Chinese cameras from the American blacklist, via Serbia to Kosovo

As seen by documentation, the Chinese brand Dahua video monitoring systems -- which Serbia buys for schools in Kosovo -- also have a face recognition option.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Dahua Technology is a Chinese company, which has been on the US blacklist since 2019 because of its connections to human rights violations and the Chinese protest campaign against glass in the Chinese province of Xinjiang.

On 16 December, Kosovo's interim organisation of the Gjilan municipality, the institution managed by Serbian structures, and since Kosovo authorities are recognised as a parallel institution, has signed contracts for procurement of this video-overstory system with the Neva Company 2020 DOO, headquartered in Ranillug, also this Serb-run municipality in Kosovo.

Under the contract, the company has taken over to deliver, install and operate video surveillance equipment within 30 days.

As seen by documentation, the tools have been secured by the decision of the Office for Kosovo of the Government of Serbia. The value of the signed contract is about 39 thousand euros (4.587,480 dinars).

What's procurement?

As seen by the document for determining procurement specifications, which is part of a broader package published at the official public procurement portal in Serbia, the provisional organisation of the Gjilan municipality is procurement 30 pieces of eight-canal recorder Dahua DVR.

In the features of this system, “recognizes the face”, among other things.

As explained, this is a typical <x0technology”, which is used in various applications and allows for individual research or identification.

Also, there are 196 pieces of Dahua Bulat Camera, with five megapixels, 30 hard disks, and 9 thousand cables.

As seen there, equipment is also being purchased for a total of 30 items, including pre-school institutions, elementary and high schools in 12 Kosovo municipalities.

Until the publication of this text, the Office for Kosovo of the Government of Serbia has not responded to Radio Free Europe questions if it has informed Kosovo authorities of the procurement, where exactly monitoring equipment will be put and what purpose will be used.

Serbia continues to allocate tens of millions of euros annually from its budget for financing parallel institutions and for realising its activities in Kosovo.

Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, but authorities in Serbia refuse to accept it as a state.

Why is procurement controversial?

China's Dahua Technology is among the companies that are under US sanctions.

U.S. authorities reportedly declared in 2019 that Dahua is among the companies banned from doing business with American companies.

“Concretically, these entities are involved in human rights violations and abuses in the Chinese boycott campaign, massive arbitrary ban and surveillance through high-tech glass, Kazakhs and other members of Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang”, the US Department of Commerce said in October 2019, Bloomberg broadcast.

Kosovo maintains strong diplomatic relations with the United States of America, which were among the first to recognise the country's independence.

What do the authorities in Kosovo say?

Kosovo institutions largely silence the questions of Radio Europe Free for importing the Dahua brand video monitors, which is on the American blacklist.

Kosovo's Ministry of Interior Affairs (MPB) has responded briefly, saying that “at the moment, we have no information on this matter”.

No answers to this issue have been returned from the government and the Kosovo Police to publishing this text.

Free Europe Radio has also turned to Kosovo Customs with questions about whether the Dahua cameras are on the blacklist, what is the procedure for importing this kind of videomakers and if Kosovo follows the US black list of technology. However, the answer did not come.

From the Kosovo Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of the Government say most educational institutions in Kosovo are equipped with video surveillance, but that there is no particular law regulating the issue.

Who dares put cameras in institutions in Kosovo?

On the other hand, from the Kosovo Information and Private Agency (AIP) stress that video surveillance, which identifies individuals, dares be placed in any institutions and that only police have the right to use them “in separate cases”.

This is an independent agency responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Law for the Protection of Personal Data, aimed at protecting fundamental rights and freedoms of physical persons.

From this agency, they say they have issued permission to install CCTV cameras in Kosovo schools, but stress that such cameras are safe because the image cannot be broadcast on the phone or any other device.

“are installed only for security and only in corridors (school) and ahead of them”, the AIP say.

But, as they say, they do not know if they are used and which cameras are used in schools in Serb-inhabited environments that work according to Serbia's system, because so far they have not had staff to monitor the issue.

Kosovo's “Assembly, at the end of July, has named a commissioner (for the Serb community) under the Agency, while we go for inspection only if we receive a complaint”, they have said, adding that regular inspection is also planned in all institutions throughout Kosovo.

