PACE Endorses Report On Kosovo Organ-Trafficking, Accusing PM Thaci Of Crimes

An woman walks past a wall in Pristina on January 25 of photos depicting people missing since the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo.

January 25, 2011

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has voted to adopt a resolution calling for international and local investigations into illicit organ trafficking activities implicating Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.

The resolution was based on a report unveiled last month following a two-year investigation by Swiss rapporteur Dick Marty.

The report accuses former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army -- including Thaci -- of organizing organ trafficking during and after the war between Kosovo guerrillas and Serbian forces in the late 1990s.

The Kosovo government has rejected the report as baseless and "slanderous."

Speaking after the vote in Strasbourg, Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland said it was important to uncover the truth about the allegations.

"Nothing can be put under the carpet nowadays, because everything will come to the surface sooner or later and therefore it's so important that these things are investigated by the right authorities," Jagland said.

The parliamentarians said the "appalling crimes committed by Serbian forces" had given rise to the assumption that it was invariably one side which was the perpetrator of crimes and the other side the victim.

"The reality is less clear-cut and more complex," the resolution reads. "There cannot be one justice for the winners and another for the losers."

The resolution calls on the Albanian authorities and Kosovo administration to "co-operate unreservedly" with EULEX, the EU mission in Kosovo, or any other international body mandated to find out the truth about crimes linked to the conflict in Kosovo.

The assembly also called for EULEX to be given a clear mandate, the resources, and political support it needed to carry out its role.

In particular, the resolution emphasized the need for effective witness-protection programs. more see:....http://www.rferl.org/content/pace_endorses_report_kosovo_organ_trafficking_ring/2287194.html