TIRANA, Albania — Investigators from the Council of Europe (CoE) must be allowed to visit a house in Ripa where Serbia claims members of the Kosovo Liberation Army harvested organs from Serb civilians and prisoners of war years ago, says Kastriot Islami. The opposition representative in Albania’s delegation to the Council of Europe (CoE), spoke out on Wednesday (August 12th) after his government said the CoE lacks a mandate to investigate the so-called “yellow house”. Islami, a member of the opposition Socialist Party who served as foreign minister between 2003 and 2005, says Albania, as member of the CoE, should respect Strasbourg’s decision to launch the probe. Earlier this week, a CoE delegation led by Special Rapporteur Dick Marty was turned away from the house by village residents who blocked its entrance for hours. The delegation ended up returning to Tirana. (Gazetatema – 13/08/09; Makfax – 12/08/09)
| 11 August 2009 | 14:53 | Source: Beta |
| TIRANA — Albanian villagers prevented Council of Europe (CoE) officials from conducting an investigation into the trafficking of human organs, Albanian media reported.
Former Hague chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte mentioned in her book published last year that the home of the Katuci family and the village of Rripe in north Albania was the possible location where organs were harvested from kidnapped Kosovo Serb civilians in 1999.
“Residents of the village of Rripe blocked the road for two hours on Monday and stopped the Council of Europe investigators from coming into the home without a warrant from the Albanian prosecution,” television station News 24 reported. AFP reports that “witnesses and television pictures from the village of Rripe in the north-central Mat region showed angry villagers blocking the visitors in a two-hour standoff”. The agency also said that the CoE team came accompanied by Albanian justice ministry officials. According to Del Ponte’s book, the Katuci home, known as the “Yellow House,” was used to harvest the organs that would later be sold in the black market abroad. “They did not show us a warrant, and we did not know who they were, especially because they were not accompanied by an Albanian prosecutor,” the owner of the house, Abdulla Katuci was quoted. “The Hague Tribunal led an investigation and didn’t find anything in 2002 and 2003, and now they are starting to besiege us,” he also said. According to reports, the Katucis has “for years said that they never harmed anyone”. AFP reminds that UN investigators searched the Katuci house thoroughly in 2004 for evidence of organ harvesting, discovering blood stains, gauze in the garbage area and, dug out from an area near the river flowing below the meadow, syringes. “Villagers would not let them dig up graves in the local cemetery to exhume bodies, saying relatives were buried there, and the case was dropped for lack of evidence,” the report says. In Tirana, Council of Europe officials said that they did not want to comment on media reports about the Rripe standoff. Dick Marty, CoE rapporteur assigned to the case, was not present at the village on Monday. He spent two days in Tirana after visiting Belgrade and Priština. Last year, the Albanian Justice Ministry rejected a demand from Serbia to conduct an investigation stating that “the demand was not in accordance with the criteria called for by the CoE conventions,” because it is “based only on claims from Carla Del Ponte’s book”. Accroding to Beta news agency, Albanian justice authorities said on Monday that country was “open” to all demands for investigation which are in accordance with international conventions, stating that the Serbian demand “was not”. Last week, it was reported that Albania rejected to cooperate in “foreign investigations”. Based on photographs, the Serbian War Crimes Prosecution has identified 10 possible executors and one victim – Predrag Dragovi, a native of Peć. The prosecution believes that in 1999, hundreds of Kosovo Serb civilians were kidnapped in the province by the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and taken to northern Albania where their organs were removed before they were killed. Other than the Yellow House Del Ponte’s book also mentions three other locations in northern Albanian at which organ harvesting was allegedly conducted. |
Source: www.news.upickreviews.com
It is a well known fact that humans have an instinctive ability to strive for survival especially if you’re dying from organ failure. Imagine if you could afford $10,000(China) for a kidney instead of waiting in line at the hospital; you’d most likely head to China as soon as possible before you kick the bucket.
This is an issued that China, Brazil, India and many countries live with everyday. The industry has grown and can only keep growing as more and more people fall into the sick and desperate situation where selling or buying organs becomes a need. Theprices of human organs vary from country to country however the most disturbing news is that people are being scammed and murdered for their organs.
#8 Kosovo
Kosovo is known for human trafficking and organ harvesting. In 1999 after the Kosovo war, new evidence claims that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted 400 Kosovo residents, mostly Serbs, and illegally harvested their organs before killed them.
These allegations were sourced from Carla del Ponte, a former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia. However Carla del Ponte withheld information about this war crime for many years due to the lack of evidence.
