Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Switzerland has voiced its opposition to any EULEX involvement into Albanian organ trade investigation by recommending that an “international commission” should look into the evidence.

Swiss Foreign Affairs Committee says that their decision was reached unanimously and they praised the work done by Dick Marty who wrote the Council of Europe report on the Albanian organ trade.

Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic is also recommending that independent investigators handle the Albanian organ trade case.

“It is obvious that not even Marty is satisfied with how EULEX has been working after ‘inheriting’ UNMIK,” Vukcevic said.

Vukcevic said that he is concerned about EULEX capabilities.

“I myself am concerned about EULEX’s capabilities. My position is that the proposal of the Human Rights Watch and Dick Marty on independent investigators could possibly be the best solution, and we are here to make a maximum contribution, just like we have done so far,” Vukcevic said.

Witnesses in prior war crimes cases involving Albanian separatists were killed after their names went public.

Fears are growing that witnesses in the Albanian organ trade will die as soon as their names are found in the EULEX files.

EULEX has been insisting that Dick Marty reveal to them the names of the witnesses of the Albanian organ trade.

Vukcevic said that issue of witnesses is a major one, assessing that the situation will change after the adoption of the resolution on witness protection by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.

Vukcevic also said that Serbia has not established relationship with the Turkish authorities on the arrests of Yusuf Sonmez who was the chief organ extractor for the Albanian owned organ trading clinic, the Medikus, in Pristina.

EULEX has already thrown out some evidence against Medikus during the opening debate because, ruled the EULEX judge, the evidence was seized in an search without a warrant.

Several doctors and a former high-level Kosovo Albanian Health Ministry officials are among the indicted in the Medikus illegal organ trading scheme.

February 3, 2011
SERBIANNA

Dacic, left, with Rubalcaba in Spain.

Serbia’s Interior Minister Ivica Dacic and his Spanish counterpart Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba discussed possibilities that the two countries could jointly take part in peacekeeping missions.

The discussion on joint peace missions occurred during the scheduled signing of joint police cooperation in combating crime.

Both sides agreed that fighting organized crime is priority.

“Drugs are smuggled through Western European countries, including Spain, so the Serbian and Spanish police have carried out a number of joint operations in the previous period,” said Dacic.

Serbia and Spain also signed an agreement on agreement on emergency situations.

Dacic said that Serbia’s relations with Spain are excellent but it could be improved in the area of business.

February 1, 2011
SERBIANNA

“Contacts are under way. Marty seeks guarantees for witnesses,” said Ashton’s spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic to the Serbian media.

Kocijancic said that killing of witnesses has been a major problem in prosecuting Albanian war crimes citing case of Ramush Haradinaj.

EULEX now has about 20 investigators and 40 judges, and the EU is ready to send more.

Prosecutors of the EULEX have already begun a preliminary investigation into Albanian organ trade outlined by Council of Europe’s Dick Marty.

According to EULEX prosecutors can start working immediately if they receive the evidence Marty collected.

Skeptics have said that any release of documents by Marty to EULEX would immediately jeopardize all witnesses in the Albanian organ trade.

Albanian Hashim Thaci is the named leader responsible for trafficking in Serbian organs. Swiss authorities have already said that Thaci was implicated in ordering killings of his political opponents.

Head of Serbia’s delegation at the Council of Europe, Dragoljub Micunovic, notes that the decision on who will conduct the investigation on organ trafficking in Kosovo and northern Albania has not yet been taken.

“Dick Marty’s report on human organ trafficking has been adopted, both the US and the EU support the investigation, and Albania will have to cooperate,” Micunovic said.

Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Anvar Azimov said that OSCE should support an international investigation of trafficking in human organs in Kosovo.

“We think it important to provide comprehensive support to the independent international investigation, which will establish the truth about the possible involvement of Kosovo top-ranking officials in the cruel and inhumane crimes unprecedented in the modern European history. We think that the OSCE should not stay aside,” Azimov said.

“Hushing, concealment or denial of the truth would be comparable with the crimes by its meanness,” Azimov said.

January 31, 2011
SERBIANNA

Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said Monday in a statement the search of Darko Mladic’s high-rise flat in a Belgrade suburb is aimed at finding “evidence and clues pointing to the location where (Ratko) Mladic is hiding.”

