[Marxism] More on KLA butchery

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Guardian, Saturday April 12 2008
Former war crimes prosecutor alleges Kosovan army harvested organs 
from Serb prisoners

Carla Del Ponte, the ex-chief prosecutor for war crimes in former 
Yugoslavia, has unleashed a storm of recrimination with allegations 
of a trade in human body parts in Kosovo and Albania after Nato 
bombed Serbia in 1999.

Del Ponte claims, based on what she describes as credible reports and 
witnesses, that Kosovan Albanian guerrillas transported hundreds of 
Serbian prisoners into northern Albania where they were killed, and 
their organs "harvested" and trafficked out of Tirana airport.

The Kosovan government, now headed by the former guerrilla leader 
Hashim Thaci, dismisses the claims as untrue, while Serbia and Russia 
are demanding a war crimes investigation into the allegations. Del 
Ponte, now a Swiss ambassador, has been ordered to keep silent by the 
Swiss government.

The allegations are aired in Del Ponte's just published memoirs of 
her eight years as chief prosecutor for the international war crimes 
tribunal for former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague.

The Hunt: Me and War Criminals, which is published in Italian and was 
launched last week, has triggered controversy and added to the 
tensions between Kosovo and Serbia two months after the 
Albanian-majority province declared independence from Serbia.

In the book, Del Ponte writes that her investigators visited a house 
in the remote mountainous region outside Burrel, Albania, which was 
allegedly being used as an impromptu clinic for the butchering of 300 
young Serbs captured by the Kosovo Liberation Army and transported in 
lorries across the border from Kosovo to Albania.

According to witnesses - including one who said he had driven some of 
the organs to Tirana airport, and a team of unnamed journalists who 
investigated the allegations - the victims had their kidneys removed 
before being killed later and having other organs taken.

"Prisoners were aware of the fate that awaited them, and according to 
the source pleaded, terrified, to be killed immediately," Del Ponte writes.

The "house-clinic" was visited by UN officials from Kosovo and 
tribunal investigators. "The team was shocked by what they saw," said 
Chuck Sudetic, a former tribunal official who is joint author of the 
book. "They found gauze and vials of medicines, including a muscle 
relaxer used during surgery."

Witness accounts, indirectly provided to Del Ponte, indicated that 
some of the victims were buried near the house and at a nearby 
cemetery. Forensic tests in the house revealed traces of blood, but 
investigators were unable to establish whether it was human blood. 
The victims were said to include Albanians and trafficked women from 
Russia and eastern Europe forced to work as prostitutes.

Del Ponte has long complained that the UN authorities in Kosovo 
blocked her attempts to investigate war crimes by Kosovan Albanians 
and she says that the authorities in Albania were also unhelpful. The 
most senior Kosovan Albanian to be tried for war crimes in The Hague, 
Ramush Haradinaj, a former prime minister of Kosovo and ex-guerrilla 
commander, was acquitted last week, sparking bitter protests in Serbia.

According to Del Ponte, a local Albanian prosecutor, who visited the 
house with the UN team, told her: "No Serbs are buried here. But if 
they did bring Serbs over the border from Kosovo and killed them, 
they did a good thing."

The alleged organ harvesting is said to have been uncovered by 
journalists who called in the UN in Kosovo and provided information 
to the tribunal.

"There were credible accounts of abductions and an organ harvesting 
operation provided to reputable journalists who have had many years 
of experience in the region," said Sudetic.

The journalists refused to identify their witnesses. Other sources 
claim the body parts were flown to Istanbul where they were 
transplanted into wealthy Arab patients.

Del Ponte's account is the first time such allegations have come from 
such an authoritative source. But officials and analysts are 
surprised that she should choose to air them now, five years after 
her investigators went to the alleged scene of the crime. Del Ponte 
writes that it proved impossible at the time to pursue a full 
investigation of the claims.

"I am surprised at the extraordinary serious allegations," said one 
senior tribunal official. "These allegations have formed no part of 
any investigation by the prosecution at the tribunal."

Mirko Klarin, an authority on the tribunal and Balkan war crimes at 
the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, described Del Ponte's 
allegations as "irresponsible and appalling ... This is more 
journalistic than prosecutorial. She shouldn't put rumours in her book."

The Swiss foreign ministry barred Del Ponte, now its ambassador to 
Argentina, from attending her book launch and ordered her to keep 
quiet. Senior Swiss figures are calling for her resignation.

"All I know is that she was eager to talk about the book after its 
publication," said Sudetic.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which 
mediates confidential talks between Serbia and Kosovo to try to 
locate and identify those who vanished in the 1998-99 war, there are 
still 1,967 people missing. The majority are believed to be Kosovan 
Albanians. The 300 Serbs said to have been transported to Burrel 
would constitute a large part of the missing Serbs.

While there is widespread scepticism about the veracity of the 
claims, Human Rights Watch said Del Ponte had supplied "sufficiently 
grave evidence" to warrant an investigation by the Kosovo and 
Albanian authorities.

"Perhaps by bringing this story out now, the witnesses will step 
forward," said Sudetic. "Perhaps the persons who are responsible for 
the abductions will worry about the law catching up with them. Any 
persons who may have taken part in the alleged organ harvesting will 
sleep a little less soundly."


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