Kosovo: Crimes investigator fears his report may remain 'dead letter on paper'

Belgrade, 27 Jan (AKI) - A war crimes investigator for Europe's top human rights watchdog The Council of Europe said on Thursday he feared his report on alleged organs trafficking by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), may remain a “dead letter on paper.”

In an interview to BBC's Serbian service, Dick Marty, a Swiss senator and lawyer whose report was overwhelmingly approved by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly on Tuesday said he feared the report may go no further.

“When we are dealing with...someone in a high political position, or a high criminal hierarchy, we find out that there are simply no witnesses,” Marty said.

“Witnesses and their families are being intimidated and there have been murders too,” he added.

Marty's report blamed the so called Drenica group of the KLA, who is close to current Kosovo prime minister Hasim Thaci, of removing organs from Serb prisoners during 1998/99 war and of then selling them on the black market.

He expressed surprise that his report had “triggered a scandal” in some western political circles, “while murders of witnesses which took place over the past few years have been met with general indifference”.

Marty said the international community should react, “but the problem is that that there are still too many ministers and politicians burdened by their past decisions, who would have to retract what they had done”.

He called for the creation of an international judicial structure to investigate and prosecute the alleged organs trafficking. But Marty said he was surprised by the statement of European Union chief for security and foreign policy Catherine Ashton that there was no need to appoint a special prosecutor.

Officials in Brussels have suggested that the investigation should be carried out by an EU judicial and police mission in Kosovo (EULEX), but Marty said in another interview with Serbian language daily Vesti, published in Germany, he didn’t believe EULEX was capable of doing it.

"I do not think EULEX, the way it is forced to operate today and the way it is organized, can conduct a serious investigation,” Marty said. EULEX spokesperson Irina Gudeljevic said the mission had asked Marty to supply proof to support his claims, but that the request has so far gone unanswered.

Marty said he couldn’t supply proofs and names of witnesses unless an efficient mechanism was set up to protect them. “It is known that witnesses had been intimidated and killed and I think that is scandalous,” Marty said.