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BALKANS: U.N. Hosts Forum To Combat Cigarette Smuggling  

Finance and customs officials from seven Balkan states are scheduled to meet today in the Kosovo capital of Pristina to examine how to combat cigarette smuggling, which results in millions in lost tax revenues. The United Nations is hosting the forum.

"Cigarette smugglers are stealing from the people of Kosovo, and we are talking big bucks here," said U.N. Mission in Kosovo head Michael Steiner. "It is a problem which can only be dealt with comprehensively, at the regional level" (U.N. release, May 6).

"I think they're serious this time," one smuggler who has been involved in the trade for five years told Agence France-Presse. "They are going to make it even more difficult for us. The profits already have gone down compared to last year or the years before. They'll force us all to pay taxes."

"Most of [the smuggled tobacco] comes from Greece, then through Kosovo into Serbia," the smuggler said.

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