Serbian patriarch accuses ex-UN and NATO officials in Kosovo of organ trafficking cover up

By: The Associated Press

BELGRADE, Serbia - The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church accused former U.N. and NATO administrators of Kosovo on Wednesday of covering up reports of an alleged illegal human organs trade in the former Serbian province.

Patriarch Irinej said in his Orthodox Christmas address that the international officials "certainly knew what was happening on the field" when they ran Kosovo after the war for secession ended in 1999.

Serbs like many other Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7.

"The terrible crime against the innocent Serbian victims of organ trafficking took place with calm and in many cases complicit silence of the international community," Irinej said. "But, the truth and God's justice always have the last say."

Swiss Senator Dick Marty, a Council of Europe investigator, last month released a report alleging that kidneys and other organs were removed from Serbs and other non-Albanians in detention facilities run by rebel Kosovo Albanians in neighbouring Albania in 1999.

Albanian officials in Kosovo and Albania have vehemently denied the accusations.

Kosovo — which declared independence from Serbia in 2008 — came under U.N. and NATO administration after a 1999 NATO-led air war halted former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists there. The U.N. handed over the administration of Kosovo to the European Union in 2008.

The influential Serbian Orthodox Church considers Kosovo the cradle of the Serbian state and religion, and has its headquarters in Kosovo where ethnic Albanians comprise about 90 per cent of population.