Kosovo Organ-trafficking investigation will start in September

An EU-led investigation into a human organ trafficking scandal which has tainted Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci will start in September.

Allegations that organs were taken from prisoners at secret detention centers run by ethnic Albanian rebels during the 1998-99 war with Serbia have become a source of international controversy.

An EU rule of mission in Kosovo, EULEX, is leading an investigation into the allegations. Serbia, backed by Russia, has demanded a UN-mandated international inquiry.

Farid Zarid, acting head of the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, told a Security Council debate that a special EULEX investigative task force has been recruited, facilities found in Brussels “and the task force is expected to begin its work in September.”

John Clint Williamson, a U.S. former prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunal for Yugoslavia, has been appointed head of the task force.