War crime selected – organ harvesting from Serbs by KLA
One of the most macabre recent war crime is harvesting organs from captured Serbs by Kosovo Albanian guerrillas during Kosovo conflict 1998-99. The story was kept undercover by western mainstream media until last April 2008 before former UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte opened her mouth. New reportages was made e.g. by German Spiegel magazine and justice departments from Albania and Serbia have started high level cooperation for case. Council of Europe has decided to re-examine the case, which maybe has also link to illegal organ transplant clinic raided in Pristina, Kosovo, early November 2008.
The Guardian article
A new article by Paul Lewis appeared in the Guardian on Nov. 25th 2008 giving a quite complementary picture of events. His story includes also a video clip over trip of Mr. Lewis to “slaughterhouse” a country house in northern Albania's mountain region near town Burrel.
Here a comprehensive quote about background:
Of all the many atrocities that human rights groups want investigated from the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict, the alleged harvesting of organs from Serbian soldiers by ethnic Albanians is one of the most gruesome. Hundreds of Serbian families have for a decade been demanding what happened to those who disappeared during and after the war. In April, Carla Del Ponte the former UN war crimes prosecutor, gave greater credence to suggestions of a macabre operation, in which as many as 300 Serbs were allegedly abducted and transported to Albania to have their organs removed. In a memoir, she wrote: "Victims deprived of only their first kidney were sewn up and confined again inside the shack until they were killed for their vital organs.
UN examination 2004
After Mrs. Del Ponte’s sensational disclosure started a work to verify her statements. For example UN had made some checking based ICTY testimonials. However, the UN examination, commissioned by Del Ponte, was previously believed to be missing. Now the Guardian has obtained the report of a UN forensic examination, by a UN expert, José Pablo Baraybar of the Katuci house – aka "yellow house" aka "Burrel house" aka "slaughterhouse" – and it can be found from here.
Baraybar, the former director of the UN's missing persons and forensics unit in Kosovo, said his team found "highly indicative evidence" that pointed to organ removal at the Burrel house, and prosecutors received testimony from eight witnesses. They comprised "foot soldiers" who claimed to be present during the surgery, he said, and a driver who claimed he brought small groups of Serb soldiers to the house from across the Kosovo border. The driver then described taking conspicuous packages to Tirana airport, bound for flights to Turkey. The surgeon conducting the operations was identified as a Kosovan doctor from Pec, Baraybar said.
Re-examination and a new link
The Council of Europe has decided to re-examine the organ case. A special investigator Dick Marty and his team are starting their work by gathering data from Belgrade, Pristina and Tirana.
Marty's investigation could gain additional impetus from the recent discovery of an illegal organ transplant clinic in neighbouring Kosovo. Police there raided a clinic in the suburbs of Pristina three weeks ago, arresting two doctors and the country's acting permanent secretary at the ministry of health, Ilir Rexhaj. Interpol is helping to search for a third doctor, Yusuf Ercin Sonmez, a notorious Turkish surgeon who they believe was behind the operation. (Source the Guardian article).
Selected war crimes – Why?
Why these events are coming public now after ten years? My claim is that only selected war crimes go forward. Some reasons for this from my point of view are following:
- The Anglo-American mainstream media selected its side in Balkan wars already middle 90s . The partly fabricated reports about brutalities of Serbs were published almost real-time; same time and later too the media was silent about the opposite reports of investigations or brutalities made by other sides.
- Politically it was not reasonable to change this created one-side picture about the Serbs as “bad guys” too soon to secure ground for further development of western interests in Balkans.
- The “good guys” were allies of western powers and gained local political leadership e.g. in Kosovo so of course Misters Thaci, Ceku and Haradinaj could not be guilty for some war crimes – they were representing poor Albanian victims (before side selection – middle 0s - US was treating their organisation as terrorist and criminal one).
- The witness protection in Balkans is too weak in pressure of tribe society and criminal – now political clans to get any sentence like it as case in Hague with Mr Oric (leader of Mujahedeen brigade in Bosnia) and with Mr. Haradinaj (KLA leader and later PM of Kosovo).
Now the one-sided picture is slowly starting to crack, more comprehensive picture e.g. over Srebrenica case will came public when both prosecutor and defence of Karadzic have made their case. The today’s criminal activities of freedom fighters are coming public and their earlier war crimes will get new light. The big players – e.g. USA with its use of depleted uranium in Kosovo and probably other places also – will of course escape again due the immunity granted in international courts.
