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Kosovo PM, Hashim Thaci, soon to face Organ Harvesting Charges
by staff report via tovi - AFP Tuesday, Nov 27 2012, 10:43pm
international / prose / post

After years of testimony exposing organ harvesting by the KLA, which includes a book written by former prosecuting attorney for the ICC at the Hague, Carla del Ponte, it seems that Justice may finally be served in the Balkans. It's 'uncanny' how to date all major KLA, Croatian, Bosnian Muslim and other non-Serb war criminals have been exonerated during their initial trials or on appeal BUT the much maligned and victimized Serbs continue to be demonized by the powers that be.

Thaci and Clinton

The fact of the matter is that US criminal elites formed a partnership with known -- and Interpol wanted -- organised Albanian criminal Hashim Thaci to gain control of Kosovo, which legally remains Serbian sovereign territory.

The ethnic cleansing and torture of Kosovo Serbs is known and recorded but has been downplayed by western powers in whose interests it is to maintain pressure on Serbia and support the puppet criminal KLA leadership in Kosovo -- we should not forget that Europe's largest US military base is on Kosovo soil.

NATO and the US have conveniently turned a blind eye to many of the regions heinous crimes committed by their criminal Albanian allies, which included organ harvesting and the extreme torture and murder of ethnic Serb civilians. Indeed, former Secretary of State Albright was recently heard to curse Serbs at a book launch in Prague -- such is the extreme bias displayed to the WORLD by criminal American leaders.

Hopefully the following investigation will lead to the Truth finally being told and charges laid against numerous NATO and US allies in the Balkans.

Report from AFP follows:

Gruesome Kosovo probe held under tight security

BRUSSELS — Visitors need 24-hour security clearance, grizzled Belgian guards man the entrance, no phones or cameras please: welcome to the latest, and probably the last, of the big Balkans war crimes probes.

The US diplomat and prosecutor leading the investigation into one of the most gruesome and politically sensitive affairs of the times — allegations of organ trafficking in the 1990s implicating Kosovo’s current leadership — has set up office not in the Balkans, but in Brussels.

Concerns about witness harassment and tampering of evidence are such that Clint Williamson, the 51-year-old American at the head of the European Union investigation, the most notorious inquiry to date, is taking no chances.

“Witness intimidation and witness protection is a big factor,” he told AFP in an interview.

“We’ve gone to great lengths to put this investigation in a secure posture,” said the former US ambassador-at-large for war crimes who in the 1990s worked as a trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.

At the heart of the matter are claims that ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo removed organs from Serb prisoners of war and sold them on the black market.

In the process, up to 500 people, mostly Serbs, were abducted, tortured and killed. These events took place in the chaos following the end of the Kosovo war in June 1999.

In a hard-hitting 2010 report, Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty alleged that senior Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commanders — including current Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci — were involved.

The report said organs were taken from the bodies of prisoners held by the KLA in Albania. It also linked the KLA to mafia-style crime. Thaci and his government have denied the accusations and condemned Marty’s report.

Appointed to head the EU Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) set up a year ago to investigate Marty’s charges, Williamson said that to avoid leaks, intimidation, or even worse, none of his team was from the western Balkans.

“This is a fully internationalised effort,” he said. “We have taken steps to set up firewalls between us and other judicial bodies in Kosovo so it’s very very autonomous and separated.”

Why an American at the head of a European Union probe? Because he had 18 years in the Balkans and “a fairly unique background” both as war crimes prosecutor and as a diplomat able to work with governments “at the highest levels.”

Williamson, who declined to give details on evidence compiled so far by his team of 20-odd prosecutors, investigators and analysts, estimated it would take another two years to complete an inquiry that continues to poison the region.

“It really is a dark cloud,” he said. “Because these allegations have been levelled at the current prime minister of Kosovo and other individuals in high profile roles with the KLA, it has an impact on relationships in the region.”

To help investigators access witnesses in Albania, believed to be the scene of mass graves and defunct medical operating theatres, Williamson and President Sali Berisha drafted a law adopted by parliament enabling the SITF team to work in the country.

In Kosovo itself, the EU rule of law mission runs judicial and police affairs. Serbia’s new leaders too pledged to cooperate last month and Williamson recently travelled to Macedonia and Montenegro to seek judicial deals.

“It’s important for us to speak to witnesses in a confidential fashion and we have to work this out with governments in advance,” he said. “But we are also talking to them about the possibility of witness relocation.”

“This is an issue that has been difficult for other high profile Kosovo Albanian trials at the ICTY. There have been strong indications of witness intimidation so we’re very mindful of this.”