#7 Mozambique
photo by: john maier
Mozambique south of Africa, is believed to be one of the main countries where organ trafficking existed. Here the most common organ for sale is the human kidney, mainly used in transplants however there are a few cases involving witchcraft use.
The law in South Africa forbids the sale of organs (‘The Human Tissue Act of 1983’) however it has given special authority to hospital’s medical directors and pathologist. This allows the removal of organs from unknown person(s) or from unclaimed bodies for medical use. This is believed to be the source of most organ trafficking.
South Africa has been famous for murder related organ trafficking however the largestorgan trafficking ring has been caught.
#6 Israel / Palestine
Being called the holy land for the birth place of Jesus, Israel has seen countless carnage, war and poverty. It is also a place where organ trafficking takes place often. Up till a few months ago Israel did not have any proper laws to prevent organ trafficking.
There are strict laws to prevent human trafficking in Israel however the law on organ trafficking is not solid enough and thus the trafficking of organs continues.
The Israeli organ transplanting ring, have been persuading desperate organ sellers from Israel to have their organs removed in Ukraine where the laws are less strict. In some cases these criminals are stealing organs and leaving their donors with nothing, or they are paying very little ($2,000) for a kidney while they sell them to buyers for at least 10-20 times the amount. The organ trafficking ring has been caught thanks to a gun battle by unpaid organ donors who were promised money but ended up in a scam.
It was reported that Dr. Zaki Shapira, a chef of transplantation at the Beilinson Medical Center who’s also the head of a highly profitable organ transplanting ring. Dr. Zaki Shapira was arrested (video).
#5 India
Organ trafficking rings have been running in India for the past 12 years. Among these, was the famous 2004 scandal. It was reported that the Transplant Authorization Committee in charge of preventing organ selling was working with brokers in the sale of kidneys. They believed that they could save lives and it was better to work with the brokers rather than oppose them.
Many brokers, hospitals and doctors have been caught in India the latest being Amit Kumar. However the selling of kidneys is still on the rise in India despite all the scandals and rings exposed. Many still open shops in the illicit hunt for kidneys.
#4 Pakistan
With the abundance of poverty, Pakistan truly has a big problem on their hands. Most people find it hard to make money let alone pay off they’re debts. The only valuable assets these Pakistanis have are their kidneys which have been priced at around $3,000.
In 1994 Pakistan passed “Transplantation of Human Organs Act”. However there are many problems in this act that allow non-relatives to donate organs and receive some kind of compensation for it.
Selling your organs is illegal in Pakistan however some loopholes allow many shady people to perform illicit trades. Watch this documentary from SBS Australia.
#3 Egypt
Egypt has no current laws to prevent organ harvesters. In fact there’s been 500 unlicensed kidney transplant reported each year but evidence indicates that this figure is generous. There is much poverty in Egypt and where there’s poverty there’s organ brokers.
Organ traffickers span as far as Europe in the hopes to find many victims to buy organs from and bring them back to Egypt. What makes Egypt unique to other countries is that the law does not punish organ harvesters. The law is still being discussed and till today we are unsure if organ trafficking will be banned or not.
This article is about an undercover writer trying to expose organ trafficking in Egypt.
#2 China
You won’t find another place like China because unlike other countries, China actually condones organ harvesting. If you’re in dying need for a kidney, fly to a hospital in China where you lay in bed and wait for your kidney to arrive; fresh and ready for surgery. It is unknown how much money is made from the illegal sale of organs as there is little information.
However, there are claims that hospitals head hunt foreigners in need for organs and people are paying anywhere from $10,000 to $65,000 for a kidney.
How it works in China most of the time is really quite ingenious (or in human if you like). China has very strict laws and you can bet your bottom dollar that breaking some laws will get you in front of a firing squad. This is how you end up as an organ donor with proper consent.
In 1984, China introduced a new law, “Rules Concerning the Utilization of Corpses or Organs from the Corpses of Executed Prisoners.” Since the passing of this law many people flock to China and wait for their hand me down organs. In fact doctors are even able to tell you how old your organ donor is before it is even delivered.
In recent events, China has put a stop to hospitals in 2007 by restricting transplants to foreigners and giving first priority to Chinese patients. This does not prevent organ harvesting and in many cases executed prisons organs have been taken without consent.
#1 Moldova
Besides poverty and sex slavery, Moldova is one of the top countries in the world for organ harvesting. The population of Moldova is just over 3 million and the government looks like it couldn’t care less about organ harvesting. It is believed that the government is directly involved with the trade even after the government has issued a ban.