More my views over Balkans and Caucasus one may find from my Archives:Blog
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AriRusila
Comments
As an Albanian, I don't deny the possibility that during the ugliest parts of the war of liberation against Serbia, some atrocities were committed by rebel forces and/or extreme nationalists on the Albanian side. However, clearly, Serbian propagandists have seized on what is still an allegation that involves up to 300 individuals, and attempted to bring about a public verdict of guilty, thereby setting the foundation for a Moral Equivalency argument which simply cannot hold water in a region whose mass graves dug by Serbian shovels seem as much a part of our landscape as our groves of Pear Trees.
Furthermore, it is quite amazing how the Serbian side omits from every discussion, several critical points that are required, in order to set the proper context for the development of an armed rebel movement in Kosova.
First, and perhaps the most revealing, is the decision taken by Slobodan Milosevic in the first year of coming to power, in which he completely rescinded the autonomy within the republic of Serbia enjoyed by Kosovars since the time of its implementation by a clearly prescient Tito many decades earlier. Slobodan Milosevic then implemented direct rule from Belgrade. This meant that all institutions, including education, health and basic local government, were to be replaced by a counsel of militant nationalists based in Belgrade who would give direct orders banning Albanian language in schools, firing all ethnic Albanians from state jobs in Kosova and commanding a massive ramp up of military presence and abuses by Serbian soldiers who suddenly occupied every other block in Kosova with tanks and armed men. Albanians, whose lives were made more miserable by the day, were increasingly encouraged to leave Kosova entirely and "return to your savage animal Albania".
Second, is the subsequent 10-year non-violent struggle led by the most respected of Albanian Kosovar leaders, Ibrahim Rugova, initially requesting merely that the autonomous status enjoyed under Tito be re-instituted. As intimidation, arrests and terror became the order of the day, and the tone of the new Serb Nationalism and fanatical Orthodox Militancy became clear, Albanians became increasingly restless and soon demanded equal republic status within Jugoslavia, in order to defend against future terror. The vast majority of Albanians in Kosova would have been satisfied with a return to Autonomy, perhaps expanded to prevent national direct rule.
The world hardly noticed or cared about our 10 year non-violent movement. No one came to our aid. And soon Albanians realized that freedom would have to be taken into their own hands, a physical struggle was inevitable. So one day, tired of constant intimidation and total impunity enjoyed by Serbian military forces, a couple of Albanian brothers picked up some guns and wiped out a local Serbian police station. Thusly began our freedom struggle, like those of so many others around the world.
As a final note, let me just make one comment regarding the new allegations of organ harvesting of 300 Serb soldiers by Albanians. Based on evidence from past allegations made by Serbian nationalists against Croats, Bosnians and Kosovar Albanians, one would expect the actual number, if there is any truth at all to these allegations, to be reduced to somewhere between 0 and 30 individuals. We Albanians refer to this as the "Serbian Apologist Algorithm" which sets out to prove that Serbians are the greatest victims of the most recent Balkan War.
Perhaps, in some sort of ironic way, they are correct about being the greatest victims of this whole process.
Ari Rusila is a very biased writer. He has tried hard to make its case against Kosovo's independence, but his arguments are simply weak.
In this last effort, he takes a baseless allegation made by Carla Del Ponte, takes it on its face value and uses it in a poor effort to rewrite the history.
I will not discuss the merits of Del Ponte's allegations (if she had the smallest evidence she would have gone looking for it with the passion and the lunacy she has always done).
In fact, I will assume for the sake of the argument that they are true: that some ethnic Albanian guerrilla group killed civilians and used their bodies for illegal organ trade.
Ari Rusila, of course, is not making assumptions. He is sure that the crime occurred. He is ready to believe everything that goes in favor of the Serbs or against the Albanians.
He bemoans the lack of interest by the international media on this crime and accuses them of selecting among war crimes for political purposes.
Well, as Jesus said let him who is innocent throw the first stone. Ari Rusila seems to be doing his selection process as well. According to his main and only "witness", Del Ponte, the 400 alleged victims are not only Serbs, but also Albanians and Gypsies.
This little fact is not forgotten, but Ari Rusila. It is something he knows but he prefers to hide. The reason is simple: if this crime was committed against people of all the ethnic communities it is not a political crime anymore. It is an ordinary crime.
The illegal activity of gangs looking to get rich by killing people of all the backgrounds and using their bodies for organ trade is a despicable behavior that should receive the merciless response by justice.
However, this kind of crime cannot be used to equate what the Serbia and the Albanian population did during the war in Kosovo.
