Prosecution team to visit Albania

War Crimes Prosecution officials intend to travel to Albania to investigate allegations of organ harvesting, says War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vuckovic. Vukcevic said that the prosecution would seek help from its Albanian colleagues in order to investigate the allegations made by former Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte in her book “The Hunt". Prosecution team to visit Albania "There are specific areas where we suspect the mass graves are located, and we have formulated nine demands we expect our Albanian colleagues to help us out with,” he said after meeting representatives of the Association of the Families of Kidnapped, Missing and Murdered Persons in Kosovo. He said that the prosecution had started pre-investigative proceedings in connection with the organ harvesting, and that it would be cooperating on this matter with the Council of Europe and its envoy Dick Marty, as well with its Albanian counterparts. Along with his associates, Vukcevic visited today the premises of the Association where he went to see the Wall of Tears, showing the photographs of 2,500 kidnapped and missing non-Albanian civilians, police officers and soldiers. He promised that the prosecution would do everything it could to shed light on the fate of the missing. Association President Simo Spasic has asked the war crimes prosecution to investigate what happened to their loved ones who disappeared from Kosovo in 1998 and 1999. "We want to find out the real truth and to finally get some justice,” Spasic said. He said that the families had talked about the destiny of Serbs living in Kosovo after the first abductions, but that the “evidence and truth” about it rarely appeared in public. Spokesman Bruno Vekaric said that the world was aware of the ethnic Albanians’ suffering in Kosovo during the NATO intervention, but that only a few were aware of the suffering of Serbs living in Kosovo. Vekaric said that it was important to emphasize the fact that justice was not blind. He said that 160 warrants had been issued for former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) members, and that one KLA Member had been tried in Belgrade, but added that there had been problems regarding testimonies from Albanian witnesses. President of the government’s Missing Persons Commission Veljko Odalovic said that the Commission had consolidated a list of missing persons, including 1,950 people, 545 of them being Serbs and non-Albanians. More than 1,400 cases, according to Odalovic, had been solved. However he said that solving missing persons cases from Kosovo was particularly frustrating, because of the lack of regional cooperation. Vladimir Vukcevic (Fonet, archive)

Prosecution team to visit Albania

"There are specific areas where we suspect the mass graves are located, and we have formulated nine demands we expect our Albanian colleagues to help us out with,” he said after meeting representatives of the Association of the Families of Kidnapped, Missing and Murdered Persons in Kosovo.

He said that the prosecution had started pre-investigative proceedings in connection with the organ harvesting, and that it would be cooperating on this matter with the Council of Europe and its envoy Dick Marty, as well with its Albanian counterparts.

Along with his associates, Vukčević visited today the premises of the Association where he went to see the Wall of Tears, showing the photographs of 2,500 kidnapped and missing non-Albanian civilians, police officers and soldiers. He promised that the prosecution would do everything it could to shed light on the fate of the missing.

Association President Simo Spasić has asked the war crimes prosecution to investigate what happened to their loved ones who disappeared from Kosovo in 1998 and 1999.

"We want to find out the real truth and to finally get some justice,” Spasić said.

He said that the families had talked about the destiny of Serbs living in Kosovo after the first abductions, but that the “evidence and truth” about it rarely appeared in public.

Spokesman Bruno Vekarić said that the world was aware of the ethnic Albanians’ suffering in Kosovo during the NATO intervention, but that only a few were aware of the suffering of Serbs living in Kosovo.

Vekarić said that it was important to emphasize the fact that justice was not blind.

He said that 160 warrants had been issued for former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) members, and that one KLA Member had been tried in Belgrade, but added that there had been problems regarding testimonies from Albanian witnesses.

President of the government’s Missing Persons Commission Veljko Odalović said that the Commission had consolidated a list of missing persons, including 1,950 people, 545 of them being Serbs and non-Albanians.

More than 1,400 cases, according to Odalović, had been solved.

However he said that solving missing persons cases from Kosovo was particularly frustrating, because of the lack of regional cooperation.