘Balkan Chaos’ warnings
From 2008 there were increasing complaints in Salzburg about colleagues in the south, insiders have told BIRN and DATUM.
 “It was chaos in the Balkans,” says one well placed ex-employee at Alpine Bau in Salzburg.
“For instance, we had 16 different payroll systems, nobody knew who worked where exactly and what their contracts looked like.”
Half a dozen ex-managers of Alpine Bau confirmed independently from each other that Balkan subsidiaries enjoyed greater freedom and that Aluta-Oltyan  took a personal interest in the firm’s foreign business.
Senior managers in Salzburg knew about some of the problems with the larger foreign projects as they were reported up the chain, but it’s not clear who was aware of the scale of losses.
Representatives of the majority stakeholder FCC were repeatedly informed of communication problems with the Balkan subsidiaries, according to sources close to the events.
“We told the Spaniards that it cannot continue the way it is,” says one ex-manager.
According to BDO, Alpine Bau was already effectively insolvent by October 2010.
The fact that no one had noticed earlier remains one of the great mysteries of the bankruptcy, although the auditors do criticise their internationally renowned peers Deloitte, who did not spot the problem when signing off the accounts in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
A spokeswoman for Deloitte Austria said she was confident that it had performed “diligent and proper audit work”.
“This [BDO] report is made on behalf of, and paid for by, the liquidator of Alpine and therefore not an objective opinion of an independent expert,” she added.
Banks had loaned Alpine Bau hundreds of millions of euros from 2010 onwards, 180m of which was guaranteed by the Austrian taxpayer. The public had also snapped up 290m euros of bonds in 2011 and 2012 as the firm attempted to inject fresh capital into the business.
Aluta-Oltyan left Alpine Bau in the spring of 2012, selling his 19.3 per cent holding to the majority stakeholder FCC for 52.6 million euros.
Losses uncovered by new auditors
The new boss from March 2012, Johannes Dotter, a former chairman of one of Alpine Bau’s Austrian competitors Porr AG, had ordered new audits into Alpine’s operations and the closing of failing Alpine offices abroad.
KPMG’s findings published internally in the summer of 2012 were shocking: the firm was sitting on customer invoices worth 300 to 400m euros which would never be paid, ripping a massive hole in the company balance sheets.
These were charges that Alpine had hoped to recoup from customers after costs for projects had risen above the initial contract price.
In October 2012, news of the KPMG report appeared in the press. This was the kiss of death for Alpine Bau which eventually went bust in June the following year.
But for Mrs Aluta-Oltyan, the wife of Alpine Bau’s former managing director, business in the Balkans continues to prosper.
In March this year she launched a new mining business, snapping up quarries worth 12m euros, including one Serbian-based mining company, Alpine Kamen – sold by the liquidators of its parent company Alpine Bau.

Don't miss tomorrow's extraordinary revelations of how a close-knit group of Alpine Bau employees, dubbed "The Family", ran operations for the Austrian giant in the Balkans.

This article was produced as part of a programme titled “A Paper Trail to Better Governance”, with funding from the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and implemented by BIRN. The content does not reflect views and opinions of ADC.