Serbs ’were killed and their organs were sold’

Serbs ’were killed and their organs were sold’

Tuesday, 8th April 2008. 2:36pm

By: Marcus Papadopoulos.

The former Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTFY), Carla Del Ponte (pictured), has revealed that in 1999 Serbs in Kosovo were abducted, killed and then had their organs removed and sold abroad by members of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

According to Del Ponte’s new book, The Hunt: Me and War Crimes, it is claimed that both the former chief prosecutor and her team of investigators were informed that 300 Serbs were abducted and taken to prison camps in northern Albania where the younger ones were picked out, killed and then had their organs removed for trafficking in various parts of Europe.

The Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, Serbia, has commented that it has received "informal statements" from investigators working for the ICTFY that Serbs and members of Kosovo’s other ethnic minorities were killed by the former KLA for the purposes of organ trafficking.

The spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, Bruno Vekaric, said these allegations would be investigated and he added that there may be evidence to suggest that mass graves containing the bodies of these victims are located in Albania.

According to the Russian news channel, Russia Today, the former head of the intelligence service of the Yugoslav Army during the war in Kosovo from 1998-1999, General Mamir Stayanovich, stated that in the same locations where Serbs were killed for their organs, "they [the KLA leadership] decided amongst themselves what each commander of the KLA would have after victory. They decided who would make money from drug dealing, who from weapons, and who from selling body parts."

Stayanovich contends that the present Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, was involved in these activities.

The authorities in Pristina, the Kosovan capital, have denied the allegations. There are, however, more than 2,000 Serbs listed as missing in Kosovo, and Del Ponte’s revelation will help to augment previous assertions made by Belgrade that the former KLA was a terrorist organisation responsible for appalling acts of violence against not only the Serbs of Kosovo but also against members of the former Serbian province’s other ethnic minorities.