EULEX: Kosovo organ trade probe will be "inevitably long"

BRUSSELS A spokesman for the EULEX Special Investigating Task Force says that "progress has been made in key areas" in the investigation of organ trafficking in Kosovo. The work of this team may not always be visible, but that it is consistent with the usual procedures of investigation and prosecution, Juri Laas said in Brussels on Wednesday. EULEX: Kosovo organ trade probe will be "inevitably long" According to him, the investigation "will inevitably be long and complex". The statement came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the EU is maintaining an unconstructive attitude towards the investigation into the trafficking in human organs in Kosovo, and that Moscow supports Serbia's request for the United Nations to join the investigation. Speaking at an annual news conference in Moscow about the results of Russia's foreign policy in 2012, Lavrov said the EU had "usurped the investigation" which is at a standstill, and that it is even "slowly closing it down". In a statement to Serbia's Beta news agency, Laas reiterated that "since its formation in September 2011, the SITF has made progress in a number of key areas, including the collection of relevant information from institutional sources, securing regional cooperation agreements, bolstering witness protection arrangements and in the conduct of its own operational investigating activities." The probe concerns allegations that ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA;UCK) in 1999 and 2000 kidnapped Serb and other civilians in Kosovo, illegally imprisoned them in northern Albania, to then sell their body parts in the international black market for human organs. A report was filed in late 2010 by the Council of Europe (CoE) Special Rapporteur Dick Marty, and a resolution was subsequently adopted based on his report, calling for an investigation to be launched. The allegations first surfaced in a book published in 2008 by former Chief Hague Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte. The Serbian War Crimes Prosecution is conducting an investigation of its on into the atrocities. B92 Beta

EULEX: Kosovo organ trade probe will be "inevitably long"

According to him, the investigation "will inevitably be long and complex".

The statement came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the EU is maintaining an unconstructive attitude towards the investigation into the trafficking in human organs in Kosovo, and that Moscow supports Serbia's request for the United Nations to join the investigation.

Speaking at an annual news conference in Moscow about the results of Russia's foreign policy in 2012, Lavrov said the EU had "usurped the investigation" which is at a standstill, and that it is even "slowly closing it down".

In a statement to Serbia's Beta news agency, Laas reiterated that "since its formation in September 2011, the SITF has made progress in a number of key areas, including the collection of relevant information from institutional sources, securing regional cooperation agreements, bolstering witness protection arrangements and in the conduct of its own operational investigating activities."

The probe concerns allegations that ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA;UCK) in 1999 and 2000 kidnapped Serb and other civilians in Kosovo, illegally imprisoned them in northern Albania, to then sell their body parts in the international black market for human organs.

A report was filed in late 2010 by the Council of Europe (CoE) Special Rapporteur Dick Marty, and a resolution was subsequently adopted based on his report, calling for an investigation to be launched.

The allegations first surfaced in a book published in 2008 by former Chief Hague Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.

The Serbian War Crimes Prosecution is conducting an investigation of its on into the atrocities.