New evidence on Kosovo Albanian organ traffic
Serbia has fresh evidence of the alleged trafficking of organs taken from Kosovo Serb prisoners in northern Albania during and after the 1998-1999 conflict, its war crimes prosecutor said Sunday.
“We have new proof that will first be presented to the Council of Europe’s envoy, Dick Marty, before being made public,” Vladimir Vukcevic told Beta news agency.
Vukcevic said his office had four new witnesses, but provided no further details.
“In this phase we are just proving that such a monstrous crime was committed, that there was human organ trafficking, but we are still far away from the perpetrators,” the prosecutor said.
Marty, rapporteur of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, visited Serbia, Kosovo and Albania in August to investigate allegations that ethnic Albanian rebels killed up to 500 Kosovo Serbs in Albania in order to sell their organs abroad.
The claims first arose in the memoirs published last year of former UN chief war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, which prompted the Council of Europe to reopen the case briefly investigated by her office five years ago.
In her book, Del Ponte said organs were removed at a “yellow house” since identified as belonging to a family called Katuci.
Earlier this year Albania rejected a Serb request for a probe into the case on the basis of evidence and testimonies from more than 130 witnesses collected by Vukcevic.
Vukcevic also noted that Dick Marty appears interested and ready to finish the organ traffic case to the end.
“We are informing him with every new information when we get it. On several occasions already I said that we expect an objective report from him because he left an impression of a professional and dignified man. I do not want to create any kind of pressure on him,” said Vukcevic.
Vukcevic said that some of the victims of the Kosovo Albanian organ trade are from other European states and said that these states have supplied valuable information on Albanian crime.
“Precisely from those Embassies and other representatives from those countries we got lots of information that shed light on the case,” said Vukcevic.
The suspected leaders of the Kosovo Albanian organ trade declared independence in 2008 and some states, led by the US, have recognized these separatists are legitimate diplomats.
Vukcevic says that he has people who witnessed Albanian organ traffic and are ready to testify on that.
December 13, 2009
AFP | SERBIANNA
The Katuci family must be made of steel if they can sleep in that house.
I know the Albanians will come out in force saying how this is all Serbian propaganda and the witnesses are paid off etc.etc.etc. but they won’t be able to make those claims for long.
It’s a pity that a lot of evidence was obviously destroyed by now since Albanian government knew about this for a long time and had time to prepare and disinfect the yellow house.
They have to sweep that house of horror for DNA.
First time I hear of such a horror,