Kosovo names first Director of new intelligence agency

B. Smakaj

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Kosovo, a tiny Balkan nation that unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia in February of 2007, has named the first Director of its newly launched intelligence agency. He is 32-year-old Bashkim Smakaj, an ethnic Albanian who until recently was a colonel in the Strategic Planning Unit of the country’s police force. The establishment of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (KIA), which Mr. Smakaj will be heading, was announced several months ago, but no Director had been named until last Wednesday. The reason for the delay has been attributed to bickering between the two political parties that form the country’s coalition government: the Democratic Party of Kosovo, of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, and the Democratic League of Kosovo of President Fatmir Sejdiunce. But Balkan Insight, a regional news project supported by the London-based Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), notes that the delay in naming KIA’s Director was also due to “political horse-trading with foreign intelligence agencies”. Kosovo is militarily protected and economically subsidized by the US and several European Union countries. It is therefore likely that Western intelligence agencies had a dominant role in vetting the new KIA Director. Mr. Smakaj’s Directorship is expected to last for five years, according to the legal framework that governs KIA’s functions and oversight.