Kosovo organ theft
Encyclopedia
The Kosovo organ theft/trafficking or Serbian Organ Harvesting (often referred to as Yellow House Case) is an alleged
atrocity of organ theft
and killing of 300 ethnic Serbs
during and after the Kosovo War
in 1999, committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army
.
The first allegations appeared in the media with The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals
, written by Carla Del Ponte
(former ICTY
chief prosecutor) in which she claims that Kosovo Albanians
smuggled human kidneys of kidnapped Serbs
after the Kosovo war
ended in 1999, the accusations being backed by her own visit at the site, several witnesses involved in and out of the ICTY, one of whom "personally made an organ delivery" to an Albanian airport for transport abroad, and "confirmed information directly gathered by the tribunal". Carla Del Ponte concluded that if the case had been opened before the Kosovo Albanian declaration of independence, world governments may not have had the same stance on the Kosovo question.
In 2010, a report by Swiss prosecutor Dick Marty
to the Council of Europe
uncovered "credible, convergent indications" that a clinic in Kosovo is implicated in an illegal trade in human organs going back over a decade. The Medicus clinic outside Pristina is reportedly linked to a wider network of organized criminals with links to the highest level of Kosovo's government, including the Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. On January 25, 2011, the report was endorsed by the Council of Europe
, which called for a full and serious investigation.
Since the issue of the report, senior sources in Eulex and many members of the European Parliament
have expressed serious doubts regarding the report, and believe it to be without foundation whatsoever, "Mr Marty hav[ing] failed to provide any evidence concerning the allegations". In a heated debate, Marty told the MEP
s that a witness protection program was needed in Kosovo
, before he could provide more details on witnesses to the alleged trafficking as their lives were in danger. Bernard Kouchner, former top UN representative in Kosovo, has recently stated in the media: "We were aware of the extortions, but we never heard of organ trafficking," rejecting the accusations made by Carla Del Ponte.
Information obtained by the B92 team from sources located in Belgrade claims the Serb prisoners were allegedly trafficked in trucks from Kosovo
to a KLA camp in Kukes and then northern Albania
(to the village of Gur, Albania, Rripe
near Burrel, Mat District
) during and after the Kosovo War. The illegal operations were performed (while the prisoners were alive) in Building/Prison #320, 20 km from the "Yellow House" mentioned as the site of the acts by former Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.
.
It is also believed by the Serbian Government that the prisoners were prepared for operations in the "yellow house", but were re-located when International humanitarian aid
such as the Red Cross came by. A large portion of surgical equipment was discovered both inside and outside the house, such as heavy drugs, needles and tubes used for surgical procedures. When the BBC investigated the house, the reply from the family that owns the house and land was that "the father and son in the family used the equipment, since ambulance is far away from here..." and "the local medic dumps his equipment here..."
The victims were deprived of vital organs and then sewn up, only to be operated on again when other organs were needed for export.
The B92
Serbian radio allegedly has documents revealing that Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha
was asked by the KLA leader and former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj
(His involvement in the organ theft is strengthened by Carla Del Ponte
) to send security forces to destroy all evidence connected to the disappearance and organ harvesting of Serbs from Kosovo that were transported to Albania.
Bruno Vekarić, Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor, claims that an additional 40 mental patients from Stimlje are thought to be victims of the organ theft as well.
Hashim Thaci, the Kosovo Albanian leader, on the question why KLA made terrible actions such as organ trafficking after the war, replied that "people from different parts, used the uniforms of the KLA, but we have distanced ourselves from these people, the misuse was minimal"
They also said that the room contained the blood of animals that they had “slaughtered outside, and had cut the meat up inside.”
Serbia has urged Albania to cooperate and in late October 2008, Albanian officials replied that the charges were already investigated by the UN and Carla Del Ponte and that the Serbian Government had no new evidence.
On November 14, UNMIK has let Serbia's War Crimes Prosecutors join their side in a new investigation about the yellow house.
On November 20, ICTY (The Hague Tribunal) started cooperating with Serbia on the case. Serbia has received important information from Serge Brammertz
(current ICTY chief), evidence of the alleged operation house in northern Albania, but the Albanian side wish not to cooperate. A report shows that seven points are confirmed in the allegations and that the Albanian prosecutor and UNMIK had failed to tell the truth when investigating the findings of different surgical equipment.
