Kosovo is a strange country, having neither its own currency nor its own area code, no Internet domain, and despite the 1999 NATO intervention, it has not yet managed to achieve a balance, so prevalent impression that it has fallen into the hands of criminal cartels, according to the Berlin-based newspaper Der Tagespiegel.

The daily said that the world was not unanimous on whether Kosovo was a country at all, as 81 countries said “yes,” while 112 said “no.” It added that the world was also divided over whether Kosovo was led by one or by two governments, and over whether it was lead by a government at all or by a criminal cartel.

Der Tagespiegel recalled a NATO confidential document on the situation in 2004 that became public when the British daily The Guardian published it earlier this year, which called Kosovo Prime Minister Hasim Taci one of the three major big shots of organized crime in Kosovo.

Der Tagespiegel pointed out that certain changes were taking place in the world after all, noting that as things stood right now, Hasim Taci would no longer be approved any state visit abroad. His government has this year sent 27 requests for visits, but all requests have been rejected, the daily said.

And then one morning, one could read in a newspaper an investigation was being carried out against him over some particularly serious allegations, the daily added.

Der Tagespiegel said that EULEX had formed a team to investigate into the allegations contained in a report by Swiss MEP Dick Marty that had been issued in late 2010. According to the report, Taci was involved in an illegal trade in human organs taken from the bodies of the killed prisoners of war, the daily said.