Lawmaker Complains On Del Ponte’s Absurd Claims

TIRANA, May 5 – An
Albanian lawmaker expressed
his indignation to
the baseless claims at Del
Ponte’s book on Serbs’ organ
harvesting in Albania.
“That is a grave,
unbased fact and denigrating
to the Mat area residents
and also for Albania’s
image and its role during the conflict,”
said Qemal Minxhozi, an opposition
Socialist Party lawmaker,
in a letter sent to Swiss Foreign
Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey.
“That is an episode not helping
excellent ties between our two countries.
Del Ponte’s claims will remain
only an unpleasant episode, isolated
and of a personal character.”
Meanwhile on Monday Human
Rights Watch said that new evidence
has emerged to warrant further investigation
into claims that ethnic
Albanian guerrillas in Kosova killed
Serbs and sold their organs.
The claims recently appeared in
a book by former U.N. war crimes
prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who
wrote that she had been told by
“credible journalists” of such an
organ trafficking scheme.
Del Ponte wrote that, according
to the sources, Kosova Albanians
transported between 100 and 300
people _ most of them Serb civilians
_ by truck from Kosova to a
house near the Albanian town of
Burrel, about 55 miles north of the
capital, Tirana, which is the area
covered by the above-mentioned
lawmaker.
Investigators visited northern Albania
after U.N. officials in Kosova
passed on allegations of organ traf-
ficking to the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
in 2002 and 2003, but they
found no substantial evidence to
support the claims.
But Human Rights Watch said
it had reviewed the inquiries conducted
by the U.N. war crimes tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia
and the U.N.-run justice department
in Kosova and concluded
they warrant further investigation.
Fred Abrahams, a senior researcher
with the New York-based
rights group, said the governments
in both Pristina and Tirana
need to “show their commitment
to justice and the rule of law by
conducting proper investigations.”
Tribunal spokeswoman Olga
Kavran said Monday that the court
had no additional comment to
make beyond a statement it released
April 16 to say that it had
looked into the allegations and
found no substantial evidence to
support them.
However, she said Monday that
the tribunal has received requests
for assistance or information from
Serbian authorities and from the
United Nations mission in Kosovo.