In November, 2008, several men were arrested after a bust on an organ trafficking ring in Pristina after a Turkish national was questioned by the Kosovo Police. Two urologists and a manager working in the Medikus clinic, none of whom are qualified for surgical operations, only check-ups, were leading a business from their clinic that lasted from 1998 until their bust in late 2008. They did not wish to comment a connection between the Kosovo Serbs organs and the Medikus clinic.
In June 2009, Igor Jučinac, Milutin Radanović and Predrag Željković, a Kosovo Serb and two Serbians, accused of serving as agents provocateurs were arrested by the Kosovo police, for allegedly offering money for statements on organ trade and mediators finding such information. They are under investigation for inciting people to falsely testify that they were victims of "organ harvesting". All of them were released in February 2010, and case was dismissed by EULEX as unfounded political propaganda.
In August, 2009, representatives of the Council of Europe
under Swiss senator Dick Marty
were prevented to search houses relating to the case by the local Albanians in the village of Rripe
. The mass said that they would not let anybody other than from the Albanian government to investigate the case. The Albanian and Kosovo authorities stated they will not look into the case.
In December, 2009, sources say that four Czech citizens that went missing during the Kosovo War were likely to have been victims of the Organ harvesting, also, 3 Albanian men were arrested in northern Albania after 35 kilograms of heroin were found and evidence of the third being a human trafficker. Names that previously have been in connection with the organ theft case were mentioned once again and several countries in the EU
are to investigate the case further. The Serbian War Crime Prosecution have said that new evidence have been found and that the investigation is ongoing. The Council of Europe is still interested in the case and embassies are sending in their data to the War Crimes committee and new potential witnesses have been found that could "open up the case in the real sense of the word".
New progress as of December 27, 2009, are names of several operators of the yellow house being uncovered, as well as further non-Serb victims; Russians
and Czechs. The organs were sold "in the West and East, in Turkey, Saudi Arabia…”.
Proof of prison camps in Albania where Albanians disloyal to KLA as well as Serbian civilians were tortured was found in a hotel in Kukes
. Both dead and alive Serbians were transported across the border from Serbia into Albania by KLA, witnesses who claimed this are either dead or missing. A team led by Matti Raatikainen discovered blood and surgical tools in the basement of the "Yellow House", however the investigation was halted before it started. In total, around 13,500 civilians are believed to be killed.
In addition, the Albanian government is trying to prevent inquiries into KLA war crimes and the organ trade, even after proof of surgical procedures in the yellow house in the village of Burel was presented to them. Albanian officials believe that the allegations are not credible, while the NGO Human Rights Watch believes otherwise, that simple harvesting on kidneys could have been easily performed even without surgical tools, although many were found at the scene.
to the Council of Europe
was prereleased, alleging that the Republic of Kosovo's prime minister, Hashim Thaci
was the head of a "mafia-like" group responsible for smuggling weapons, drugs and human organs through eastern Europe. This article made waves across the world and led to a series of similar reports.
According to the report, the KLA held Serb prisoners in a network of six facilities in northern Albania, and that Thaci's "Drenica group" bears the greatest responsibility for the prisons and the fate of those held there. A handful of the healthiest prisoners were then transferred to a farmhouse near Fushe-Kruje
near the Albanian capital of Tirana where they were killed for their kidneys. The report states
Some of the captives were aware of the fate that awaited them and pleaded not to be "chopped up". The organs were then subsequently shipped to Istanbul.
Marty's report was presented to Council of Europe Foreign relations committee on December 16. 2010 and is expected to be on the agenda of Session of Council of Europe in late January.
The draft says :
The Swiss foreign ministry noted that Marty's report contained "grave accusations made on the basis of countless witness accounts and evidence."
In 2011 Marty retracted from earlier comments and claimed that his report never implicated Thaci directly, but his close associates, and that is "hard to believe that he [Thaci] never heard about that".
