Facing Kosovo with returnees from Islamic State

Thousands of former IS fighters from foreign countries remain in northern Syria. Nearly no country will accept them. Kosovo has acted differently: It has accepted 110 of its citizens in April.

Mensur Hoti smokes one after one. At a cafe in Pristina, Kosovo Public Security Department director explains how secret, night operation has been conducted between 19 April and 20 April. Hoti was responsible for the charter flight operation in Pristina. On board -- 110 Kosovo citizens returned from the Islamic State terrorist potassium (IS), who have recently lived in Kurdish camps in northern Syria. For the return operation, they have not even been informed of the families of returnees, writes Deutsche Welle, broadcast Klan Kosova.

Returning Night to Syria

Hoti says that due to intensive preparation of the operation with the whole night, she hasn't slept. Kosovo has no reports with Kurds and Syria's democratic rebels (SDF), which control a large part in northern Syria. The U.S. was the one who has enabled the return action. Americans are allies of Kurds and in northern Syria have their own troops. This has also enabled organisation of the return action.

Pristina airport has been blocked at the time of the return of 32 women, 74 children and four men to this April night. Women and children have been transported by buses from the airport to Pristina. The men were sent to the high-security prison in Podujevo. Controls and first medical and psychological aid have been offered at the Vranidol camp. “They have been in a bad state, in all aspects”, Hoti reports. They have been hungry and living in conditions where there are no adequate sanitation.

This 40th man, with short hair, has no illusion. Hoti knows that the most difficult part of the return operation is ahead of the newest state in Europe: “Imagine only the ideology with which they are fed. Their reintegration will be a very challenging process. ”

Caliphate in the Head

This is immediately seen at the Vlora meeting. She came back with this group six months ago. Vlora is not her real name, but she is afraid to speak up (the real name known for Redakism). Vlora, like all other returnees, is observed all the time. She is in the domestic prison and can only be released in the backyard, in a small village in the interior of Kosovo. The Vlora sits in the shade of the big nut. Chickens are heard in the yard, cats are walking around. Just below the sunflower field. The scenes seem idyllic, but broken windows of the bad house testify that the family lives in extreme poverty.

Other family women are dressed in colorful dresses. Vlora no. All she sees is her eyes, through a small cut in the jicab. The rest of this 22-year-old woman is completely covered in black clothes. All the time she, evidently worried, shakes hands.

Five years has lived Vlora in the Islamic State terrorist potassium. In front of others, she's always covered with nicotine. Religion further plays a vital role in her life, Vlora says, as the child runs through the courtyard with extremely large boots.

Vlora and Her Men

The father will never see his child again. He was killed in Syria. We were together a while before the murder. I went to my wife's office while he got out of the house and was killed on the street.” He was just one of Vlora's three men. Kosovo has also been killed among the terrorist militia, with which Vlora has gone to the IS ranks in Syria as 17-year-old. Vlora and her boyfriend have then lied to Father about going on vacation in Turkey. They actually went to Syria. Her third husband is still held by Kurdish authorities in a camp in northern Syria. He too is originally from the Balkans, but not from Kosovo. Vlora won't talk about it.

At the time of her return in April of this year, her child was very weak in health. He couldn't even stand up. The last months of their lives at the Al Hol camp in Kurdish regions north of Syria have been for Vlora and the child too heavy. But even more serious was the time of the IS's final phase, in the jihadists' region in the village of Baghouz, on the Syrian-Iraq border. Vlora and her child have often had no meal. Time and again they have been fed with wheat, with little corn from nearby fields, there has ever been little rice, and they have often been fed with dirt and grass.

Amid Repentance and Idologies

Vlora, meanwhile, sees its going to the ranks of the IS in Syria as a major mistake. But she does not understand the accusations of Kosovo authorities and keeping her under house arrest. I was just at home, I didn't do anything”, justified. “We didn't have a bad intention, we just went after our men.” This is an argument that women of IS members use very often.