What Serbia did was a well-organized mass terror by using the means of the state and based on a well articulated racist strategic plan of evacuating the entire ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo in a few days, as proposed in 1937 by Dr. Cubrilovic.
Under the direction of the Serbian dictator, Slobodan Milosevic, a million of innocent civilians were rounded and deported from the country, about 10,000 of them were killed and thrown in mass grave, burned alive in their homes and in a case inside their church. 20,000 women were raped and a few thousands of people are still missing.
Trying to equate this state sponsored terrorism with the presumed criminal activity of a bunch of ordinary gangsters it is shameful, but what is more important, it will never fly.
If AriRusila truly like the Serbs he should help them to come to terms with their past so they can walk freely and clean towards the future.
Trying to justify what they did, trying to stop clock of history and overturn Kosovo's independence and what's worse trying to rewrite the history will not help them.
It will only leave the Serbs forever hostages of a radical nationalist political circus that has been prevailing in Belgrade for more than two decades.
Nor will it ever make AriRusila a serious commentator of the Balkans issues.
@Ruben
now who is biased ? instead of repeating the lies from the powers that destroyed yugoslavia (germany usa vatican), go inform yourself...
it the year 2008, and now you can find the truth (if you really want)
all your knowledge seems to be albanian propaganda anyway, so i assume you´re one..
HERE is some truth, and you can use this as an example for all the yugoslav wars...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...
now dreeam on that this false state i call "camp-shiptaria" will persist...
very biased personal perspective... certainly not a fact.
To Ruben - even I do not reply anyone who is afraid to stand behind his/her views with own name.
1) I have never claimed that my writings are absolute truth or unbiased. In fact I have tried to highlight the an other side of story, side which mainstream media has been silent. By this way, through debate between arguments the reader maybe can have more comprehensive picture about certain issues
2) It is true that Kosovo Albanians have tried to make ethnic cleansing also with other nationalities than Serbs. I hope that Romas,Jews, Eqytians, Ashkalis etc. forgive me generalisation I have made.
3) It is true also that Kosovo Albanians have killed other Kosovo Albanians. The motives have been e.g. competition between different clans/tribes or purely economical ones. Because Kosovo Albanian society is still based criminal clans or tribes it is some times difficult to make difference what is criminal activity and what political one.
4) You mentioned proposed plan of Dr Cubrilovic from year 1937. Few years later Kosovo Albanians did not made only plan but started to implement theirs establishing own SS Skanderberg division. These troops started ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Jews and Romas a bit similar way than Croatian Nazis/Ustashas. Croats made this with larger scale killing some 300.000-700.000 Serbs, 20.000 Jews and 30.000 Romas in Jasenovac concentration camp only.
Citing your words you should help Kosovo Albanians to come to terms with their past so they can walk freely and clean towards the future in their poor province.
senor rusila, the so-called skanderbeg ss group was formed as part of a deal with germany to return kosova to the dardanoi. this group was a tiny band of opportunists that did nothing to help the nazis (unlike the ustash, of course).
and the record is clear regarding the jews in albania - the only nation in europe to have more jews after WWII than before. (three times more) and not a single jew was killed in albania, all were saved, thanks to the clan law, the ancient Kanun, oral code, which you so conveniently denigrate and label as "criminal clans or tribes", showing the typical lack of understanding of ancient cultures exhibited by younger cultures who are eternally obsessed with separating themselves from all but the most modern aspects of human culture.
we are the illyrians, and so are many of you. we kept our language, you were slavicized. that's why many of you look like us, same phenotype.
face the truth, you are mostly illyrian turncoats and russian rejects.
I'm not sure which disturbs me more your absolute and banal lack of objectivity or the fact that you expect to have a "more comprehensive picture" when both prosecutor and defence of Karadzic have made their case. If haven't gotten the picture by now you probably never will. I think your lack of historical and cultural knowledge and context renders your facts lopsided. It's either that or you're smoking something really funky in that pipe of yours. I'd stick to project management if I were you.
PS: If you're going to present facts from history make sure you present all of them not just whatever suits your limited opinion (e.g. WWII ethnic cleansing)
To simpleton and jelen.
It really is sad that readers won't get a more comprehensive picture of topic through debate because instead of giving opposite arguments to my original post about organ trafficking or my comment you both have concentrated only to running down my personality. So I must assume that you agree all the facts I have mentioned in my entries :).
If one internalizes the earlier propaganda to that degree that history is clear about recent Balkan events it is hard to change those brainwashed attitudes. However history will be rewrote and rewrote again when new evidence is coming to public and will be analyzed.