The current Kosovo Albanian separatist leadership ordered and in some cases personally took part in assassinations of their political opponents and ethnic Serbs, says Council of Europe’s report.

“Our first-hand sources alone have credibly implicated Haliti, Veseli, Syla and Limaj, alongside Thaqi and other members of his inner circle, in having ordered – and in some cases personally overseen – assassinations, detentions, beatings and interrogations in various parts of Kosovo,” says the report.

Thaqi, whose name is also spelled Thaci, has been elected a “prime minister” of the separatist Kosovo Albanian government.

The Council of Europe report also says that some of the killings and torture was conducted in Albania.

Seven locations have been identified as places where Kosovo Albanians used to kill and torture civilians. These cities in Albania are Cahan, Kukes, Bicaj, Burrel, Rripe, Fushe-Kruje and Durres.

Intelligence sources say that it is nearly impossible for the government of Albania, if not to facilitate, but at least not to obstruct these torture bases.

“It is unlikely that the Berisha’s Albanian government did not know of the Thaci’s Kukes facility which was a former metal factory, or of the activities in the Hotel Drenica in Durres,” tells us a security analyst from Belgrade.

Albania has denied these facts in the Council of Europe’s report.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who was in power when these torture facilities were operating in his country, said that the report reflects the political bias of the author.

Albanian parliament speaker Josefina Topalli said that the report is directed against the Albanian state and its partners across the world, as well as peace in the region.

Thaci has threatened a libel suit against the author of the report. US State Department said that it continues to support “independent” Kosovo and will continue to deal with Thaci because of mutual interests.

Albania's Prime Minister Sali Berisha, left, hugs, Thaci during one of their meetings.

Council of Europe also says that it has witnesses who have said that a house in Burrel was used to extract organs out of Serbs so that they can be sold for profit.

Those Serbs whose organs were taken out were either left to die or were killed by Thaci and his men.

Council of Europe also says that the Thaci-led group was “able to strike deals with established international networks of organised criminals, enabling expansion and diversification into new areas of ‘business’, and the opening of new smuggling routes into other parts of Europe.”

Organ sales was one of those new “business” venues for the Thaci-led Albanian crime group.

Council of Europe report says that a “subset” of Thaci’s victimes included Serbs who were taken to Albania and “fed well and allowed to sleep” but were “murdered immediately before having their kidneys removed in a makeshift operating clinic.”

The report says that it has “source testimonies” of these crimes.

Member of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights Martin Graf said that the discussion within the committee showed that European governments and secret services have known for the past 10 years about the Albanian crimes in Kosovo and Albania.

According to the Austria Press Agency, Graf wants to know what the Austrian authorities knew about the events.

Graf said that if the Austrian government knew about these Albanian crimes but still made a decision to recognize Kosovo, then that would constitute a huge scandal.

The role of former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Carla del Ponte was criticized severely during the meeting, because she had known about the crimes since 2004, Graf added.

Council of Europe was adopted and a resolution will be on the assembly agenda in January.

December 18, 2010
SERBIANNA

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