Mentor Vrajolli, executive director of the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, tells Radio Free Europe that it is difficult at the moment to assess the impact that Chinese Dahua cameras can have on Kosovo. He considers Kosovo should now identify the communication channel between Serbs from Kosovo and other countries whose products are sanctioned by the US.

He stresses that Serbia, through the Serbian List, is achieving its goals in Kosovo and estimates that this leading party of Kosovo Serbs at least cares for the interests of its community.

The Serbian list is formed with Belgrade's support and is close to the Serbian Progressive Party of Serbia's current president, Aleksandar Vuciq.

Vrajolli considers that Kosovo must definitely follow the American blacklist and adds that such lists “are not always a bad thing for the region”.

The “people on the blacklist pose a threat to rule of law, are linked to corruption and organised crime. In some cases, they also promote political instability”, Vrajolli says, adding that the US fights against such persons and states, just by imposing sanctions.

The mayor of Gjilan's interim municipal body, which is funded by Belgrade, Sasa Milosevic, has not been accessible to a declaration for procurement of Chinese brand Dahua video monitors.

Neither has Davor Petkov -- the head of Kosovo's Anamorawa District -- provided an answer that also includes the municipality of Gjilan and operating in Serbia's system.

Companies registered in Serbia, not Kosovo

Neva Company 2020 DOO, which contracts for procurement and installation of video surveillance systems have been entered by the Agency for Business Records of Serbia on September 10th, 2021, just three months before the work was done through public procurement.

Its headquarters is said to be on the Agency's website at Kosovo's Ranillug.

But this company is not registered in Kosovo.

Radio Free Europe has contacted Milos Djordjevic from Ranillug, who confirmed he owns this company, though in the registry in Serbia it is said to be Millena Djordjevic.

Milos Djordjevic did not want to provide any additional information, saying he is busy and that questions will be answered through electronic address. To publish this text, he has not returned answers.

On the site of the Kosovo Business Recording Agency, Milos Djordjevic is also the owner of the P.T.P. company. “D ZNET” in Ranillow, which deals with the repair and sale of technology.

The business registration agency operates within the Kosovo Ministry of Trade and Industry and is the only institution responsible for registering business subjects in Kosovo.

State Department for REL: For Responsible Use of Technology

The State Department, in response to Radio Free Europe's question, has said it is working to develop principles for responsible use of surveillance technology, in collaboration with partners and allies.

“The US is working with allies and partners in the initiative to draft principles for responsible use of government surveillance technology, in line with our common democratic values and respect for human rights”, says a written response to Radio Free Europe.

The State Department stresses that the United States “is committed to promoting respect for the human rights of minority group members”.

Long Relations Between Serbia and China

Unlike European Union countries (BE), which condemn China for violating the human rights of glass, Serbia has stood near the official Beijing on the international stage, which denies accusations of torture against the glass.

Xinjiang is China's largest autonomous province, in which 25 million people live and more than half are mainly groups of ethnic Muslim minorities. The largest group is Turkey's water security population.

The Chinese persecution of the water shortage in Xinjiang has escalated in recent years. It is considered that more than a million people have been detained in labor camps and there is increasing evidence of reformation programmes, restrictions on religious and cultural freedoms, forced labour programmes, massive supervision and forced sterilisation of women.

International reports also revealed that thousands of rocks were transferred to work in factories across China, under conditions that <x0->powered suggest forced labour”.

Serbia is part of the Chinese state initiative “Brez and the” road with Central and Eastern European countries (17 + 1) for reopening Western commercial channels that follow the ancient Silk Road in order for China to supply its economy.

Serbia's close relations with China and Russia have often been criticised by EU and US officials, sending a clear message that Serbia will have to harmonise its foreign policy with the other 27 member states in the European integration process.

These relations also include “Wise City”, a Chinese government project based on the widespread use of modern information and telecommunications technologies that detect, analyse and then integrate all key information related to the functioning of a city.

However, “Wise City” includes a problem system of “upgrade” of public safety, which provides facial recognition surveillance.

The implementation of the development of “Wise Cities” began in Belgrade in the first half of 2019 and predicts that by 2021, more than 1,000 surveillance cameras, equipped with facial recognition technology, will be installed in 800 locations.

Cameras have been purchased by Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs under the project called “Safe City” by Chinese company Huawei, as well, under US sanctions.