There were no immediate reports on whether the search of a drab, communist-style, neighborhood of the capital, one in a series of such raids in the past several years, produced any results.

Chief U.N. prosecutor Serge Brammertz earlier this month reportedly urged those searching for the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander to intensify their efforts, or his next report to the U.N. Security Council about Serbia’s cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia could be negative.

Brammertz’s regular reports on Serbia’s compliance are crucial for the Balkan country’s efforts to become an European Union member candidate. He is due to arrive on a fact-find mission to Belgrade on Feb. 21.

Serbia’s deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric denied that Monday’s raid was conducted under pressure.

“We are not bluffing,” Vekaric said, adding that Mladic’s arrest remains Serbia’s priority.

Mladic is wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for war crimes committed by his troops during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, including the massacre of about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995.

Mladic has been on the run since he was indicted by the Netherlands-based court in 1995.

The U.N. prosecutors believe he is hiding in Serbia under the protection of hardliners who consider him a hero. Mladic was last seen in Belgrade in 2006.

DUSAN STOJANOVIC
January 31, 201
Associated Press

Jeremic said that large number of African countries are under pressure to recognize Kosovo separatists.

Speaking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Jeremic said that Ethiopian government has been introduced to the Council of Europe’s report on the Albanian organ trade in Kosovo. Jeremic also remarked that few African diplomats knew of that report.

In his visit to Africa, Jeremic also appealed to the African Union to help investigate the Albanian separatist perpetrators of the organ trade.

“In the interest of sustainable peace and reconciliation in the Balkans, on behalf of the Republic of Serbia, I ask the member states of the African Union to support the prompt carrying out of a full and independent criminal investigation of these charges one that is both internationally mandated and internationally accountable, with ultimate reporting obligations to a single authority,” Jeremic said.

Jeremic said that Kosovo can be removed from the list of the world’s problems by working together, demonstrating continued solidarity and rejecting unilateralism.

The Minister also confirmed Serbia’s commitment to the Non-Aligned Movement and noted the anticipation of the Non-Aligned Movement’s special meeting to be held in Belgrade to mark the 50th anniversary.

The Minister also opened doors to business between African states and Serbia.

Jeremic also held individual talks with heads of delegations which participate in the session of the African Union Executive Council.

January 29, 2011
SERBIANNA

Speaking to the Serbian daily Vesti, Marty said that an “An ad hoc judicial structure needs to be created – established specially to investigate the organ trafficking and located outside of Kosovo, which would have the right to apply measures to protect witnesses and their families – just during the process, but afterwards as well”.

The witnesses have so much to say that their lives would not be worth much afterwards if their identities were revealed.

Marty said that witnesses have much to say but if their identities were revealed these witnesses will be killed.

“I do not think EULEX, the way it is forced to operate today and the way it is organized, can conduct a serious investigation. Besides, if we look at the justice systems and the international judiciary in the region, these structures have not been able to protect witnesses. As soon as there is a high level case or a case that touches a certain level in the criminal hierarchy, testimonies become not just difficult, but impossible to obtain,” Marty is quoted as saying.

On Wednesday Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a Resolution on witness protection.

However, Marty warned that some people might be satisfied with simply passing the resolution in hope that nothing will come of it.

“The strong vote of support is an important step, but it is just one stage, which will be irrelevant unless there is a well prepared follow-up, and unless there is a political follow-up. I see this as the main danger,” Marty warned.

Marty also said that the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly has sent an important message by adopting his report on organ trafficking in Kosovo and northern Albania with an overwhelming majority, and that competent institutions now need to act.

The organ trafficking report names current Albanian separatist leader, referred to as prime minister, Hashim Thaci, as the leader of a mafia-type ALbanian crime organization that kidnapped Serbs to extract their organs as well as it engaged in weapons trade, heroin, sex slavery and other organized crime.

Marty said that he pointed to the Drenica Group, led by Thaci, as the main element behind the crimes, because he did not want to criminalize the entire Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

“The KLA was not a traditional army, it was not homogenous in the traditional sense, it did not have one general at the top and a pyramid hierarchy. It was a collection of different groups with different leaders, which did not necessarily make up a unified structure. Therefore, it is not possible to criminalize the entire KLA, but it is evident that the criminal element took advantage of the military, or if you prefer paramilitary, structure,” Marty said.

