Hidden crimes of Kosovo

Hidden crimes of Kosovo

 

Chuck Sudetic • January 13, 2011

 

THE HAGUE - Americans should feel betrayed by the
contents of the Council of Europe's report on
organized crime in mostly Albanian-populated
Kosovo, a country that owes its existence to the
United States. The report, authored by Swiss
prosecutor Dick Marty, includes allegations that
Kosovo leaders have committed heinous crimes and
allegations that American and European diplomats
and U.N. officials in Kosovo overlooked wrongdoing
to preserve "political stability."

Kosovo's leaders have waged an ugly media
campaign to discredit Marty and his findings and
have threatened to launch a witch hunt against
Albanians who aided the inquiry. Washington's
voice is needed now to stop the incitement in
Kosovo and to turn public opinion toward an
international criminal investigation and, if
necessary, prosecutions.

The report draws upon Albanian eyewitnesses and
insiders as well as Western intelligence and police
agencies, and not upon the Albanians' foe, the
government of Serbia. The findings speak of the
trafficking of drugs and women. They include
accounts of the abduction in Kosovo of almost 500
Serbs, Albanians and members of other ethnic
groups; the delivery of these kidnapping victims to
secret camps in Albania; and the murder of almost
all of those abducted, including some whose
internal organs were allegedly sold for profit.

The report alleges that these killings occurred from
mid-1999 to mid-2000, after NATO's bombing
campaign drove Serbia's forces from Kosovo. The
report names Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, who has
for years been America's golden boy in Kosovo, and
a number of Thaci's former comrades in the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA), an amalgam of local
insurgencies that rose against Serbia.

Washington knew of the kidnappings weeks after
NATO occupied Kosovo in June 1999. U.S.
diplomats quickly responded to Serb appeals for
help by demanding that KLA commanders halt the
kidnappings.

 

The abductions tapered off. But nothing was heard
of the victims. Afterward, political stability became
the top priority in Kosovo for the United States and
the United Nations, which refrained from launching
criminal inquiries into the kidnappings.


According to Albanian and U.S. sources, during the
spring of 2008 - after a former U.N. war crimes
prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte of Switzerland,
published a memoir that mentioned these killings
and reported credible assertions of organ
harvesting - senior U.S. diplomats in Kosovo
advised Thaci and other Kosovo leaders to do
nothing except wait out the storm. Kosovo's and
Albania's governments have since issued only
blanket denials of wrongdoing.

Marty's report does not attack Kosovo's legitimacy.
Many, if not most, Albanians know this but are too
terrified to say so in public. This is in part because
corruption and violence are so prevalent in Kosovo
and in part because Thaci and other leaders have
condemned the report as an assault on Kosovo's
sovereignty, the Albanian people and the KLA's
legacy. On Christmas Day, Kosovo's press reported
a threat by Thaci to name every Albanian who
assisted Marty. In a land where witnesses to crimes
are killed to silence them, Thaci's words could incite
attacks on members of minority groups, political
opponents, journalists and foreigners.

This danger and the long-term need to foster rule of
law in Kosovo and Albania make it incumbent upon
the United States to make a forceful public statement
and conduct tough closed-door diplomacy.

 

The United States should question every detail of the
Council of Europe report and demand a briefing
with Marty to discuss the sources he cannot publish
for security reasons. If it finds the evidence and
sources to be credible, the United States should join
the European Union in establishing an entity
capable of carrying out a criminal investigation and,
if necessary, prosecutions; this entity should be
capable of protecting witnesses. Washington should
demand that Kosovo and Albania cooperate fully. If
they fail to, the United States and its allies should
use their leverage to force the resignation from
public office of those responsible for the lack of
cooperation. Washington should also ensure that
Serbia, Russia and other countries do not misuse
the Council of Europe report to undermine Kosovo's
legitimacy.

Chuck Sudetic reported from the Balkans during
the 1990s and worked for the U.N. war crimes
tribunal for Yugoslavia from 2001 to 2005. He co-
authored Carla Del Ponte's memoirs, "Madame
Prosecutor."

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110113/OPINION16/110111036/1004/OPINION/Hidden+crimes+of+Kosovo+