Eurasia Press & News
The European Union said Wednesday it was ready to probe Kosovo’s prime minister Hashim Thaci over accusations he was involved in organ-trafficking and other crimes in the aftermath of the 1998-99 war with Serbia.
The report, by Swiss Council of Europe deputy Dick Marty, accuses Thaci of being in charge of a group within the ethnic-Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that set up a network of unofficial prisons in Albania.
The report alleges that one of Thaci’s allies operated a ring for the “forcible extraction of human organs for the purposes of trafficking” from prisoners, mainly Serbs.
Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told a regular news briefing in Brussels, “We take allegations on war crimes and organised crime extremely seriously.
“We have seen the report and if the rapporteur, Mr. Marty, has any concrete evidence we invite him to bring this forward to the relevant authorities,” including the EU’s police and justice mission EULEX.
Marty’s draft report will be considered by the Council of Europe’s legal affairs committee on Thursday.
