Posted on 04/11/2008 5:00:17 AM PDT by Javeth
Serb prisoners 'were stripped of their organs in Kosovo war'
Serb prisoners had their internal organs removed and sold by ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo war, according to allegations in a new book by the world's best known war crimes prosecutor.
Carla Del Ponte, who stepped down in January as chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal for crimes committed in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, said investigators found a house suspected of being a laboratory for the illegal trade.
A senior adviser to Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's prime minister and a leading member of the Kosovo Liberation Army which is accused of benefiting from the trade, yesterday denied the allegations.
"These are horrible things even to imagine," said Bekim Collaku. "But this is a product of her [Miss Del Ponte's] imagination."
Miss Del Ponte reports that the allegations were made by several sources, one of whom "personally made an organ delivery" to an Albanian airport for transport abroad, and "confirmed information directly gathered by the tribunal".
According to the sources, senior figures in the Kosovo Liberation Army were aware of the scheme, in which hundreds of young Serbs were allegedly taken by truck from Kosovo to northern Albania where their organs were removed. Miss Del Ponte provides grim details of the alleged organ harvesting, and of how some prisoners were sewn up after having kidneys removed.
"The victims, deprived of a kidney, were then locked up again, inside the barracks, until the moment they were killed for other vital organs. In this way, the other prisoners were aware of the fate that awaited them, and according to the source, pleaded, terrified, to be killed immediately," Miss Del Ponte writes.
The claims in The Hunt: Me and War Criminals have renewed tensions between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo, which declared independence two months ago. In it, the Swiss ex-prosecutor reveals how her efforts to bring alleged war criminals to justice were stymied by lack of co-operation from all sides - Serb, Albanian and even Nato. But it is her report of the organ traffic that has caused most shock, even in a region long hardened to horror.
Vladan Batic, Serbia's former justice minister, said: "If her allegations are true, then this is the most monstrous crime since the times of Mengele, and it must be made a priority, not only of the domestic judiciary but also of the Hague Tribunal." The book reports a visit by Hague tribunal investigators to a house south of the Albanian town of Burrel where they found traces of blood across a wide area, as well as medical equipment.
"The investigators found pieces of gauze, a used syringe and two plastic IV bags encrusted with mud and empty bottles of medicine, some of which was of a muscle relaxant often used in surgical operations," she writes. However, she concludes that the finds do not amount to sufficient proof for a war crimes tribunal. In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, an association of families of Serbs still listed as missing since the Kosovo war, said it would sue Miss Del Ponte, alleging that she had failed to act over the alleged organ-farming scandal. Serbia's war crimes office announced it had opened its own investigation.
The book has also prompted concern in Switzerland, where it has been criticised for tarnishing the country's celebrated neutrality, particularly as Miss Del Ponte has been named as the Swiss ambassador to Argentina.
In Belgrade, Natasha Kandic, the highly respected head of the investigative Humanitarian Law Centre, said ordinary Serbs "welcome the publication of this book" but said allegations of organ-smuggling were "rumours". "I talked to her many times, she never told me about this," said Miss Kandic.
Christian Serbs - on the battlefront between the stability and reason of Christian society and the chaos, insanity and brutality of Islam.
And where are we? Exactly where Bill Clinton put us. And exactly where Jorge El Segundo has kept us.
And yet, President Bush continued the policy of pushing for Kosovo independence and demonizing Serbia. After Russia blocked UN recognition of Kosovo independence, it was the US that pressed ahead and urged the declaration and quick recognition by as many countries as possible. I remain mystified how Bush could do this. It is like Svengali resides in the US State Department and has cast a spell over the White House.
No, not by chance. :)
Eastern Christian slaughter ping!
“The KLA is, was and always will be a Terrorist Organization... yet the president of the united states, Bill (traitor) Clinton sent our troops into the Balkans to fight for them.”
And George Bush rushed to recognize the “independence” of the little terror state and funds it to the tune of $375,000,000.00 while McCain’s present and previous campaigns have been and are being financed by the KLA and its fellow travelers.
Thanks for the ping.
And thanks for the earlier one on the Priest in Iraq.
They will if we're smart enough not to act as their air force.
You smackdown our Ustashe posters with the best of them, I must say.
Diocletian, there seems to be a reading comprehension issue here so I’ll reiterate—
I D-O N-O-T N-E-C-E-S-S-A-R-I-L-Y A-G-R-E-E- W-I-T-H D-E-L P-O-N-T-E.
Can I make it any clearer to you? I didn’t agree with her before when she was slamming Serbs at every opportunity, and I don’t know if she’s right now. Once again, the significance of del Ponte’s turnabout is the way that even she is changing her tune on this and thus dragging the mainstream media in tow. If you’re so anxious for me to change my assessment of your own prior views on del Ponte, fine, you’re not a del Ponte fan yourself and haven’t been before— which means perhaps you’re a lot more like the rest of us here than your rather juvenile first post indicated.
Whatever the case, the significance isn’t whether del Ponte is right or wrong on this particular allegation, what matters is that the “scourge of the Serbs” has now changed her tone so enormously, and thus stripped off the fig leaf that’s been used by the Clintons, the Bushes, Sarkozy, Blair and of course the Eurabian advocate Angela Merkel herself, to reward the mass murder of Orthodox Christians with claimed impunity.
All in all, the Kosovo project is heading for collapse, especially as Merkel’s fragile coalition in Germany crumbles and she is dutifully kicked out of office, and Sarkozy continues to lose popularity in France. The only way to continue justifying the expenditure needed to back an Islamofascist narcostate like Kosovo, was to paint the Serbs as irredeemably evil in the propaganda of the Western media. Now, with even del Ponte turning tail, that effort has fallen apart.
Well said bump.
Apparently the Swiss tremble in fear bending over in submission to the Muslim oil trillions
Are there any Albanian Christians? Btw, why do you hate Serbs so much. Considering that you are a Croat you should not use name
Diocletian, he was the great man, and you are uneducated and ignorant Serb hater!
In my memory, you have disdained Carla del Ponte...as opposed to the individual you conferred with in #10.
hoplite has been banned, Dio.
I don’t hate Serbs. I have Serbian cousins, kumovi, and friends. And yes, there are a lot of Albanian Christians.
He’s returned.
The Decline of Western Civilization... why was he banned and unbanned, in the know?
Yes you do hate Serbs, that’s OK, you’re not the only one. I still believe you shouldn’t use name Diocletian. You being a Croat, can easily find suitable name from the very rich and very short lived Croatian history (WWII). And,may be there are some Albanian Christians worldwide, insignificant number are in Albania.
You’re not that bright.
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