EU names task force to probe human organ trafficking claims

TIRANA, June 13 – The European Union has decided to open a special criminal investigation into alleged crimes in Kosovo and Albania after the Kosovo war.
With full support from the US and the EU, an experience senior prosecutor and an effective witness relocation program have been appointed.
Kosovo’s government expressed its commitment to cooperate with the EU in the probe which resulted from a Council of Europe report linking the Kosovar Prime Minister and others to human organ-trafficking.
“The government of Kosovo has been ready from the beginning to co-operate and is co-operating … with international justice,” Deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuci told reporters.
“The sooner the truth is known, the easier it will be for Kosovo and its citizens,” he said, adding that his country would not allow itself to be tarnished by “someone’s insinuations.”
The special investigation will formally be a part of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), but will be based in separate facilities in Brussels and Prishtina.
The investigation is responsible for examining allegations of abductions, disappearances, executions, organ trafficking, and other serious crimes. It will examine the alleged coordination by former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and current Kosovo leaders, including Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.
The EU mission in Kosovo (EULEX) announced that it had already charged a Turkish and an Israeli citizen over alleged illegal organ transplants at a private clinic in Kosovo.
The Turkish suspect, Yusuf Sonmez, is considered by the Kosovo media as the world’s most infamous organ trafficker. He was even labeled by the press as the “Turkish Frankenstein” and is barred from practicing medicine in Turkey.
The charges, which bring the total number of accused to nine, are related to the Medicus Clinic in Pristina, which was closed in November 2008 by Kosovo police after a months-long investigation.
The allegations were presented in a December 2010 Council of Europe report prepared by Swiss Senator Dick Marty.
The European Union’s Political and Security Committee approved the task force on May 25, 2011, bringing with it the formal backing of all 27 EU member states.
The support of the United States for the investigation is vital, given the close relations it has with the governments in Kosovo and Albania, Human Rights Watch said.
Four hundred and seventy people went missing after the 1999 war ended, and NATO troops had entered Kosovo. Ninety-five of these people are ethnic Albanians; the rest are non-ethnic Albanians, mostly Serbs.
A seven-member international team, including investigators and prosecutors, will be formed to probe claims that the KLA was involved in organ trafficking during the 1999 Kosovo rebellion and afterwards.
Marty said that KLA officials, including Thaci, were responsible for transporting some 300 Serb prisoners to Albania, whose organs were harvested and later sold on the international black market.
Kosovo and Albanian officials have refuted the claims as “Serbian propaganda,” but said they would cooperate in the probe.