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| "Organ harvesting impossible to investigate" |
| 18 April 2008 | 09:21
| Source:
Beta, Tanjug |
BELGRADE, STRASBOURG --
The co-author of Carla Del Ponte's book, "The Hunt", has shed some light on some of the allegations contained therein.
Chuck Sudetic, the co-author of the book in which the former chief prosecutor of the Hague tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, described her memories of working for the tribunal, told Beta that the case of Ramush Haradinaj had pushed the issue of witness protection into the limelight.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry has banned Del Ponte, who has been appointed Swiss ambassador to Argentina, from speaking about her memoirs, which have recently been published in Italy.
Journalist and publicist Chuck Sudetic told Beta that the ban does not apply to him and that he believes his answers greatly reflect Carla Del Ponte's opinions.
Asked how it was possible that no case of witness intimidation and, according to some claims, even the murder of a witness (in the Haradinaj case), could be proven, Sudetic replied that it was practically impossible for the tribunal to investigate the witness intimidation cases because it had no support in the field in Kosovo in its investigation activities.
Asked whether it is true that the cases of war crime suspects Ratko Mladić and Ramush Haradinaj were the most difficult for the prosecution, the former because he was never extradited to the tribunal and the latter due to the fact that the investigation against him was constantly obstructed, Sudetic, who worked at the tribunal for a time, said that the prosecution faced various problems in those cases.
Commenting on claims in the book about the involvement of KLA members in trafficking in human organs, and on the question whether the prosecution should have continued investigating in spite of the obstruction, gathered the evidence and tried those suspected of these crimes, Sudetic said this issue was full of emotional tension and that the facts were "incredibly distorted."
"In this instance, however, there were credible accounts of the abductions of 100-300 Serbs from Kosovo and their transport into Albania - their transport into a third country, across an international border, which is outrageous - along with credible accounts of an organ harvesting operation that led to the deaths of a number, but not all, of these abducted persons," Sudetic said, reiterating a number of details from the book that indicate that these crimes were indeed committed.
Sudetic explained that, despite this, the Tribunal could not have continued an investigation into this crime for several reasons. Its temporal jurisdiction ended with the arrival of NATO in June 1999, and the crime that seems to have occurred took place after the arrival of NATO.
"Second, the tribunal did not have the names of the journalists' sources. The tribunal effectively handed off the findings to UNMIK, the Kosovo authorities, such as they were, and the Albanian government. To my knowledge, nothing effective was ever done to follow up," Sudetic said.
"The story on organ harvesting, however hard it may be for some to believe in, is also sufficiently credible that the authorities in Kosovo and in Albania could conduct a full investigation into it even now," Sudetic stressed.
PACE must investigate organ trade - Russia
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) must carry out an independent investigation into statements by former Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte on the involvement of Kosovo leaders in the trade in human body parts, head of the Russian delegation Konstantin Kosachov told Tanjug on Wednesday in Strasbourg.
“What Del Ponte said was scandalous and shows that the Hague was created with the sole purpose of accusing Serbia, concealing evidence of crimes perpetrated by the Kosovo Liberation Army leaders. and enabling Kosovo to declare independence,” he said.
At the beginning of the PACE session being held from April 14 to 18, Russia proposed that it should tackle the inhumane treatment of people and trade in their body parts in Kosovo. The proposal was endorsed by the heads of all PACE political groups.
“The CoE can carry out such an investigation, similar to the one on CIA illegal prisons, if other relevant international institutions refuse to do so,” Kosachov said.
“If the Hague refuses to investigate, the CE must do so, as it is authorized,” he said.
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