Page 83 - Cyber Terrorism and Extremism as Threat to Critical Infrastructure Protection

KADRI ARIFI: ADDRESSING CHALLENGES FROM CYBER TERRORISM IN KOSOVO

tionalization of Institutional mechanisms, the approval of strategic documents, strengthening
of operational capacities of security institutions and increasing the international cooperation.
Kosovo is a member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and has taken steps to support the
various lines of effort within the limits of its capabilities. It has primarily focused on stem-
ming the flow of foreign terrorist fighters and tracking and restricting financing for terrorist
groups” (US Department of State, 2017: p 135).

Law enforcement agencies play a key role in preventing terrorism and extremism. “Kosovo
has further stepped up its efforts to fight terrorism, including measures to prevent violent
extremism. Since 2016, there have been no new reported cases of Kosovo citizens travelling
to the conflicts in Syria/Iraq as foreign terrorist fighters. Since 2012 until today, an estimated
355 Kosovo citizens (256 men, 52 women and 47 children) left for conflict zones in the Mid-
dle East, mostly as foreign terrorist fighters. 71 children were born in the conflict zone. 242
Kosovo citizens have returned (124 men, 38 women, 80 children), 96 died (91 killed, 5 died
of other natural causes), and 97 remain in the theatre (47 men, 8 women, 42 children). Out of
the 242 returnees, 110 of them (4 men, 32 women and 74 children) were returned from the
conflict zone in an operation organized by the government in April 2019” (European Commis-
sion, 2019: p 38). The police combated this phenomenon in a strategic way, beginning with
cooperation at the local level, through Municipal Councils of Community Safety (MCCS) and
Local Councils of Community Safety (LCCS), and by playing a vital role in implementing the
Strategy on the Prevention of Violent Extremism and Radicalism leading to terrorism for the
period 2015-2020. Furthermore, the police played a vital role in the implementation of the Na-
tional Strategy of the Republic of Kosovo on Preventing and Combating the Informal Econo-
my, Money Laundering, Financing Terrorism and Financial Crimes 2014-2019. “Among the
main engagements and activities of the Directorate against Terrorism during 2019 has been
the process of return of 110 citizens of the Republic of Kosovo from the area of conflict. An
individual risk assessment was conducted for each individual who was in the conflict area,
then a list of data of the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo in the conflict area was compiled,
and an analytical document explaining the positive and negative aspects, including challenges
and threats in the event of the return or non-return of the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo
from the conflict area was drafted” (Kosovo Police, 2019: p 13).

However, propaganda and the spread of extremist ideology have undergone changes, fo-
cusing almost entirely on the use of the internet and social media. “In the past decade, the
internet has been employed in a variety of ways by terrorist organizations. Such use includes,
but is not limited to, the following: propaganda, information dissemination, recruiting and
fundraising; training; communication; research and planning; criminal activities and money
laundering; attack mechanism” (Britz, 2014: p 153). Many of the narratives and much of the
propaganda used by terrorist groups in order to achieve their goals, including threats and
calls for attacks by leaders of these terrorist organizations, are also translated into Albanian
and are easily accessible.

In Kosovo, as in other countries in the region, there have been no large-scale terrorist acts.
“Western Balkan countries reported that radicalized communities, some comprising return-
ees from the conflict zones in Iraq and Syria, existed in their territories and were engaged in
recruitment and propaganda activities, but terrorist activities were rarely observed” (Europol,
2019: p 44). Nevertheless, “there are still large gaps in our understanding about how the Syr-
ian conflict will incubate new phases in the development of Salafi-Jihadism. As more docu-

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