Williamson said though he was “happy with the progress” there were “definitely a lot of challenges involved.”

Crimes were 12 to 13 years old and evidence and witnesses spread across the region and beyond. “The passing of time is a problem.”

But the real question, he said, was whether witnesses who talked to Marty in his role as a rapporteur would be willing to participate in a criminal investigation and testify in court.

“So it’s hard to say whether our findings will be the same as what Marty produced,” he said. “It’s just much too early to determine if we’ll come to the same conclusions. The problem will be to obtain information usable in court.”

© 2012 AFP

UN tribunal acquits Kosovo ex-PM of war crimes

THE HAGUE — A UN war crimes court on Thursday acquitted Kosovo's ex-prime minister Ramush Haradinaj of murder and torture during the 1990s war of independence, enraging Belgrade with the second such acquittal in two weeks.

"The chamber finds you not guilty on all counts in the indictment," Judge Bakone Justice Moloto said, ordering Haradinaj and two former guerrilla comrades released immediately after their retrial on charges of witness intimidation.

Fireworks exploded around Kosovo's capital Pristina and the court's public gallery erupted in cries of joy as the acquittals were announced, while the accused calmly welcomed the news.

Haradinaj, 44 and Idriz Balaj, 41, were being retried on six war-crime charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for allegedly murdering and torturing Serbs and non-Albanians during the 1998-99 war.

The third accused, Lahi Brahimaj, 42, faced four counts for his role in the fight between independence-seeking ethnic Albanian guerrillas and the Belgrade forces of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Belgrade slammed the verdict -- which came after the court in The Hague two weeks ago acquitted Croatian General Ante Gotovina of war crimes against Serbs -- as legalising "Mafia rule" because of the alleged witness intimidation.

"The Hague tribunal has legalised Mafia rule in Kosovo, above all, the omerta, the law of silence which still prevails and is stronger than any crime," government spokesman Milivoje Mihajlovic told AFP.

Senior Serbian officials had warned that should Haradinaj walk, EU-sponsored talks between Pristina and Belgrade -- which still considers Kosovo to be part of Serbia -- could be jeopardised.

Several hundred people braved the rain to watch the verdict on a giant screen in a central square of Pristina, where Haradinaj is considered a hero by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.

"Justice has won, Kosovo has won," said Haradinaj supporter Jahja Lluka as tears of joy streamed down his face.

Former rebel fighter Shpetim Felmanaj said: "We are awaiting his return with joy to lead Kosovo".

Prosecutors accused the three men of murdering and torturing Serbs and suspected collaborators against the separatist KLA and had demanded prison sentences of at least 20 years.

But judges found that the accused had not taken part in a "joint criminal enterprise" to cleanse the area of ethnic Serbs, and that some witness testimony was unreliable.

Moloto said that one witness may not have been in the Jablanica detention camp where alleged abuses took place and "may have told what he heard from others

"There is no credible evidence that Haradinaj was even aware of the crimes committed at Jablanica," Moloto said.

The men's lawyers welcomed the ruling and rounded on the tribunal's former prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, for having brought the charges in 2005.

Haradinaj's lawyer, Ben Emmerson, said the verdict had vindicated his client.

"He has asked me to say that he will be returning to Kosovo this evening and with the consent of the people, will soon be resuming his rightful position as the political leader of the country," Emmerson said.

Haradinaj will "guarantee the rights of all minorities and he will ensure full political participation for the Serbs in Kosova," Emmerson said.

He added that Del Ponte should be made to answer for her actions.

"She was told over and over again by the British and Americans and others that she had got this badly wrong. But she was determined to press ahead in the teeth of the evidence."

Brahimaj's lawyer Richard Harvey for his part denied that witnesses had ever been intimidated.

"Carla del Ponte lied repeatedly when she said witnesses had been intimidated and even murdered."

The most senior Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commanders to be tried, Haradinaj as well as Balaj, his lieutenant and commander of the feared "Black Eagles" unit, were acquitted in April 2008 on 37 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Brahimaj was convicted of torture and sentenced to six years in jail.

Haradinaj, who established the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo party after the conflict, has been free on bail since May and living at home in Pristina.

However, he is still wanted in Belgrade on war crimes charges.

The conflict in Kosovo ended when NATO forces intervened to stop a crackdown on ethnic Albanians by the troops loyal to Milosevic.

More than 10,000 people died in the fighting which marked one of the darkest chapters of the 1990s Balkans conflicts.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade fiercely opposes its international recognition.

© 2012 AFP

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/27/gruesome-kosovo-probe-held-under-tight-security/