On January 25, 2011, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg voted to adopt a resolution based on the Marty report. 166 PACE members voted in favor, while 8 voted against the document. Several amendments proposed by the Albanian delegation were rejected. The resolution calls on the international community and governments in Belgrade, Priština, as well as in Albania, to "undertake measures" in order to clear up the crimes. The previous day the Guardian
released NATO documents from 2004 describing Hashim Thaci as being under the control of former KLA logistics head Xhavit Haliti and the Albanian mafia. Haliti was described as "highly involved in prostitution, weapons and drugs smuggling", who "serves as a political and financial adviser to the prime minister". Haliti uses fake passports to travel abroad as he is blacklisted in several countries, including the USA. "Haliti is also named in the report by Marty, which is understood to have drawn on NATO intelligence assessments along with reports from the FBI and MI5," says the article. According to the report, the Medicus case is linked with an earlier organ trade going back over a decade, involving Serb and other prisoners of Kosovo Liberation Army
who were murdered for their organs. The report states that after the Kosovo War
, around several hundred Serb and other prisoners of the KLA were reportedly held in a network of KLA detention facilities in northern Albania. After medical checks, the healthiest ones were selected, summarily shot in the head and their organs shipped to Istanbul for transplant. Kosovo's government has denied the allegations and criticized the report as "biased", "politically motivated" and "anti-Albanian". Speaking at a press conference, Marty claimed that the content of his report was known to Western intelligence agencies, who deliberately chose to downplay the allegations for the sake of foreign-policy objectives. On January 25, 2011, the report was endorsed by the Council of Europe
, which called for a full and serious investigation. In March 2011 Marty presented his report to the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, whose members after the meeting said that Marty didn't provide any evidence, while some of them claimed that he attacked and accused of bias those who questioned his report.
Interim President Jakup Krasniqi
asked the EU not to endorse the report "I welcome your support in not allowing adoption of this report as an official document of the Council of Europe."
Former Kosovo prime minister and KLA
commander, currently Social Democrat leader Agim Ceku
, accused Belgrade
for the allegations. "Every accusation against the KLA comes from Serbia or its helpers," he told Reuters. "It's just an attempt to blacken our war and our victory."
Thaqi promised on the 26th of Dec that he will publish a list of witnesses who contributed to the report that would discredit it, stating “There are witnesses and evidence which shows in what way the report was made".
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha
responded by calling Marty "racist" and "anti-semitic", while Albanian MP Shpetim Idrizi alleged that the report "is something ordered by Russia and Serbia, and offers no facts. This is a story full of untruths and propaganda."
UNMIK Chief Lamberto Zannier told the AP that EULEX, which is now in charge of dealing with war crimes in Kosovo, was given every war crimes file that the Yugoslavia tribunal and the UN possessed, including witness statements.
published an article on the website, by Denis MacShane
, questioning the allegations in Marty's report. In MacShane's article he states that according to a respected international lawyer of the Hague
, Sir Geoffrey Nice
, the Marty report provides no evidence, no victims and a witness that does not exist. The witness is referred to as K-144, but the list of Kosovo witnesses range from K-001 to K-116. Nice goes on to dismiss these allegations as attempts to undermine Kosovo's independence.
On February 17, 2011, France24 obtained a classified document which suggests that the UN knew about the organ trafficking and the criminal involvement of senior Kosovo Liberation Army
commanders, as early as 2003.
obtained confidential material of the United Nations
(given by an anonymous official), which was confirmed on February 20, 2011, by former UNMIK Forensics and Missing Persons Office Head Jose Pablo Baraybar. The 30-page compilation of statements was made by at least eight people "low to midlevel ranking KLA members" to the UN, showing the international bodies failure at the investigation of war crimes committed by ethnic Albanians during and after the Kosovo War. The documents have been given the name CX-103.
In 2002-2003, ethnic Albanian witnesses from Kosovo and Montenegro serving in the KLA gave detailed testimonies about the killings and trade of organs of ethnic Serb civilians in the aftermath of the Kosovo War, as late as the summer of 2000. The witnesses explained the scheme; Serbs in the age 25-50 were driven by trucks and vans to Albania where they were held in detention centers and some went through medical checks at given locations, how they buried hundreds of victims to hide evidence of the killings, the victims being captives used for their kidneys, livers and other organs. The UN briefly investigated the claims in 2004 but never launched the probe, prompting accusations of double standards from Serbia. Most of the victims were Serbs who were abducted in Kosovo between June and October 1999, the document stated.
The captives were held at different KLA-run prisons in Albania, their organs removed at a home set up as a medical clinic (specialized equipment and medical personnel were at place to carry out the operations).
Head of the Hague Tribunal Mission to Skopje and Priština Eamon Smith sent a letter to Hague Tribunal Chief Investigator Patrick Lopez Terez on October 30, 2003, informing him about his meeting and conversation with UNMIK Justice Department Head Paul. E. Coffey. Smith first presented his conclusions regarding the human organ trafficking case, explaining that between 100 and 300 people were kidnapped in mid-1999 and transported to detention facilities in northern Albania by trucks and vans.
