UNMIK denies 1999 organ trade probe

UNMIK has formed an investigative team to look into the illegal organ transplants at a Priština clinic, but will not deal with alleged war crimes.

Izvor: B92

Saturday, 15.11.2008.

16:29

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UNMIK has formed an investigative team to look into the illegal organ transplants at a Pristina clinic, but will not deal with alleged war crimes. Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said earlier this week that the UN mission in Kosovo will investigate reports that after the 1999 war, some 300 Kosovo Serb and other non-Albanian civilians were kidnapped and taken to northern Albania, where some of them had their vital organs removed. UNMIK denies 1999 organ trade probe UNMIK’s Russel Geekie told B92 today that their probe will deal only with the recent case where illegal transplants allegedly took place in the Medicus clinic in Pristina. But Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecution office insists that the two cases are connected. Still, Geekie says that the “misunderstanding” stems from the mixing up of the two cases. “UNMIK has put together an investigative team that will, along with that of the Kosovo police, deal with the organ trade, investigating the latest organ transplant case at the Medicus clinic,” this deputy UNMIK spokesman said. “You remember that, about a week ago, several arrests were made at that clinic. International investigators are working on the Medicus case as well, but those teams are looking into allegations that illegal transplants took place at Medicus. They are not dealing with the alleged 1999 war crimes,” Geekie said. In Belgrade, however, the Prosecution reacted by saying that on November 13, the chief of UNMIK’s war crimes department asked Deputy Prosecutor Dragoljub Stankovic to help with the investigation. The invitation was a response to the Prosecution’s request that UNMIK secures the Orahovac mortuary, which, it is believed, holds evidence important to the investigation into the fate of the Kosovo Serbs that went missing in 1999. Considering that UNMIK was addressing the war crimes prosecutor and that the invitation came from UNMIK’s war crimes office, Belgrade never doubted that this was a call to cooperate on Case 33/08 – the code under which the probe into the 1999 trade in organs of captured Kosovo Serbs and non-Albanians is filed. Prosecution’s spokesman Bruno Vekaric also reacted to say that the investigations being conducted in Belgrade and Pristina are connected by the fact the same people are named as participants in transplants in both cases.

UNMIK denies 1999 organ trade probe

UNMIK’s Russel Geekie told B92 today that their probe will deal only with the recent case where illegal transplants allegedly took place in the Medicus clinic in Priština.

But Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecution office insists that the two cases are connected.

Still, Geekie says that the “misunderstanding” stems from the mixing up of the two cases.

“UNMIK has put together an investigative team that will, along with that of the Kosovo police, deal with the organ trade, investigating the latest organ transplant case at the Medicus clinic,” this deputy UNMIK spokesman said.

“You remember that, about a week ago, several arrests were made at that clinic. International investigators are working on the Medicus case as well, but those teams are looking into allegations that illegal transplants took place at Medicus. They are not dealing with the alleged 1999 war crimes,” Geekie said.

In Belgrade, however, the Prosecution reacted by saying that on November 13, the chief of UNMIK’s war crimes department asked Deputy Prosecutor Dragoljub Stanković to help with the investigation.

The invitation was a response to the Prosecution’s request that UNMIK secures the Orahovac mortuary, which, it is believed, holds evidence important to the investigation into the fate of the Kosovo Serbs that went missing in 1999.

Considering that UNMIK was addressing the war crimes prosecutor and that the invitation came from UNMIK’s war crimes office, Belgrade never doubted that this was a call to cooperate on Case 33/08 – the code under which the probe into the 1999 trade in organs of captured Kosovo Serbs and non-Albanians is filed.

Prosecution’s spokesman Bruno Vekarić also reacted to say that the investigations being conducted in Belgrade and Priština are connected by the fact the same people are named as participants in transplants in both cases.

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