Del Ponte Calls for Kosovo Organs Trade Inquiry

The former ICTY prosecutor says the International Criminal Court or a special tribunal should investigate allegations of murder and organ trafficking by Kosovo politicians.

Michael Montgomery

Former United Nations war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has called for an international criminal inquiry into allegations of murder and human organ trafficking by senior Kosovo politicians.

The allegations were made in a report released earlier this week by European human rights investigator Dick Marty. A parliamentary committee of the Council of Europe has approved the report, sending it to a full assembly meeting in January.

“You cannot read this report and simply look away,” Del Ponte said in an interview from Argentina where she is the Swiss ambassador. “It must be followed up by an international institution capable of conducting a thorough investigation.”

Del Ponte told Balkan Insight and the US based Center for Investigative Reporting that the complexity of the case made it unlikely that any national court could investigate the allegations, which span multiple Balkan countries and implicate Kosovo’s current prime minister, Hashim Thaci.

“What my experience shows me is that it is impossible for any national authority to take this kind of an investigation to its end,” said Del Ponte, who was the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia from 1999 to 2007.

more see: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/carla-del-ponte