In December 2003, top justice official in Kosovo Paul Coffey, wrote to ICTY official in Kosovo Jonathan Sutch that the alleged crimes were reported to the UN in Kosovo by "multiple sources of unknown reliability." Coffey said the information was "based on interviews with at least eight sources, the credibility of whom is untested, all ethnic Albanians from Kosovo or Montenegro who served in the KLA."
One of the witnesses is quoted as telling the UN that the first two organ harvesting surgeries were done "to breach the market," and that traffickers later were able to make up to 45,000 US dollars per body. "The largest shipment was when they did 5 Serbs together. ... He said they took a fortune that time," the source said according to the document. "Other shipments were usually from two or three Serbs," he said.
A source said that the organs were taken to the Rinas airport in Tirana and the Istanbul airport, and that workers at the airports were bribed "to close their eyes.". Two sources said they personally took part in delivering body parts to Tirana’s international airport. One source said he was instructed by KLA superiors not to beat the prisoners and that he became suspicious when they were to deliver "a briefcase or a file with papers that would be given to the doctor when the captives were delivered" to the house in northern Albania. He said that he used to bring prisoners there but never drove any of them back. Witnesses claim that top ethnic Albanian KLA members, doctors from Kosovo and abroad were fully aware of the transport and surgeries and that they were actively involved in them.
The flight between the two cities takes about 1 hour 45 minutes, sources told the UN, adding that the house where the organs were allegedly harvested was a two-hour drive from the airport. If packed in ice after removal, organs are viable for several hours after extraction — hearts and lungs for four-six hours, livers for 18–24 hours, kidneys for 24–48 hours.
The UN and ICTY investigators visited a house in the village of Rripe in 2004 and found pieces of medical equipment, medicine boxes and blood traces.
The documents confirm the report of the Council of Europe.
Allegation
An allegation is a claim of a fact by a party in a pleading, which the party claims to be able to prove. Allegations remain assertions without proof, until they can be proved....
atrocity of organ theft
Organ theft
Organ harvesting refers to the removal, preservation and use of human organs and tissue from the bodies of the recently deceased to be used in surgical transplants on the living...
and killing of 300 ethnic Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
during and after the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
in 1999, committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army
Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA was a Kosovar Albanian paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s....
.
The first allegations appeared in the media with The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals
The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals
The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals is a book written by Carla Del Ponte, published in April 2008. According to Del Ponte she received information saying about 300 non-Albanians were kidnapped and transferred to Albania in 1999 where their organs were extracted...
, written by Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in August...
(former ICTY
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
chief prosecutor) in which she claims that Kosovo Albanians
Albanians in Kosovo
Albanians are the largest ethnic group in Kosovo . According to the 1991 Serbian census, boycotted by Albanians, there were 1,596,072 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo or 81.6% of population...
smuggled human kidneys of kidnapped Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
after the Kosovo war
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
ended in 1999, the accusations being backed by her own visit at the site, several witnesses involved in and out of the ICTY, one of whom "personally made an organ delivery" to an Albanian airport for transport abroad, and "confirmed information directly gathered by the tribunal". Carla Del Ponte concluded that if the case had been opened before the Kosovo Albanian declaration of independence, world governments may not have had the same stance on the Kosovo question.
In 2010, a report by Swiss prosecutor Dick Marty
Dick Marty
Dick Marty is a Swiss politician and former state prosecutor of the canton of Ticino. He is a member of the Swiss Council of States , and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.-Education:Marty holds a doctorate in law from the University of Neuchâtel with the thesis:...
to the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
uncovered "credible, convergent indications" that a clinic in Kosovo is implicated in an illegal trade in human organs going back over a decade. The Medicus clinic outside Pristina is reportedly linked to a wider network of organized criminals with links to the highest level of Kosovo's government, including the Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. On January 25, 2011, the report was endorsed by the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
, which called for a full and serious investigation.
Since the issue of the report, senior sources in Eulex and many members of the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
have expressed serious doubts regarding the report, and believe it to be without foundation whatsoever, "Mr Marty hav[ing] failed to provide any evidence concerning the allegations". In a heated debate, Marty told the MEP
MEP
MEP may refer to:* Member of the European Parliament, an elected politician in the European Union * Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing, a part of the building design industry...
s that a witness protection program was needed in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, before he could provide more details on witnesses to the alleged trafficking as their lives were in danger. Bernard Kouchner, former top UN representative in Kosovo, has recently stated in the media: "We were aware of the extortions, but we never heard of organ trafficking," rejecting the accusations made by Carla Del Ponte.
