Albania ready to probe Kosovo organ trafficking: minister
TIRANA, Aug 10 – Albania was open to a probe into allegations Kosovo guerrillas kidnapped and took hundreds of Serbs to Albania before harvesting their bodily organs, a minister said last week after a Council of Europe official visited the country.
“The authorities in Albania are open to all demands for an investigation in accordance with the criteriaŢ of a Council of Europe convention on the judiciary, Justice Minister Enkelejd Alibeaj told AFP international news agency.
Alibeaj made the comments after meeting with visiting European human rights watchdog Dick Marty, who met with Albanian officials in Tirana after talks in Belgrade and Prishtina about the case in which up to 500 Serbs were killed for their organs after going missing during and after Kosovo’s 1998-1999 conflict.
Last year Albanian authorities refused Belgrade’s call to set up a commission to investigate the claims saying the Serbian request was, “Ʈot in accordance with the criteria of Council of Europe conventionsŢ, but based “Ưnly on claimsŢ presented in memoirs by former UN war crimes tribunal chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.
Serbia’s war crimes prosecution opened its probe after Del Ponte published details last year about the alleged atrocity which her office briefly investigated in 2004.
In the book “Madame Prosecutor”, Del Ponte wrote that some 300 mainly Serb prisoners were kidnapped and transported from Kosovo to Albania, where their organs were removed for sale to foreign clinics before they were killed.
The alleged victims also included Roma and ethnic Albanians.
On the other side Serbian media reported that Albanian officials were refusing to cooperate with a probe into alleged organ trafficking during the Kosovo conflict.
They said Albanian officials told investigator Dick Marty that, “ƴhere can be no organ trade probe based on the accusations of Carla Del Ponte or Belgrade,” according to Serbia’s Beta news agency.
Albanian authorities had told Marty that only Albanian prosecutors have the right to carry out investigations on Albanian territory.
The Kosovo Council for the Protection of Human Rights has asked the Kosovo government to file a lawsuit against Del Ponte over what it claims are the “lies” in her book.
The CoE rapporteur has been appointed to investigate allegations that first appeared in the former chief Hague prosecutor’s book, and were later probed by the Serbian War Crimes Prosecution.
Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders including President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci have repeatedly denied the allegations.
Human Rights Watch has called for a proper investigation into the missing.
Several thousand people, mostly ethnic Albanians, were killed in the Kosovo conflict between Albanian separatists in the province and forces loyal to late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, 1,904 people are still unaccounted for in connection with the Kosovo conflict.
Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008 despite Belgrade’s fierce opposition.
Kosovo has since been recognized by more than 60 countries, including most European Union members and the United States.
EUROPE’S leading human rights watchdog has launched an investigation after Belgrade claimed the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted Serb civilians and took them to neighboring Albania for organ removal during their 1998-1999 war with Slobodan Milosevic’s forces, which ended when NATO bombing drove Serb troops from Kosovo and the UN took over its administration.
Serbia gave a dossier of material this week to Dick Marty, a Swiss senator who is leading the investigation for the Council of Europe and who has risen to prominence through his inquiry into the existence of secret CIA-run prisons in Europe used to interrogate terror suspects.
Marty has just completed a four-day trip to Serbia and Albania to gather evidence on allegations of organ trafficking during the 1999 Kosovo conflict.
Kosovo and Albanian officials have denied the allegations, and the Kosovo government has said that the country would welcome, “ơny investigation into war crimes committed in Kosovo.”
“The allegations of organ trafficking are part of Del Ponte’s imagination, inspired by Serbia’s criminals,” Kosovo spokesman Memli Krasniqi said. “Everyone knows Serbia is the one that committed crimes against humanity and genocide in Kosovo.”
