http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/11/wserb111.xml
The Telegraph
April 11, 2008
Serb prisoners 'were stripped of their organs in
Kosovo war'
By Harry de Quetteville in Berlin and Malcolm Moore in
Rome
-"The victims, deprived of a kidney, were then locked
up again, inside the barracks, until the moment they
were killed for other vital organs. In this way, the
other prisoners were aware of the fate that awaited
them, and according to the source, pleaded, terrified,
to be killed immediately," Miss Del Ponte writes.
-Vladan Batic, Serbia's former justice minister, said:
"If her allegations are true, then this is the most
monstrous crime since the times of Mengele, and it
must be made a priority, not only of the domestic
judiciary but also of the Hague Tribunal."
Serb prisoners had their internal organs removed and
sold by ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo war,
according to allegations in a new book by the world's
best known war crimes prosecutor.
Carla Del Ponte, who stepped down in January as chief
prosecutor at the Hague tribunal for crimes committed
in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, said investigators
found a house suspected of being a laboratory for the
illegal trade.
A senior adviser to Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's prime
minister and a leading member of the Kosovo Liberation
Army which is accused of benefiting from the trade,
yesterday denied the allegations.
"These are horrible things even to imagine," said
Bekim Collaku. "But this is a product of her [Miss Del
Ponte's] imagination."
Miss Del Ponte reports that the allegations were made
by several sources, one of whom "personally made an
organ delivery" to an Albanian airport for transport
abroad, and "confirmed information directly gathered
by the tribunal".
According to the sources, senior figures in the Kosovo
Liberation Army were aware of the scheme, in which
hundreds of young Serbs were allegedly taken by truck
from Kosovo to northern Albania where their organs
were removed. Miss Del Ponte provides grim details of
the alleged organ harvesting, and of how some
prisoners were sewn up after having kidneys removed.
"The victims, deprived of a kidney, were then locked
up again, inside the barracks, until the moment they
were killed for other vital organs. In this way, the
other prisoners were aware of the fate that awaited
them, and according to the source, pleaded, terrified,
to be killed immediately," Miss Del Ponte writes.
The claims in The Hunt: Me and War Criminals have
renewed tensions between Serbia and its former
province of Kosovo, which declared independence two
months ago. In it, the Swiss ex-prosecutor reveals how
her efforts to bring alleged war criminals to justice
were stymied by lack of co-operation from all sides -
Serb, Albanian and even Nato. But it is her report of
the organ traffic that has caused most shock, even in
a region long hardened to horror.
Vladan Batic, Serbia's former justice minister, said:
"If her allegations are true, then this is the most
monstrous crime since the times of Mengele, and it
must be made a priority, not only of the domestic
judiciary but also of the Hague Tribunal."
The book reports a visit by Hague tribunal
investigators to a house south of the Albanian town of
Burrel where they found traces of blood across a wide
area, as well as medical equipment.
"The investigators found pieces of gauze, a used
syringe and two plastic IV bags encrusted with mud and
empty bottles of medicine, some of which was of a
muscle relaxant often used in surgical operations,"
she writes.
However, she concludes that the finds do not amount to
sufficient proof for a war crimes tribunal.
In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, an association of
families of Serbs still listed as missing since the
Kosovo war, said it would sue Miss Del Ponte, alleging
that she had failed to act over the alleged
organ-farming scandal. Serbia's war crimes office
announced it had opened its own investigation.
The book has also prompted concern in Switzerland,
where it has been criticised for tarnishing the
country's celebrated neutrality, particularly as Miss
Del Ponte has been named as the Swiss ambassador to
Argentina.
In Belgrade, Natasha Kandic [mercifully deleted]
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
