Inquiry opened into trafficking of Serbs' organs

EUROPE’S LEADING human rights watchdog has launched an investigation into claims that Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian guerrillas kidnapped up to 500 Serbs and removed their organs for sale on the black market.

Belgrade claims the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted Serb civilians and took them to neighbouring Albania for organ removal during their 1998-1999 war with Slobodan Milosevic’s forces, which ended when Nato bombing drove Serb troops from Kosovo and the UN took over its administration.

The allegations were first made public in a memoir last year by Carla Del Ponte, the former chief UN war crimes prosecutor, who said her office had received information about a possible Albanian trafficking network that was selling kidneys, livers and other organs abroad for transplant.

She wrote that her colleagues did not find enough evidence to proceed with the case, but Serbia has repeatedly demanded an inquiry, and leading advocacy group Human Rights Watch says it has reviewed the information referred to by Ms Del Ponte, and that it merits further investigation.

Serbia gave a dossier of material this week to Dick Marty, a Swiss senator who is leading the investigation for the Council of Europe.

He rose to prominence through his inquiry into the existence of secret CIA-run prisons in Europe used to interrogate terror suspects.

“We have presented Marty with analysis, investigation results, evidence – extensive material that backs our claims,” Bruno Vekaric, a spokesman for Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor, said.

“We are convinced that he will do all he can to find out the truth,” he said. “Whatever the truth is, we are missing between 300 and 500 people and that is what those seeking justice must have in mind.”

Ms Del Ponte claimed that UN investigators found medical equipment and evidence of extensive bloodstains at a house in Albania where, witnesses said, the organ removals took place.

Human Rights Watch says it has seen an official UN report that largely corroborates those claims.

Kosovo and Albanian officials have denied the allegations, and Kosovo government spokesman Memli Krasniqi said this week that his country – which finally declared independence from Serbia last year – would welcome “any investigation into war crimes committed in Kosovo”.

“The allegations of organ trafficking are part of Del Ponte’s imagination, inspired by Serbia’s criminals,” he insisted. “Everyone knows Serbia is the one that committed crimes against humanity and genocide in Kosovo.”