Kreshnik Gashi, Ramush Haradinaj and Burim Ramadani. Photo: Ramush Haradinaj/Facebook
In a surprise move on Monday, outgoing premier Ramush Haradinaj announced that in coordination with President Hashim Thaci, he has appointed Kreshnik Gashi as the new head of Kosovo Intelligence Agency, KIA, and Burim Ramadani as its General Inspector.
“The profiles of the appointees as public figures with integrity and experts on security guarantee the KIA’s professionalism and credibility,” Haradinaj said when making the appointments public.
The nominations come three weeks after the former head of the KIA, Shpend Maxhuni, stepped down, and at a time when the two parties that won most votes at the recent elections, Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) and the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, are negotiating the terms of their ruling alliance.
Haradinaj cites his “constitutional and legal competencies” when unveiling the decisions.
But immediately after the decision became public, Vetevendosje called it anti-constitutional.
“Of course, as soon as the new institutions are established, this anti-constitutional decision will be addressed for this serious and unprecedented violation. The days of abuses by PAN [the outgoing ruling coalition between the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, Haradinaj’s Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, and NISMA (Social Democratic Alliance)] are over, and so are their opportunities to further destroy [Kosovo’s] constitutional order,” Vetevendosje said in a statement.
A newly-elected Vetevendosje MP, Mefail Bajcinovci, went further, saying that “these decisions will be invalidated as soon as [Vetevendosje leader Albin] Kurti takes the helm of the government”.
Kreshnik Gashi has served as director of the board of the Regulatory Authority of Electronic and Postal Communications (ARKEP), and previously has been secretary-general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the time when the ministry was led by former PDK chairman and current President Thaci.
Burim Ramadani is a close associate of Haradinaj, and has served as Deputy Defence Minister. In last month’s elections, he unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Kosovo Assembly with Haradinaj’s AAK party.
Valmir Ismaili, executive director of Pristina-based think-tank Democracy +, said the appointments are “problematic in many aspects”.
“First, Kosovo does not have a prime minister yet but only an acting prime minister who cannot take decisions of such a nature. Even though legislation does not specify clearly, a government under resignation is expected to carry out only routine duties until a new government is formed,” Ismaili told BIRN.
“Apart from this, both appointees have a political background, while the General Inspector has been active in politics as deputy minister in the current government and as an MP candidate from the prime minister’s party,” he added.
He argued that “such decisions do not convey a good message to citizens and the international community”.
“Finally, this is an incorrect decision which should not have been taken by the outgoing prime minister. This issue should have been left to the upcoming government and the only thing that could have been done now was the appointment of an acting [head of the KIA] following consultations with all the relevant political actors in Kosovo,” Ismaili said.
- Hashim Thaci
- Kosovo
- Kosovo Elections
- Ramush Haradinaj
- Vetevendosje
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