BRUSSELS, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A European Union police mission in Kosovo has helped reduce crime in the four years since it arrived in the country, a spokesman said.
Nicholas Hawton, a Pristina-based spokesman for the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, told EUobserver the mission had produced "clear results" in tracking down criminals in the country beset by war and complex politics.
EULEX, as the mission is known, also says it has succeeded in its training of Kosovo police and customs officials and when the EU completes a review of the mission's work in the next week, it's expected to reduce mission staff and turn over many day-to-day functions to local officers.
Hawton said EULEX has 350 ongoing investigations and its judges have handed down 220 verdicts, including 15 involving organized crime and 20 involving war crimes.
One of the investigations focuses on allegations Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci ran an organ-trafficking gang.
And a EULEX investigation into the murder of Kosovar Albanian police officer Enver Zymberi prompted Interpol to issue six arrest warrants.
Still, a draft European Parliament report urged EULEX to "increase its efforts" in the Kosovar Serb enclave in north Kosovo and to "step up" its work on organized crime.
But the report blames EU member states for the mission's shortcomings, saying EU countries have been reluctant to send their best judges to Kosovo, and urging France, Italy and Romania to reconsider pulling out of Kosovo police specializing in riot control.
The report's author, Ulrike Lunacek, an Austrian member of the European Parliament, told EUobserver, "It would have helped the way [EULEX is] seen in the country to already have indictments on high-level corruption cases."
