Author of the Council of Europe report on Albanian organ trade in Serbia’s Kosovo province says that most countries that recognized Kosovo separatists knew of the facts related to the criminal activities of Kosovo Prime Minister Thaci and his gunmen group that is known as the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Dick Marty, the author of the report, told the Swiss newspaper Le Temps that the reports by the intelligence services – the German, British, Italian, and Greek ones – as well as reports of the U.S. FBI – were sent to various ministries of foreign affairs and all of them noted gruesome Albanian atrocities in Kosovo.

These countries, Marty said, gave priority to diplomatic policy, perhaps because they felt that the past should be left behind.

The news is that somebody has published the reports, Marty said.

Marty said that his country, Switzerland, has played a pioneering role in recognizing an independent Kosovo in 2008.

Thaci, right, hugs Albania's PM Sali Berisha whose country hosted 6 torture bases where Thaci's KLA tortured, killed and extracted organs from Serbs.

Last week, Swiss Le Temps said that Switzerland was following and even encouraging the trend of quasi absolving crimes committed by the Albanians in Kosovo.

Marty told Le Temps that there was plenty of documented information in his report which would suffice judicial authorities of any country to open independent and thorough investigations.

Marty pointed out that everyone in Kosovo was aware of what had happened, but that everyone kept quiet because they felt intimidated to speak out, and added it should not be surprising, considering that many witnesses had been killed before they could testify.

As a result of Marty’s report Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has decided not to receive an award by the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Diaspora.

US State Department said that it will cooperate with Thaci irrespective that Thaci was in charge of extraction of organs from Serbs.

“At this point, since any individual anywhere in the world is innocent until proven otherwise, he is the current prime minister, and we will continue to work with that government,” said State Department’s Philip Crowley.

“I do not believe that this [organ extraction out of Serbs] is going to change fundamentally the U.S.-Kosovo relations given that they are based on mutual interests, not on specific personalities,” Crowley said.

Thaci said that the report is directed from the “anti-independence club” and that he had discussions about the Marty report with the “USA and other Western friends”.

Authorities in Albania have denied facts cited in the Marty report saying that the report is “not based on facts”.

Meanwhile, Serbian Prime Minister Cvetkovic held talks with Albanian Deputy Prime Minister Ilir Meta in Belgrade and said that Serbia expects that relevant institutions, particularly EULEX, investigate the Albanian organ extraction and trade.

“It is necessary to launch criminal proceedings if the suspicions Marty expressed in his report prove to be true, and the people involved in such activities should be prosecuted,” said Serbia’s President Tadic.

Analysts in Belgrade do not believe that Marty’s report will be sufficient to reverse Kosovo recognitions especially among some EU members which are still committed to the independence idea.

“To the US, in particular, Marty’s report and the extraction of Serbian organs is just another little obstacle in their grand design to extract Kosovo out of Serbia,” an analyst told us.

Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor, Bruno Vekaric said that Serbia will not file charges against Thaci.

“If someone is beyond reach of our legal bodies, it is not logical to institute a proceeding since it would be much alike a political trial. Moreover, it would be very difficult to execute justice in the absence of the defendant,” Vekaric said.

December 20, 2010
SERBIANNA

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