Background
After American journalist Michael Montgomery heard of the allegations after the Kosovo War, he contacted the UN. It was never looked into seriously.Information obtained by the B92 team from sources located in Belgrade claims the Serb prisoners were allegedly trafficked in trucks from Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
to a KLA camp in Kukes and then northern Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
(to the village of Gur, Albania, Rripe
Rripë
Rripë is a village in the municipality of Gurrë....
near Burrel, Mat District
Mat District
The District of Mat is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Dibër County. It is named after the Mat River, that flows through the district. It has a population of 48,803 , and an area of 1,029 km². Its capital is Burrel...
) during and after the Kosovo War. The illegal operations were performed (while the prisoners were alive) in Building/Prison #320, 20 km from the "Yellow House" mentioned as the site of the acts by former Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.
.
It is also believed by the Serbian Government that the prisoners were prepared for operations in the "yellow house", but were re-located when International humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...
such as the Red Cross came by. A large portion of surgical equipment was discovered both inside and outside the house, such as heavy drugs, needles and tubes used for surgical procedures. When the BBC investigated the house, the reply from the family that owns the house and land was that "the father and son in the family used the equipment, since ambulance is far away from here..." and "the local medic dumps his equipment here..."
The victims were deprived of vital organs and then sewn up, only to be operated on again when other organs were needed for export.
The B92
B92
B92 is a radio and television broadcaster with national coverage headquartered in Belgrade, Serbia. The network's key demographic is chiefly urban and young audience. Its programs, including the news cover topics with fairly liberal political painted attitudes...
Serbian radio allegedly has documents revealing that Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha
Sali Berisha
Sali Ram Berisha is an Albanian politician and cardiologist, currently the Prime Minister of Albania and the leader of Democratic Party of Albania ....
was asked by the KLA leader and former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj
Ramush Haradinaj
Ramush Haradinaj is a former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army and former prime minister of Kosovo. He leads the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo and is among former KLA officers charged of war crimes during the 1999 Kosovo War by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia...
(His involvement in the organ theft is strengthened by Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in August...
) to send security forces to destroy all evidence connected to the disappearance and organ harvesting of Serbs from Kosovo that were transported to Albania.
Bruno Vekarić, Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor, claims that an additional 40 mental patients from Stimlje are thought to be victims of the organ theft as well.
Hashim Thaci, the Kosovo Albanian leader, on the question why KLA made terrible actions such as organ trafficking after the war, replied that "people from different parts, used the uniforms of the KLA, but we have distanced ourselves from these people, the misuse was minimal"
Interview with the owners of the "yellow house"
The Hague War Tribunal investigated the house, finding blood stains on the floor and walls of one of the rooms in the "yellow house". The residents initially denied the existence of any bloodstains, before, later, offering a variety of explanations. The owner, Abdulah Katuqi, claims that two children were born in the room in question. The housemates claim that the births took place in 1990 or 1991. The traces of blood was found in 2004 by using fluorescent lights.They also said that the room contained the blood of animals that they had “slaughtered outside, and had cut the meat up inside.”
Re-launched Investigation
The investigation was re-launched on March 21, 2008, by War Crimes Prosecution of Serbia just in head of the release of the book on April 3, 2008. The prosecutors claim they have enough evidence "to search the whole of Albania" for mass-graves of Serbs.Serbia has urged Albania to cooperate and in late October 2008, Albanian officials replied that the charges were already investigated by the UN and Carla Del Ponte and that the Serbian Government had no new evidence.
On November 14, UNMIK has let Serbia's War Crimes Prosecutors join their side in a new investigation about the yellow house.
On November 20, ICTY (The Hague Tribunal) started cooperating with Serbia on the case. Serbia has received important information from Serge Brammertz
Serge Brammertz
Serge Brammertz is a Belgian jurist, and the prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.Brammertz was deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court from 2002 to 2007...
(current ICTY chief), evidence of the alleged operation house in northern Albania, but the Albanian side wish not to cooperate. A report shows that seven points are confirmed in the allegations and that the Albanian prosecutor and UNMIK had failed to tell the truth when investigating the findings of different surgical equipment.
In November, 2008, several men were arrested after a bust on an organ trafficking ring in Pristina after a Turkish national was questioned by the Kosovo Police. Two urologists and a manager working in the Medikus clinic, none of whom are qualified for surgical operations, only check-ups, were leading a business from their clinic that lasted from 1998 until their bust in late 2008. They did not wish to comment a connection between the Kosovo Serbs organs and the Medikus clinic.