Commenting on the resolution on witness protection passed by PACE, Marty said that Jean-Charles Gardetto’s report underlines the fundamental importance of witness protection, not only in Kosovo, but in the entire region.

If justice has not been done, if many people have evaded it, it is because we have not been able to efficiently protect witnesses. Witnesses have been intimidated and murdered, and I find this scandalous, Marty stressed, adding that he does not want to reveal a single piece of information about the witnesses until they are guaranteed full protection.

Marty pointed out that the Council of Europe is a guardian of values and must protect the truth, adding that each of us is, in a way, a guardian of the values and principles outlined in the European Convention on Human Rights.

After kidnapping Serbs, the KLA took them to death camps in Albania where organ extraction and subsequent execution was performed.

At a cabinet session, aired live on several Albanian TV stations, Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha dismissed the fact that organ extraction occurred in death camps in Albania.

“We are open for investigations that could be carried out in the whole of Albania, although I decisively dismiss the possibility of organ trafficking in Albania, especially the possibility of the existence of mass graves in the country,” Berisha said

“One should be completely blind to think that an Albanian family can offer its house so that a murder could be committed there,” Berisha said referring to the so-called “yellow house,” which is mentioned as a place where organ harvesting was performed on the Serbs and Albanians from Kosovo.

January 27, 2011
SERBIANNA
Tanjug

Serbia's President Boris Tadic delivers a speech to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg

Tadic thanked PACE for adopting the report and making the first important step towards the truth about what really happened in secret detention facilities ran by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and for taking a neutral stance regarding Kosovo. “I would urge you to continue this policy of avoiding divisive debates on controversial matters, including the potential application for membership for Kosovo,” Tadic said in his PACE address.

Serbia’s stand on Kosovo is well known, and Belgrade will not recognize its province’s unilaterally declared independence, Tadic asserted, adding that the Serbian delegation for the talks with Kosovo has been ready for months now.

The sooner the discussions with Kosovo begin, the sooner will Serbia and Kosovo be able to move forward towards a historical reconciliation between the Serbs and Albanians, Tadic remarked, appealing to all sides to be creative.
 
Commenting on Marty’s report, Tadic stressed that the allegations made in it should not be swept under the carpet.

Tadic quoted the report in saying that the KLA has been involved in drug, weapons and human trafficking since 1998 and that the so called Drenica Group was the most responsible for what happened to hundreds of ethnic Serbs and Albanians who were kidnapped by the KLA.

Much has been done since the democratic changes in Serbia from October 5, 2000, which is why the next decade is viewed with optimism, he noted.

According to Tadic, the greatest challenges for Serbia, the region and Europe in the coming decade include meeting the EU standards so Serbia and the region could be integrated as soon as possible, the completion of the reconciliation process in the Balkans and finally measures against “those who want to abuse democracy and our economies.”

“Our strategic objective is to join the European Union,” the president stated. “In a few days, the Prime Minister of Serbia will submit our answers to the questionnaire of the European Commission. Thereafter, we hope that we will be able to proceed towards candidacy and the opening of accession negotiations,” he continued.

Tadic drew attention to the improvement in relations with Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, citing his meeting with Josipovic in Vukovar as a great help in the reconciliation process.
“It is our purpose in Serbia to promote harmony – within our society, among our societies in the region and between the EU and the region,” the president pointed out, adding that the relations in the region are at their highest level in the last 20 years.

The policy of reconciliation is a priority because it poses a strategic and moral imperative, he asserted. That is why Serbia will continue to cooperate fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the president noted.

“We will keep working on locating, arresting and extraditing the two remaining fugitive indictees, including Ratko Mladic, as we have with 44 others over the past few years,” he emphasized.

The president feels that organized crime is among the greatest threats to peace, security and progress in the region. Organized crime is a serious threat to society and the economy, he argued, advocating a strategic alliance between the countries of the region in combating that plague. PACE members were mostly interested in the situation in the region and issues regarding Kosovo.

