UNMIK ON AIR

Crimewatch 14.02.03

By: Luan Qoraj

Hello and welcome to this week’s radio edition of Crime watch.

Today we will talk about one of the most spoken-of murders in Kosovo: the assassination of Tahir Zemaj, his 20-year-old son Enis, and a cousin of the two, Hasan Zemaj.

The late Tahir Zemaj was a well known figure in Kosovo. As a leader of FARK (The Armed Forces of the Republic of Kosovo), an armed force representing the exiled Kosovar Government, he attracted a lot of controversy during and, after the Kosovar war. He was usually regarded either as a great hero or as a traitor - depending on the political views of the person describing him. Two books were written about him - “So spoke Tahir Zemaj” and, “So did Tahir Zemaj” – each written by different people, each taking the opposite view on the man.

A lot of things about Mr Zemaj’s role in the war and his post-war activities still remain either unknown or contested, but one thing seems to be clear: he did have powerful enemies.

There were several unsuccessful assassination attempts on him during the past few years. In the most notorious of them all an RPG was fired in a cafe in Peja in which he was sitting, wounding a number of customers.

It has been reported that Mr Zemaj himself, on a number of occasions, claimed that he knew who was behind the failed assassination attempts but always refused to name anyone.

Still, during the first weekend of this year, the assassins, managed to kill Mr Zemaj, and two others, in the center of Peja, in front of dozens of witnesses:

CUt 1 : On 4^th of January, this year, around 17 00h , Tahir zemaj , his son and a cousin were in a car, waiting for the Prishtina Bus on which Enis, Zemaj’s, son was supposed to travel to Prishtina. Around 1720 two vehicles approached the vehicles of the victims from the direction of Prishtina and opened fire from automatic weapons, emptying two full Kalasnikov clips. All three people in the car were killed on the spot….

The assassins came in two vehicles, one of which was a black jeep with Albanian license plates, which none of the witnesses managed to record. The other vehicle was found later on, burnt out. Enver Gashi from Peja region KPS:

Cut2 : A car that was involved in this case was found. It is a car that has been suspected since the beginning and it is a blue Opel Ascona….edit to…tr 18: We know the previous owners of the vehicle but we do not know who was driving the car in the past two or three months

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The murder of Mr Zemaj, his son and their cousin has stirred a number of ideas and conspiracy theories that were printed all over the Kosovar media. The police have made numerous appeals for help from the public and dozens of witnesses have been interviewed. Still, no arrests have been made. Enver Gashi:

CUT 3 : We have interviewed some of the witnesses who were in the place the night when it happened. And we did get some information , we are working on a couple of leads in this case

Still, the KPS officer is certain that they will manage to find the people responsible for this assassination. Although he admits that the investigation in a case like this cannot be over overnight:

CUT 4: There are some cases that we believe are organized crime, organized murders and they are usually solved slower. But, this doesn’t mean that these cases will not be solved tomorrow.

And do hope they will.

So if there is anything you know and would like to report , about this case, or any other criminal activities call 038 504 604 6666 , again, 038 504 604 6666. And if you have worries about your safety , there is no need, all phone calls can be made anonymously.

And with this we close…..