Eurasia Press & News
During his visit to Montenegro, Clint Williamson, head of the EULEX task force in charge of the Kosovo organ trafficking case, has called for regional cooperation in the investigation.Williamson met the Montenegrin interior minister, Ivan Brajovic, on Thursday. He presented the efforts of his team, which was formed in October 2011, with the aim of investigating the allegations presented in a 2010 report by Dick Marty, the human rights rapporteur at the Council of Europe.
The report linked several senior former KLA fighters, including Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, to organised crime and the alleged harvesting of organs from Serbian prisoners and others in Albania during the Kosovo war.
Williamson said that his team, with the participation of the 11 EU member countries and the support of the US, wants to work more closely on the case with all the countries from the region, enabling the exchange of information on a regular basis.
Brajovic responded by saying that Montenegro had established an institutional framework for co-operation with the international community.
He put particular stress on the bilateral legal mechanisms his country had initiated in the area of criminal law, and signed with most countries across the region.
Montenegro has already signed extradition agreements with Serbia, Macedonia, and Croatia, and began negotiating an agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina in April.
Brajovic said that the implementation of extradition procedures for its own nationals for serious crimes had been successful, while Williamson described Montenegro as a stabilising influence on the region.
The EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX, is a civilian mission by the EU, aimed at assisting and supporting the Kosovo authorities in the rule of law area, specifically in the areas of policing, judiciary and customs.
