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Wednesday, October 25 11:53 AM SGT

Kosovo's men of violence feel the heat ahead of Kosovo poll

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Oct 25 (AFP) -

Kosovo's violent underworld found itself under attack on two fronts this week as
police inquiries
began to bite and voters prepared to give the mafia's political allies a black
eye.

Saturday's municipal elections will give Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority their
first chance since the
end of their rebellion against Yugoslav rule to vote out the politicians who
have used their positions
to protect wide networks of organised crime.

"Their political commitment is just a front for their thirst for power and their
personal ambitions," said
Jean Guinard, Pristina's UN administrator.

At the same time, UN police have told AFP that they have begun to have some
success in their
efforts to overturn the power of the gangs.

One early victim of the new anti-crime drive was Sabit Geci, a former guerrilla
leader and a
prominent supporter of Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK).

Police investigating a shooting incident at one of Pristina's most notorious
nightclubs -- The Miami
Beach Club -- arrested Geci two weeks ago. One week later, in a dawn sweep on 13
properties,
including Geci's home, they arrested 25 more suspects.

Police sources told AFP that Geci is believed to be a kingpin in Pristina's
underworld with highly
placed political allies in the PDK.

Two of the suspects arrested in the follow-up raid are suspected of involvement
in the murder of
Rexhep Luci, Pristina's chief planning officer, who was gunned down days after
launching a campign
to demolish illegal buildings.

The UN police's crackdown has also enjoyed the support of Kosovo's NATO-led
peacekeepers.
Senior officers and military intelligence sources told AFP that a decision has
been taken to adopt a
tougher stance against figures who may once have thought their connections gave
them immunity.

On Saturday Royal Marines manning a checkpoint in Pristina arrested Bardhyl
Mahmuti, a close
associate of Thaci, for illegal possession of a Scorpion machine pistol.

Military patrols can now regularly be seen passing through the car park of the
PDK headquarters
past Thaci's black-suited bodyguards and fleet of black Mercedes, BMW and Range
Rover cars.

In addition to the muscle provided by the NATO troops, the police are now
benefiting from more
support from the local population who are increasingly fed up with the criminals
in their midst, UN
police spokesman Derek Chappell said.

But despite the change in the public mood and his own role as a privileged
interlocutor with the
international community, Thaci has done little to distance himself from his
entourage.

"Why should he bother?" a senior British police officer asked, alleging that
senior UN officials had
been forced to stall on inquiries that could prove politically embarrassing.

In January, Kosovo's chief UN administrator Bernard Kouchner ordered police to
get his permission
before raiding the homes of senior politicians, or their families, after Thaci's
brother was caught with
a huge stash of cash and two illegal guns.

One reason why Thaci might consider choosing his friends more carefully in
future is the danger his
activists run of losing control of the unelected councils they muscled in on in
the aftermath of the war.

Some international observers predict the PDK might poll as little as 15 percent
of the final total, and
attendance at its rallies has been disappointing.

Only around 6,000 supporters from three municipalities, around half of them too
young to vote,
turned out in the PDK's Drenica valley heartland on Thursday, according to an
OSCE observer.

Daan Everts, the head of the OSCE mission organising the election, said he had
met Thaci in a
Pristina bar and had given him the same message he had given to all Kosovo's
leaders.

"There's one big message, and that is: keep your following in check," he said,
"It's for your own
safety."