wall street journal
WORLD NEWS
DECEMBER 16, 2010
DECEMBER 16, 2010
By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH
A human-rights investigator for the Council of Europe is calling for an international probe into allegations that former Kosovo guerrilla fighters killed some prisoners in order to sell their internal organs on the black market as chaos engulfed the southern Balkans in 1999.
A human-rights investigator for the Council of Europe is calling for an international probe into allegations that former Kosovo guerrilla fighters killed some prisoners in order to sell their internal organs on the black market as chaos engulfed the southern Balkans in 1999.
There is "compelling evidence" that Kosovo Liberation Army members held captives at detention centers in neighboring Albania before singling out "a small, select group" for execution so that their kidneys could be sold, according to a draft report for the council's legislature.
The current Kosovo government, which includes former guerrilla leaders, denied the allegations. Bajram Rexhepi, Kosovo's Interior Minister, said the accusations were "unrealistic and stupid." A spokeswoman for Albania's prime minister declined to comment.
"These allegations should not be left unanswered. They have to be either confirmed or refuted through proper criminal investigation," Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of the 47-nation Council of Europe, said Wednesday.
The draft report, which expands on allegations made by former war-crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, of Switzerland, in a book published in 2008, was prepared by Swiss prosecutor-turned-politician Dick Marty, who also investigated for the council the existence of secret prisons in Europe run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Mr. Marty's findings—which are to be discussed Thursday by the human-rights committee of the council's Parliamentary Assembly—could cause trouble for the leadership in Kosovo, a newly independent country that is preparing for negotiations next year aimed at improving relations with its former political master, Serbia.
Mr. Marty alleges a wider range of misdeeds, including detainee abuse and score-settling among Kosovo's various Albanian factions. He also says alleged victims include ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs.
In his report, Mr. Marty alleges that some Kosovo politicians, including prime minister, Hashim Thaci, whose Democratic Party of Kosovo finished first in parliamentary elections Sunday, have links to organized crime. Kosovo's government dismissed that allegation as "slanderous."
Renewed international attention to the organ-trafficking allegations "could damage Kosovo's image among international stakeholders," said a diplomat based in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, who added that the "timing is worth noting," coming just days after Mr. Thaci's election victory.
Serbian politicians in Belgrade could decide to use the allegations in the report as a reason not to engage in talks with Pristina. Serbia agreed to take part in talks under pressure from the European Union. Serbia's foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic cited Mr. Marty's report during a visit to Moscow Wednesday and said he has "no kind of plans to meet" Mr. Thaci.
Kosovo's interim president, Jakup Krasniqi, said in a statement Wednesday that the council report "is clearly biased" and "represents the efforts of certain circles to compare the just and heroic struggle of the people of Kosovo … with the massacres of the Serbian regime of" Slobodan Milosevic.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization launched an air war against Serbia in 1999 in an effort to stop reprisals and ethnic cleansing against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Kosovo, whose population is more than 90% Albanian, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 after failed talks aimed at reaching a political settlement between the two sides.
Mr. Marty's draft report is critical of the U.S. and other international backers of Kosovo and its government, saying that they have ignored alleged crimes and other abuses by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian politicians in the interest of maintaining stability and creating a functioning state.
International organizations in Kosovo have "favored a pragmatic political approach, taking the view that they needed to promote short-term stability at any price," Mr. Marty wrote. But, he said: "There cannot and must not be one justice for the winners and another for the losers."
Write to Gordon Fairclough at gordon.fairclough@wsj.com
The current Kosovo government, which includes former guerrilla leaders, denied the allegations. Bajram Rexhepi, Kosovo's Interior Minister, said the accusations were "unrealistic and stupid." A spokeswoman for Albania's prime minister declined to comment.
"These allegations should not be left unanswered. They have to be either confirmed or refuted through proper criminal investigation," Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of the 47-nation Council of Europe, said Wednesday.
The draft report, which expands on allegations made by former war-crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, of Switzerland, in a book published in 2008, was prepared by Swiss prosecutor-turned-politician Dick Marty, who also investigated for the council the existence of secret prisons in Europe run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Mr. Marty's findings—which are to be discussed Thursday by the human-rights committee of the council's Parliamentary Assembly—could cause trouble for the leadership in Kosovo, a newly independent country that is preparing for negotiations next year aimed at improving relations with its former political master, Serbia.
Mr. Marty alleges a wider range of misdeeds, including detainee abuse and score-settling among Kosovo's various Albanian factions. He also says alleged victims include ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs.
In his report, Mr. Marty alleges that some Kosovo politicians, including prime minister, Hashim Thaci, whose Democratic Party of Kosovo finished first in parliamentary elections Sunday, have links to organized crime. Kosovo's government dismissed that allegation as "slanderous."
Renewed international attention to the organ-trafficking allegations "could damage Kosovo's image among international stakeholders," said a diplomat based in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, who added that the "timing is worth noting," coming just days after Mr. Thaci's election victory.
Serbian politicians in Belgrade could decide to use the allegations in the report as a reason not to engage in talks with Pristina. Serbia agreed to take part in talks under pressure from the European Union. Serbia's foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic cited Mr. Marty's report during a visit to Moscow Wednesday and said he has "no kind of plans to meet" Mr. Thaci.
Kosovo's interim president, Jakup Krasniqi, said in a statement Wednesday that the council report "is clearly biased" and "represents the efforts of certain circles to compare the just and heroic struggle of the people of Kosovo … with the massacres of the Serbian regime of" Slobodan Milosevic.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization launched an air war against Serbia in 1999 in an effort to stop reprisals and ethnic cleansing against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Kosovo, whose population is more than 90% Albanian, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 after failed talks aimed at reaching a political settlement between the two sides.
Mr. Marty's draft report is critical of the U.S. and other international backers of Kosovo and its government, saying that they have ignored alleged crimes and other abuses by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian politicians in the interest of maintaining stability and creating a functioning state.
International organizations in Kosovo have "favored a pragmatic political approach, taking the view that they needed to promote short-term stability at any price," Mr. Marty wrote. But, he said: "There cannot and must not be one justice for the winners and another for the losers."
Write to Gordon Fairclough at gordon.fairclough@wsj.com
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