In these days of spies having to roam around the Middle East trying to communicate in Arabic, Farsi, etc. it’s nice to know that there is somewhere that spooks can indulge in a bit of Cold War-type nonsense. Ah, Kosovo:
Three men held by police in Kosovo for throwing an explosive device at the headquarters of the EU’s special representative (EUSR) in the capital Prishtina are agents of the German federal intelligence service, the BND, according to Germany’s Der Spiegel. The newsweekly reported on 22 November that the three had been arrested by local police on 19 November on suspicion of having caused the blast, in which the building was damaged. Nobody was hurt in the explosion. An international official in Prishtina said the matter was “too hot” to discuss.
A judge reviewed the evidence against the three men on 21 November and ruled that they could be held for 30 days while prosecutors put together a case. They are likely to be charged with terrorism, which could carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
The three men said that they were inspecting the blast site. One of them, according to this version, entered a building next door following the blast in order to take photographs, while police allege that he planted an explosive device. The building houses the International Civilian Office, ICO, whose head – the Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith – also serves as the EUSR. The prosecutor alleges that the three Germans wanted to delay the build-up of the EU’s judicial and police mission, Eulex, which hopes to begin operating in December.
All too good to be true, surely? The plot thickens:
Germany’s Bild newspaper reports that sources close to the intelligence community say that the BND has ruled out the involvement of any of its employees in the attack on the EU office. The sources told the paper they believe it is much more likely to have been extremists in Kosovo who oppose the involvement of foreign organizations in their country. The arrest of the Germans is, they conclude, the result of a power struggle within the Kosovo leadership, with the anti-European faction having prevailed over those who wanted to see the three men released.
Well, they would say that wouldn’t they? I’ll be sorely disappointed if this “anti-European faction” isn’t the work of some GDR-trained double agent.
