Organ trade
August 4, 2009
The Council of Europe launched a probe on Monday investigating claims of inhumane treatment of people and illegal trafficking in human organs by Kosovo guerrillas.
The council sent Dick Marty, a Swiss senator, to the Balkans, where he will meet with official government and judicial representatives in Serbia and Albania. He will also talk to NGOs, particularly those representing the families of missing persons.
The accusations of organ harvesting by Kosovo guerrillas were published in the book "Madame Prosecutor" written by the former UN chief war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.
Serbian officials say up to 500 Kosovo Serbs vanished during the 1998-99 war. They say some of them may have had their organs removed.
Disturbing details
In her book, Del Ponte claims that members of the Kosovo Liberation Army seized hundreds of people, not just Serbs, but also Roma, Albanians and people from other member states of the Council of Europe, including Moldova, Russia and Romania.
Del Ponte claims their organs were removed and trafficked through Rinas airport in Tirana to foreign clinics for transplantations.
The Council of Europe said it wanted to conduct its own investigation to find out whether Del Ponte's claims were true. The council also said it wanted to find those guilty of crimes it described as "monstrous."
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders, including President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, have denied the allegations.
However, Human Rights Watch has said it has seen the information from Del Ponte's sources and considers it credible. It has called for a proper investigation into the missing people.
Illegal transplants
There are concerns that due to the medical advances in transplantation and long waiting lists for organs, illegal trafficking in eastern Europe will soar.
The Council of Europe has said reliable facts and data are hard to obtain, but has heard allegations of women and children being collected by people-smugglers in Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria and taken to Istanbul where organs are surgically removed.
In other cases, poverty has driven young people in some parts of eastern Europe to sell one of their kidneys for sums of up to 2,000 euros ($3,000.) Those who received the organs paid 70,000 and 140,000 euros ($100,000 and $200,000) per transplant.
wl/AFP/AP
Editor: Kyle James