Speaking about Marty’s report, Tadic stated that all war crimes in the region should be investigated, not just those in Kosovo. All reports are beneficial in that sense and help establish better relations in the Balkans, he explained.

Serbia will do everything to investigate war crimes and find the two remaining ICTY fugitives, said Tadic, who hopes that other governments will also do their best to investigate the events of the past two decades. The region’s future lies within the EU and the relations in the Balkans are at their highest point in the past 20 years, he reiterated in conclusion.

January 27, 2011
Tanjug

A Serbian diplomatic representative had contacted Long Beach police with a welfare concern about the wife of Roger Edward Henry Robertson, but police had been unable to find anyone at home, Bass said. The couple have been living in a condo on the city’s west side.

Roger Edward Henry Robertson

A consul general called police again Tuesday, Bass said, and reported the woman had sent her mother a text message saying she was being held against her will. Police returned to Robertson’s residence.

“He was reluctant to answer the door,” Bass said, “but we persuaded him to open it. He stated his wife was not home, and we questioned him further and said we knew she was there. He made some phone calls before he opened the door.”

Police found Robertson’s wife inside, Bass said, and discovered his ex-girlfriend, who has a toddler, was asleep in a bedroom where she had barricaded the door by pushing a table against it.

Det. Stephanie Stewart, who specializes in domestic-assault cases, interviewed the women. The wife said her husband had tried to strangle her a few weeks ago, Bass said, and the ex-girlfriend said Robertson also had assaulted her.

“Both females feared for their safety,” Bass said. “He allowed his ex-girlfriend to go to work, but that was it.”

“When people are abused, they often have no place to go. They feel they’re stuck where they are.”

Police arrested Robertson, 49, on charges of aggravated domestic assault and simple domestic assault. The aggravated status falls under a new state law that makes it a felony to try to strangle, choke or suffocate a relative or romantic partner.

Bass said Robertson has prior felony convictions, including an armed robbery in Florida, and numerous arrests in other states.

Bass said Robertson’s wife had come to the U.S. on a student visa before they married. The Serbian consul was making flight arrangements for Robertson’s wife to be returned to her family, Bass said.

Police said his ex-girlfriend also is trying to make arrangements to leave the area.

“I believe we saved the women’s lives,” Bass said.

Harrison County Justice Court Judge Diane Ladner set $250,000 bond on the felony charge.

Municipal Court Judge Brad Rath set bond on the misdemeanor at $10,000.

Robertson was held at the county jail pending court appearances.

By Robin Fitzgerald
January 27, 2011
The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Carl Bildt, who served some 15 years ago as the first postwar administrator in Bosnia, said Wednesday in Sarajevo that he came to hear from local politicians about whether they can form a government soon and how they see Bosnia’s European future.

The country’s leaders have failed to form a government coalition since October’s elections because of different views of the country’s future, primarily split along ethnic lines.

Bosnia is ethnically divided and some want unification while others favor a weak central government. The dispute has slowed reforms required for the country to move toward EU membership.

January 26, 2011
Associated Press

“The Serbian prime minister must respond to a European Commission questionnaire in the near future and after that we hope to submit our candidacy and open negotiations,” Boris Tadic told deputies at the Council of Europe.

Considered Europe’s top human rights body, the 41-member, Strasbourg-based council isn’t part of the European Union.

Judging his country “on the right road” to future membership, Tadic said it was critical that it conform to EU norms “so that Serbia, but also its neighbors, can adhere as quickly as possible.”

His remarks came a week after the European Parliament ratified a key Stabilization and Association Agreement with Serbia, which is seen as the first step towards EU membership.

The EU has made Serbia’s potential membership conditional on full co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia–a demand Tadic has vowed his country will comply with.

Fugitive Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic tops the United Nation’s tribunal’s list of war crimes suspects. He is accused of masterminding the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 people dead and the massacre in July 1995 of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

Also, former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic is wanted for the murder of thousands of Croatian civilians between 1991 and 1993.

“We will arrest them and we will extradite them” as Serbia has done with past war crimes suspects, Tadic said.

Serbia initially applied for EU membership in December 2009 but won support for the bid only after agreeing last September to start a dialogue with its breakaway province of Kosovo.
 
January 26, 2011
AFP