Wrote: Sefer Zogaj
It has been claimed that the Deputy Director of the Kosovo Police for the northern region, Veton Elshani, was congratulated during his visit to the United States for "fighting Serbian terrorism in northern Kosovo."
The claim was made by the Facebook account "Lule Gjeli" via a published post on Thursday, October 24th.
The truth?
After verification by hibrid.info, it turns out that during Elshan's visit to the US, "fighting terrorism in the north" was not mentioned.
The Facebook account "Lule Gjeli" claims that the Deputy Director of the Kosovo Police for the northern region, Veton Elshani, was received at the White House and thanked there for "fighting Serbian terrorism in the north."
As of the time of this post's treatment, this post has received 76 likes, 12 comments, and 22 shares.
The post was also shared by the Facebook page "Diaspora with Albin", which has received around 1,900 likes, 205 comments and 89 shares.
What is the truth?
Hibrid.info's research has found that in several publications on the Kosovo Police Facebook page, it is indicated that the General Directorate of Kosovo (among them Veton Elshani) participated in the annual conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts (October 25) and stayed in New York (October 25), where Kosovo officials held meetings with officials of security institutions (see here and here).
In the descriptions of these visits, both publications indicate that at the conference in Boston, the Kosovo Police presented the case of the attack in Banjska, which was highly praised as one of the most successful cases managed by this institution, according to what is stated in these publications.
The statement mentions the way the Police managed the September 24 attack in Banjska, but in no case does it specify Veton Elshan as it is claimed that he was "thanked for fighting Serbian terrorism."
While the Kosovo Government had described as terrorist the armed attack on the Kosovo Police on September 24 in Banjska, Zvecan (see here), the results from hibrid.info searches on the online search engine, "Google", show that the US has condemned the event in public reactions, demanding that those responsible be brought to justice, but has not assessed the attack as terrorist (see here).
Analyze
The claim that the Deputy Director of the Kosovo Police for the Mitrovica Region, Veton Elshani, during his visit to the US, was thanked for fighting Serbian terrorism in the north, is incorrect.
Hibrid.info has found that it is about participation in a conference where the management of the case of the attack in Banjska was presented by the Kosovo Police, an event which is not considered a terrorist attack by the US.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this content as "Disinformation".
Reasoning:
"Disinformation" is defined as information content that contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and that is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. The motive behind the producers/distributors of disinformation content lies in achieving a political, financial, psychological or social goal.
This article was prepared as part of the project 'Countering Disinformation through Innovation and Experimental Learning', supported by the Embassy of the United States of America in Pristina. The article has been verified by the Hibrid.info team and experts engaged to ensure compliance with our fact-checking methodology. This article contains factual verifications, but does not necessarily reflect the views of Hibrid.info or the US Embassy.