In June 2009, Igor Jučinac, Milutin Radanović and Predrag Željković, a Kosovo Serb and two Serbians, accused of serving as agents provocateurs were arrested by the Kosovo police, for allegedly offering money for statements on organ trade and mediators finding such information. They are under investigation for inciting people to falsely testify that they were victims of "organ harvesting". All of them were released in February 2010, and case was dismissed by EULEX as unfounded political propaganda.
In August, 2009, representatives of the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
under Swiss senator Dick Marty
Dick Marty
Dick Marty is a Swiss politician and former state prosecutor of the canton of Ticino. He is a member of the Swiss Council of States , and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.-Education:Marty holds a doctorate in law from the University of Neuchâtel with the thesis:...
were prevented to search houses relating to the case by the local Albanians in the village of Rripe
Rripë
Rripë is a village in the municipality of Gurrë....
. The mass said that they would not let anybody other than from the Albanian government to investigate the case. The Albanian and Kosovo authorities stated they will not look into the case.
In December, 2009, sources say that four Czech citizens that went missing during the Kosovo War were likely to have been victims of the Organ harvesting, also, 3 Albanian men were arrested in northern Albania after 35 kilograms of heroin were found and evidence of the third being a human trafficker. Names that previously have been in connection with the organ theft case were mentioned once again and several countries in the EU
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
are to investigate the case further. The Serbian War Crime Prosecution have said that new evidence have been found and that the investigation is ongoing. The Council of Europe is still interested in the case and embassies are sending in their data to the War Crimes committee and new potential witnesses have been found that could "open up the case in the real sense of the word".
New progress as of December 27, 2009, are names of several operators of the yellow house being uncovered, as well as further non-Serb victims; Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
and Czechs. The organs were sold "in the West and East, in Turkey, Saudi Arabia…”.
Proof of prison camps in Albania where Albanians disloyal to KLA as well as Serbian civilians were tortured was found in a hotel in Kukes
Kukës
Kukës is a town in Albania located at 42.09°N, 20.43°E in the district and county with the same name. It has a population of about 16,000 . The town is set among the mountains of northern Albania. It is famous for its role during the Kosovo conflict for taking in 450,000 refugees from Kosovo...
. Both dead and alive Serbians were transported across the border from Serbia into Albania by KLA, witnesses who claimed this are either dead or missing. A team led by Matti Raatikainen discovered blood and surgical tools in the basement of the "Yellow House", however the investigation was halted before it started. In total, around 13,500 civilians are believed to be killed.
In addition, the Albanian government is trying to prevent inquiries into KLA war crimes and the organ trade, even after proof of surgical procedures in the yellow house in the village of Burel was presented to them. Albanian officials believe that the allegations are not credible, while the NGO Human Rights Watch believes otherwise, that simple harvesting on kidneys could have been easily performed even without surgical tools, although many were found at the scene.
2010 Report to the Council of Europe
On the 12 December 2010, a draft report from Dick MartyDick Marty
Dick Marty is a Swiss politician and former state prosecutor of the canton of Ticino. He is a member of the Swiss Council of States , and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.-Education:Marty holds a doctorate in law from the University of Neuchâtel with the thesis:...
to the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
was prereleased, alleging that the Republic of Kosovo's prime minister, Hashim Thaci
Hashim Thaci
Hashim Thaçi is the Prime Minister of Republic of Kosovo, the leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo , and former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army .-Early life and education:...
was the head of a "mafia-like" group responsible for smuggling weapons, drugs and human organs through eastern Europe. This article made waves across the world and led to a series of similar reports.
According to the report, the KLA held Serb prisoners in a network of six facilities in northern Albania, and that Thaci's "Drenica group" bears the greatest responsibility for the prisons and the fate of those held there. A handful of the healthiest prisoners were then transferred to a farmhouse near Fushe-Kruje
Fushë-Krujë
Fushë-Krujë is a city in the Krujë District in Albania. The city has gained a wider fame due to President George W. Bush's visit on Sunday, 10 June 2007. Fushe-Kruje was also the site of one of Skanderbeg's famous battles....
near the Albanian capital of Tirana where they were killed for their kidneys. The report states
As and when the transplant surgeons were confirmed to be in position and ready to operate, the captives were brought out of the 'safe house' individually, summarily executed by a KLA gunman, and their corpses transported swiftly to the operating clinic.
Some of the captives were aware of the fate that awaited them and pleaded not to be "chopped up". The organs were then subsequently shipped to Istanbul.
