euronews
Mafia
16/12 19:01 CET
Hashim Thaçi had barely 24 hours to savour his PDK party’s victory in the first parliamentary elections since Kosovo’s self-declared independence.
The next day came the Council of Europe report, accusing the prime minister of once being a Mafia-style boss.
His government denounced as baseless the claims against the man dubbed “The Snake” for his ability to slip out of the grasp of Serb police.
The allegations date back to just after the 1999 war, when NATO took control of the territory still claimed by Serbia.
Originally from the Dranica region, after some years studying in Switzerland, Hashim Thaçi became one of the commanders of the KLA, the Kosovo Liberation Army, which emerged in 1997.
He was present amid the negotiations with Serbia, at Rambouillet in France in early 1999. Rejected by Belgrade, the resulting plan led to NATO’s intervention in Kosovo and bombardments against Serbia.
According to the report, during the war Thaçi acted like the head of an organised crime network that carried out assassinations, beat people up and trafficked organs and drugs. At the end of the war Thaçi formed the Democratic Party of Kosovo, the PDK, members came mainly from the KLA.
The first person to publicly accuse Thaçi of involvement in organ trafficking was Carla del Ponte. In 2008 the former chief prosecutor in the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia published a book called “The Hunt”, claiming that after the war the KLA kidnapped 300 Serbs from Kosovo and transported them to a village in Albania.
In a house in Gurre it is alleged that organs were removed from the prisoners, who were then killed. The organs were then sent abroad for the black market, via the airport at Rinas.
Back in 2008, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the prime minister asking him to open an inquiry, in view of the gravity of del Ponte’s claims.
The justice minister rejected the allegations then, describing them as “fabrications”. The Pristina government is adopting a similar stance today, threatening legal action over what it calls slanderous claims.
As for the EU’s law enforcement mission, EULEX, it says it has limited resources to investigate.
The next day came the Council of Europe report, accusing the prime minister of once being a Mafia-style boss.
His government denounced as baseless the claims against the man dubbed “The Snake” for his ability to slip out of the grasp of Serb police.
The allegations date back to just after the 1999 war, when NATO took control of the territory still claimed by Serbia.
Originally from the Dranica region, after some years studying in Switzerland, Hashim Thaçi became one of the commanders of the KLA, the Kosovo Liberation Army, which emerged in 1997.
He was present amid the negotiations with Serbia, at Rambouillet in France in early 1999. Rejected by Belgrade, the resulting plan led to NATO’s intervention in Kosovo and bombardments against Serbia.
According to the report, during the war Thaçi acted like the head of an organised crime network that carried out assassinations, beat people up and trafficked organs and drugs. At the end of the war Thaçi formed the Democratic Party of Kosovo, the PDK, members came mainly from the KLA.
The first person to publicly accuse Thaçi of involvement in organ trafficking was Carla del Ponte. In 2008 the former chief prosecutor in the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia published a book called “The Hunt”, claiming that after the war the KLA kidnapped 300 Serbs from Kosovo and transported them to a village in Albania.
In a house in Gurre it is alleged that organs were removed from the prisoners, who were then killed. The organs were then sent abroad for the black market, via the airport at Rinas.
Back in 2008, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the prime minister asking him to open an inquiry, in view of the gravity of del Ponte’s claims.
The justice minister rejected the allegations then, describing them as “fabrications”. The Pristina government is adopting a similar stance today, threatening legal action over what it calls slanderous claims.
As for the EU’s law enforcement mission, EULEX, it says it has limited resources to investigate.
read more: euronews
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