U.S. must seek the truth about wrongdoing in Kosovo

the washington post

By Chuck SudeticSaturday, January 8, 2011
THE HAGUE
Americans should feel betrayed by the contents of the Council of Europe's report on organized crime in mostly Albanian-populated Kosovo, a country that owes its existence to the United States. The report, authored by Swiss prosecutor Dick Marty, includes allegations that Kosovo leaders have committed heinous crimes and allegations that American and European diplomats and U.N. officials in Kosovo overlooked wrongdoing to preserve "political stability."
Kosovo's leaders have waged an ugly media campaign to discredit Marty and his findings and have threatened to launch a witch hunt against Albanians who aided the inquiry. Washington's voice is needed now to stop the incitement in Kosovo and to turn public opinion toward an international criminal investigation and, if necessary, prosecutions.
The report draws upon Albanian eyewitnesses and insiders as well as Western intelligence and police agencies, and not upon the Albanians' foe, the government of Serbia. The findings speak of the trafficking of drugs and women. They include accounts of the abduction in Kosovo of almost 500 Serbs, Albanians and members of other ethnic groups; the delivery of these kidnapping victims to secret camps in Albania; and the murder of almost all of those abducted, including some whose internal organs were allegedly sold for profit. The report alleges that these killings occurred from mid-1999 to mid-2000, after NATO's bombing campaign drove Serbia's forces from Kosovo. The report names Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, who has for years been America's golden boy in Kosovo, and a number of Thaci's former comrades in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an amalgam of local insurgencies that rose against Serbia. ...more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010703160.html

*Chuck Sudetic reported from the Balkans during the 1990s and worked for the U.N. war crimes tribunal for Yugoslavia from 2001 to 2005. He co-authored Carla Del Ponte's memoirs, "Madame Prosecutor."

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Wherever you look, corruption dogs the Balkans

washington post

By DUSAN STOJANOVICThe Associated Press Friday, January 7, 2011; 6:47 AM
BELGRADE, Serbia -- Bags of cash delivered to the office of a prime minister with a penchant for expensive watches. A dizzying fortune amassed by another from years of tobacco smuggling.
Or the plain grotesque: A head of state who allegedly led a mafia-like gang trafficking kidneys cut from murdered prisoners in the 1990s.
Wherever you look, accusations are flying about high-level corruption in the Balkans. But while some say it's endemic, others see progress: In a region torn apart by war two decades ago, nations now aspire to join the European Union and there's a more urgent need to pursue and prosecute.
"For many years, organized crime and corruption encountered few obstacles preventing their growth or stunting their influence in southeastern Europe," says Balkan political analyst Misha Glenny. "That is now changing largely because of the conditions imposed by the European Union on regional governments to clean up their acts."
The accusations are being fought by former and current leaders of Croatia, Montenegro and Kosovo. But nerves are being rattled far beyond their nations' borders.
EU members Romania and Bulgaria are under pressure from Brussels to fight graft and bribery more than three years after joining the 27-nation bloc, with Germany and France recently warning that allowing them to join the continent's visa-free travel zone too quickly could have "grave consequences" for the bloc's security.
That is slowing momentum to expand the union deeper into the Balkans.

Clearing the higher bar could prove difficult for Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo - all ex-Yugoslav states tinged with a reputation for corruption.
The 170-nation list of Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index places Macedonia and Croatia joint 62nd, Romania 69th and Bulgaria 73rd. Compared to established EU nations like Germany at 15 or France at 25, the results show they have a lot of catching up to do.
That's particularly true for Bosnia, listed at 91 and Kosovo, at 110.
While Croatia - the next likely EU member - has fulfilled most membership requirements, it must increase "the fight against corruption at all levels," says EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele.
At first, probes in Croatia involved minor players - university professors giving passing grades in exams in exchange for bribes, or clerks at land registry offices who took money in return for quickly issuing construction permits. ...more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010701604_2.html

*Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Snjezana Vukic in Croatia, Predrag Milic in Montenegro, Jovana Gec in Serbia and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

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Serbia police find Modigliani photo in search

the washington post

By DUSAN STOJANOVICThe Associated Press Thursday, December 30, 2010; 9:30 AM
BELGRADE, Serbia -- Serbian police searching for a war-crimes fugitive on Thursday instead found photographs of a Modigliani painting they suspect is in his possession.
The war crimes prosecutor's office said the police searched a house in the northern city of Novi Sad belonging to a close friend of Goran Hadzic, a former Croatian Serb rebel leader wanted by a U.N. tribunal over atrocities during Croatia's 1991-95 war for independence.
Prosecutors say they found photographs of an oil painting by the Italian master worth more than 1 million euros ($1.3 million) that they believe Hadzic has. The prosecutors said in a statement "we suspect that the painting was intended for sale to collect funds for his hiding."
The statement gave no name or description of the painting shown on the photographs. It was not clear whether the painting was stolen, or belongs to Hadzic.

Hadzic and wartime Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic are the last two suspects wanted by the U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands.
Serbia must arrest the last two if it wants to move on in its bid to join the European Union.

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