Marty's report was presented to Council of Europe Foreign relations committee on December 16. 2010 and is expected to be on the agenda of Session of Council of Europe in late January.
The draft says :
The Swiss foreign ministry noted that Marty's report contained "grave accusations made on the basis of countless witness accounts and evidence."
In 2011 Marty retracted from earlier comments and claimed that his report never implicated Thaci directly, but his close associates, and that is "hard to believe that he [Thaci] never heard about that".
On January 25, 2011, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg voted to adopt a resolution based on the Marty report. 166 PACE members voted in favor, while 8 voted against the document. Several amendments proposed by the Albanian delegation were rejected. The resolution calls on the international community and governments in Belgrade, Priština, as well as in Albania, to "undertake measures" in order to clear up the crimes. The previous day the Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
released NATO documents from 2004 describing Hashim Thaci as being under the control of former KLA logistics head Xhavit Haliti and the Albanian mafia. Haliti was described as "highly involved in prostitution, weapons and drugs smuggling", who "serves as a political and financial adviser to the prime minister". Haliti uses fake passports to travel abroad as he is blacklisted in several countries, including the USA. "Haliti is also named in the report by Marty, which is understood to have drawn on NATO intelligence assessments along with reports from the FBI and MI5," says the article. According to the report, the Medicus case is linked with an earlier organ trade going back over a decade, involving Serb and other prisoners of Kosovo Liberation Army
Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA was a Kosovar Albanian paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s....
who were murdered for their organs. The report states that after the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
, around several hundred Serb and other prisoners of the KLA were reportedly held in a network of KLA detention facilities in northern Albania. After medical checks, the healthiest ones were selected, summarily shot in the head and their organs shipped to Istanbul for transplant. Kosovo's government has denied the allegations and criticized the report as "biased", "politically motivated" and "anti-Albanian". Speaking at a press conference, Marty claimed that the content of his report was known to Western intelligence agencies, who deliberately chose to downplay the allegations for the sake of foreign-policy objectives. On January 25, 2011, the report was endorsed by the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
, which called for a full and serious investigation. In March 2011 Marty presented his report to the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, whose members after the meeting said that Marty didn't provide any evidence, while some of them claimed that he attacked and accused of bias those who questioned his report.
Reactions by the European Union
The EULEX announced that they take the report very seriously and called for evidence. The EULEX Special Prosecutor's Office is to meet with Albanian officials to discuss the organ case (January 17, 2011).Reactions by Kosovo Albanian politicians
Thaci denied the allegations. His associates announced they would file a lawsuit against Marty.Interim President Jakup Krasniqi
Jakup Krasniqi
Jakup Krasniqi is an Albanian politician and former acting President of Kosovo. He is the Chairman of the Assembly of Kosovo.-Early life:...
asked the EU not to endorse the report "I welcome your support in not allowing adoption of this report as an official document of the Council of Europe."
Former Kosovo prime minister and KLA
Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA was a Kosovar Albanian paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s....
commander, currently Social Democrat leader Agim Ceku
Agim Çeku
Agim Çeku is the current Minister of Security Forces for the Republic of Kosovo. He is also the former Prime Minister of Kosovo and a chief of the Kosovo Liberation Army . He was born in the village of Ćuška near Peć, in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo .Çeku is an ethnic Albanian...
, accused Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
for the allegations. "Every accusation against the KLA comes from Serbia or its helpers," he told Reuters. "It's just an attempt to blacken our war and our victory."
Thaqi promised on the 26th of Dec that he will publish a list of witnesses who contributed to the report that would discredit it, stating “There are witnesses and evidence which shows in what way the report was made".
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha
Sali Berisha
Sali Ram Berisha is an Albanian politician and cardiologist, currently the Prime Minister of Albania and the leader of Democratic Party of Albania ....
responded by calling Marty "racist" and "anti-semitic", while Albanian MP Shpetim Idrizi alleged that the report "is something ordered by Russia and Serbia, and offers no facts. This is a story full of untruths and propaganda."
UNMIK Chief Lamberto Zannier told the AP that EULEX, which is now in charge of dealing with war crimes in Kosovo, was given every war crimes file that the Yugoslavia tribunal and the UN possessed, including witness statements.
Other reactions
On February 8, 2011, The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
published an article on the website, by Denis MacShane
Denis MacShane
Denis MacShane is a British politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Rotherham since the 1994 by-election and served as the Minister for Europe from 2002 until 2005, as well as being a current Policy Council member for Labour Friends of Israel.On 14 October 2010, it was announced...