Vlora claims he has not seen the murders and horrors committed by IS members. He says he's only seen major disasters as a result of war and grenade. It views itself as <x0viktim” and hopes he will be acquitted of the Kosovo authorities' charges of participating in a terrorist organisation. Vlora says he would like to integrate into Kosovo society, but in the hope that “society will accept it the way it is with ikeb. ”

Vlora's father is still deeply depressed and concerned about everything that has happened. Vlora's return has learned after it landed at Kosovo airport. He never knew anything before. After the first words about the horrors experienced, the parent is overwhelmed by tears. Vlora's arrival in Syria is viewed as a scandalous “ ”. Vlora lives full of six months in his house, but it is still under strong impressions of the ideology experienced in Syria. “It's still too closed”, father tells DW. He daily tries to persuade his daughter to throw away black garments, which are not the tradition of Muslim believers in Kosovo. “For me, it's strange that Vlora is so forgiven during the day, that before going it didn't even know how to do.” My father hopes that Vlora will one day go out among her friends, dressed like all other women, with no nikab cover.

Mental Treatment

Valbona Tafilaj knows Vlora and all the other returnees from Syria. With her team of 20 psychiatrists and psychologists, she escorts children and women back on their way to reintegration into Kosovo society. Everyone has been traumatized”, the psychologist says. “They have come from war regions, seen and experienced terrible crimes and bombings. ”

Her primary task is to gain the trust of the returnees. Once a month she visits each of them at home. He also works with family members and neighbors to facilitate the process of reintegration into society. But psychological and psychiatric treatments are conducted mainly at the hospital, due to conditions and environments, Tafilaj says, broadcasts the Kosovo clan.

The psychologist is proud of the work done with women and children. Those six years of age have also been prepared for the start of school. Before sending to school, there were also tests to see their maturity and willingness to this phase of life. In our question, if the returning women are dangerous to society, Valbona Tafilaj will not answer. This is part of the doctor's obligation to remain silent.

Terrorist Follower

Is Kosovo endangered by terrorists? And if so, how dangerous is it? These issues worry Fatos Makoli, Kosovo's co-ordinator for combating terrorism and violent extremism every day. The small Balkan country has no two million inhabitants. But Kosovo is one of the countries from the average have mostly gone to the ranks of the IS terrorist organisation over 400.

For comparison: From Germany, over 82 million people have grown to about 1050 jihadists.

Germany, England or France are continuing with the refusal to return a large number of their citizens who have fought among the IS in Syria and Iraq. There are exceptions to children only. In his office on the eighth floor of the government building, Fatos Makolli explains why his small country has started another route. By October 2018, when it has been clearly seen that self - proclaimed potassium is coming to an end, we have dealt intensively with the problem of restoring our citizens who have fought among the IS. In Pristina it is thought that former jihadists will not be held eternally in Kurdish camps and that they can return and hide in Kosovo.

We've decided to bring them back, we've got” under control, Makoli claims. “We are aware of the risk. But that way we can control them. We know these people, and those who committed crimes will be brought to justice. We're doing the best we can for their reintegration.” Kosovo has experiences with returnees from the IS, because since 2014, about 150 former IS fighters have returned and arrested in this country. Over 80 of them have been sentenced in part to severe sentences.

Arabic factor

Some 95 million Kosovars belong to Islam. Traditionally they practice liberal Islam, but many of them are secular. After the 1999 Kosovo war, the influence of some conservative countries has increased in Kosovo. Makolli says the biggest responsibility for this is being held by countries like Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. There has been a very clear purpose of the resurging of Islamic Islam in Kosovo” and of the “politicisation of this religion through some imams”. Arab aid organisations have particularly worked hard with children and young people, he says.

By the middle of 2000, the ideology of the Wahhabis and Salaphists has also been presented. There have been problems within families. There were children and young people who did not want to talk to women and refused to attend family holidays. They criticized parents for not being true Muslims. ”

High unemployment, lack of perspective and widespread corruption when young people see no perspective are among Kosovo's biggest problems, which have also affected radicalisation of people in this country, broadcasts the Kosovo Clan.

Kosovo as example

Mensur Hoti explains that not all Kosovars are satisfied with the return of former IS fighters. But it was the only way to deal with these problems. Our constitution predicts that we should take care of our citizens no matter where they are. ”

Germany has been positioned differently. The Foreign Ministry in Berlin says they have no diplomatic reports with the Assad regime or Kurds in northern Syria. So German citizens cannot return. This has not been a problem for Kosovo, says Hoti in conversation with DW. When political will exists, logistical problems can also be solved.

That's how the United States feels, because without US help this action could hardly be realised. US President Donald Trump's government insists that European countries take their citizens to facilitate the responsibility of Kurds. In the American government's message to Pristina, following the April 20th secret action, Kosovo has provided a very important example that other members of the coalition's fight against terrorism should follow. ”