B92 organ trade investigation turns to UNMIK official

Tonight’s episode of B92’s Reaction uncovers why a criminal complaint was brought against former head of the UNMIK Missing Persons Office Jose Pablo Baraybar. In the episode, the Reaction team continues its investigation into the claims of former Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte that a number missing Kosovo non-Albanians were transported to Albania to have their organs harvested for sale on the black market. B92 organ trade investigation turns to UNMIK official In the last episode, the team uncovered, for the first time, the contents of an UNMIK report compiled after an investigation in February 2004 of the yellow house in the Albanian town of Burrel, in which Baraybar took part. The UNMIK Office headed by Baraybar in 2004 ran, at the time, all activities linked to finding missing persons, while he himself was accused of illegal handling of human body parts. “It’s well known that if you take a part of someone’s body, you need to have the consent of the parents, but on one occasion the UNMIK Office Chief Jose Pablo Baraybar committed a crime by helping himself to a bone sample for the purposes of his own research and benefit,” claims Hisni Berisha of the Suva Reka Association of Missing Persons’ Families. “We asked him—why are you taking it? At first he didn’t say anything, then he said—I’ll never tell you, what’s it to you that I’m taking it?” recalls Tefik Gashi, a pathologist from Pristina. A letter from the Belgrade War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office states that Baraybar had a number of criminal complaints against his name, including from Serb and Bosniak missing persons’ associations. Baraybar, whom the Reaction team was able to track down in Denver, denied the family’s allegations when interviewed over the phone. “Yeah, there are a number of people who took advantage of those families and told them stories how I’ve got some sort of collection of bones somewhere, and that I’m involved in the organ trade. That’s nothing new to me,” he said. “I think I did all I could in the Balkans, and I think that I gave the Balkans everything that was in my power. I left there for completely private reasons, I wasn’t running away from anything,” the former UNMIK official said. The Prosecution’s letter states that because of Baraybar’s reputation, there is a danger that he could personally or indirectly see to it that evidence uncovered in the yellow house and stored, according to UNMIK information, in Orahovac, is removed. In tonight's episode, to be screened at 21:00 CET, viewers can hear what material evidence was discovered at the scene and where, according to Baraybar, it is located today. Viewers will also hear whether tunnels around the frontier belt between Albania and Kosovo were used as illegal holding units for abducted non-Albanians and what the parents had to go through, who, in their search for their loved ones, had to travel to Albania.

B92 organ trade investigation turns to UNMIK official

In the last episode, the team uncovered, for the first time, the contents of an UNMIK report compiled after an investigation in February 2004 of the yellow house in the Albanian town of Burrel, in which Baraybar took part.

The UNMIK Office headed by Baraybar in 2004 ran, at the time, all activities linked to finding missing persons, while he himself was accused of illegal handling of human body parts.

“It’s well known that if you take a part of someone’s body, you need to have the consent of the parents, but on one occasion the UNMIK Office Chief Jose Pablo Baraybar committed a crime by helping himself to a bone sample for the purposes of his own research and benefit,” claims Hisni Berisha of the Suva Reka Association of Missing Persons’ Families.

“We asked him—why are you taking it? At first he didn’t say anything, then he said—I’ll never tell you, what’s it to you that I’m taking it?” recalls Tefik Gashi, a pathologist from Priština.

A letter from the Belgrade War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office states that Baraybar had a number of criminal complaints against his name, including from Serb and Bosniak missing persons’ associations.

Baraybar, whom the Reaction team was able to track down in Denver, denied the family’s allegations when interviewed over the phone.

“Yeah, there are a number of people who took advantage of those families and told them stories how I’ve got some sort of collection of bones somewhere, and that I’m involved in the organ trade. That’s nothing new to me,” he said.

“I think I did all I could in the Balkans, and I think that I gave the Balkans everything that was in my power. I left there for completely private reasons, I wasn’t running away from anything,” the former UNMIK official said.

The Prosecution’s letter states that because of Baraybar’s reputation, there is a danger that he could personally or indirectly see to it that evidence uncovered in the yellow house and stored, according to UNMIK information, in Orahovac, is removed.

In tonight's episode, to be screened at 21:00 CET, viewers can hear what material evidence was discovered at the scene and where, according to Baraybar, it is located today.

Viewers will also hear whether tunnels around the frontier belt between Albania and Kosovo were used as illegal holding units for abducted non-Albanians and what the parents had to go through, who, in their search for their loved ones, had to travel to Albania.