, questioning the allegations in Marty's report. In MacShane's article he states that according to a respected international lawyer of the Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, Sir Geoffrey Nice
Geoffrey Nice
Sir Geoffrey Nice is a British barrister and activist.He attended St Dunstan's College, Catford, and Keble College, Oxford. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1990. Nice was a deputy prosecutor at Slobodan Milosevic's trial in The Hague. He initiated the prosecution's initial case of linking...
, the Marty report provides no evidence, no victims and a witness that does not exist. The witness is referred to as K-144, but the list of Kosovo witnesses range from K-001 to K-116. Nice goes on to dismiss these allegations as attempts to undermine Kosovo's independence.
On February 17, 2011, France24 obtained a classified document which suggests that the UN knew about the organ trafficking and the criminal involvement of senior Kosovo Liberation Army
Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA was a Kosovar Albanian paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s....
commanders, as early as 2003.
UNMIK-ICTY documents (CX-103)
The Associated PressAssociated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
obtained confidential material of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
(given by an anonymous official), which was confirmed on February 20, 2011, by former UNMIK Forensics and Missing Persons Office Head Jose Pablo Baraybar. The 30-page compilation of statements was made by at least eight people "low to midlevel ranking KLA members" to the UN, showing the international bodies failure at the investigation of war crimes committed by ethnic Albanians during and after the Kosovo War. The documents have been given the name CX-103.
In 2002-2003, ethnic Albanian witnesses from Kosovo and Montenegro serving in the KLA gave detailed testimonies about the killings and trade of organs of ethnic Serb civilians in the aftermath of the Kosovo War, as late as the summer of 2000. The witnesses explained the scheme; Serbs in the age 25-50 were driven by trucks and vans to Albania where they were held in detention centers and some went through medical checks at given locations, how they buried hundreds of victims to hide evidence of the killings, the victims being captives used for their kidneys, livers and other organs. The UN briefly investigated the claims in 2004 but never launched the probe, prompting accusations of double standards from Serbia. Most of the victims were Serbs who were abducted in Kosovo between June and October 1999, the document stated.
The captives were held at different KLA-run prisons in Albania, their organs removed at a home set up as a medical clinic (specialized equipment and medical personnel were at place to carry out the operations).
Head of the Hague Tribunal Mission to Skopje and Priština Eamon Smith sent a letter to Hague Tribunal Chief Investigator Patrick Lopez Terez on October 30, 2003, informing him about his meeting and conversation with UNMIK Justice Department Head Paul. E. Coffey. Smith first presented his conclusions regarding the human organ trafficking case, explaining that between 100 and 300 people were kidnapped in mid-1999 and transported to detention facilities in northern Albania by trucks and vans.
In December 2003, top justice official in Kosovo Paul Coffey, wrote to ICTY official in Kosovo Jonathan Sutch that the alleged crimes were reported to the UN in Kosovo by "multiple sources of unknown reliability." Coffey said the information was "based on interviews with at least eight sources, the credibility of whom is untested, all ethnic Albanians from Kosovo or Montenegro who served in the KLA."
One of the witnesses is quoted as telling the UN that the first two organ harvesting surgeries were done "to breach the market," and that traffickers later were able to make up to 45,000 US dollars per body. "The largest shipment was when they did 5 Serbs together. ... He said they took a fortune that time," the source said according to the document. "Other shipments were usually from two or three Serbs," he said.
A source said that the organs were taken to the Rinas airport in Tirana and the Istanbul airport, and that workers at the airports were bribed "to close their eyes.". Two sources said they personally took part in delivering body parts to Tirana’s international airport. One source said he was instructed by KLA superiors not to beat the prisoners and that he became suspicious when they were to deliver "a briefcase or a file with papers that would be given to the doctor when the captives were delivered" to the house in northern Albania. He said that he used to bring prisoners there but never drove any of them back. Witnesses claim that top ethnic Albanian KLA members, doctors from Kosovo and abroad were fully aware of the transport and surgeries and that they were actively involved in them.
The flight between the two cities takes about 1 hour 45 minutes, sources told the UN, adding that the house where the organs were allegedly harvested was a two-hour drive from the airport. If packed in ice after removal, organs are viable for several hours after extraction — hearts and lungs for four-six hours, livers for 18–24 hours, kidneys for 24–48 hours.
The UN and ICTY investigators visited a house in the village of Rripe in 2004 and found pieces of medical equipment, medicine boxes and blood traces.
The documents confirm the report of the Council of Europe.