Many innocent victims have been murdered for their kidneys, heart, lungs, liver, and small bowel; by gangs. It is also reported that 10% of all kidney donated worldwide originate from Moldova.
Many years ago, a viral email was sent about people being drugged, then waking up naked in a bath tub full of ice with they’re kidneys removed. This is what’s happening now however many victims are being dumped by the roadside. Some of these activities are believed to be masterminded by a police chef. This report says it all.
Closing
There are other countries such as Russia, Singapore, Philippines, Colombia, Turkey, South Korea, and Taiwan that illegal organ trafficking still exist. And due to poverty and high profits ($50 million / year) on organ brokering, this world issue continues.
TV B92’s Reaction team has won an investigative journalism award, presented by the U.S. embassy and the NUNS, to mark world media day.
The team of Jelena Veljković, Radoslavka Despotović, Jasmina Pašič and Sandra Mandić received the award for their program, “The Secret of the Yellow House“.
This award for excellence in investigative journalism goes to both experienced and young TV, radio and print media journalists in Serbia.
23 journalists from written and electronic media, with contributions in the form of reports, interviews, articles and reportages, were in the running for the award.
U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter said that independent media helped uncover abuses of office, fought corruption, called into question existing norms and ensured a healthy climate,“ adding that without free media there was no democracy.
“Last year showed that the impact of the world economic crisis reflected on the media too, in terms of reduced advertising revenue and serious problems in paying off debts. Many media companies were compelled to make radical cuts and downsize their program schedule,“ said Munter.
“Media in Serbia find themselves in the same position as media the world over. In these difficult times, we must bear in mind that success depends on the quality of management personnel and that only the strongest will survive on the market. I’m impressed by the media picture in Serbia, which is lively and very complex,“ the ambassador added.
The winning program, “The Secret of the Yellow House“, focused on former Hague Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte’s claims of organ harvesting in Albania, during and after the conflict in Kosovo.
Radoslavka Despotović and Jelena Veljković were the first team of journalists from Serbia to visit the so-called yellow house in northern Albania.
Source: www.mia.com.mk
Tiran, (MIA) - Yves De Kermabon, Chief of the EU Mission to Kosovo (EULEX), expressed readiness yesterday in Tirana for revealing the truth related to allegation of former Hague Tribunal Prosecutor Carla del Ponte on trafficking in human organs during the Kosovo war in 1999, MIA’s correspondent reports.
- We are ready to reveal the truth, Kermabon said at joint press conference with Albanian Justice Minister Enkelejd Alibeaj.
Albanian authorities refute the accusations on existence of the so-called ‘yellow house’ in northern part of the country, were Serbs where allegedly stripped of their organs during the conflict as part of an organ trafficking operation.
Serbian War Crime Prosecution Spokesperson Bruno Vekaric stated yesterday that the investigation was under way relating to the allegations of a surgery room existing in the ‘yellow house’ in northern Albania, where organs were extracted from the kidnapped Kosovo Serbs, and it is yet to be established what was going on there.
- We have evidence of a surgery room being set in that house. The UNMIK report that the Serbian bodies have obtained says that the UN Mission investigators have found several penicillin bottles there, Vekaric said.
The UN investigators and Serbian Prosecution Office have been suspecting KLA members for the kidnappings of Serbs and trade with their body organs in the black market.
Ponte has written in her book that the Tribunal had got the information about Kosovo Albanians transferring about 100 to 300 people to northern Albania, after NATO arrival to the province in 1999.
UN launched an investigation five years ago and found various medical supplies in the above mentioned house. However all of the eight witnesses Ponte quotes in her book have vanished in the meantime.
Source: Serbianna
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey told her Serbian counterpart that Switzerland seeks a quick resolution of the question of the Kosovo Albanian organ trade of kidnapped Serbs as well as other Albanian atrocities.
“The process of cooperation between the two countries is also the processing of war crimes,” Jeremic told his host.
Jeremic asked Calmy-Rey to facilitate cooperation between Serbia and the former war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte who is a Swiss national.
Calmy-Rey told him that she will soon answer to him on his suggestion of the enhanced cooperation on the Albanian organ trade.
Carla del Ponte is the first to have discovered that the armed branch of the Kosovo separatist government that is in power now in this Serbian province also ran an elaborate network that kidnapped Serbs civilians, then transported them to Albania where they took out their organs and killed them. Del Ponte revealed her discovery in her recent memoir.
Jeremic noted to her that the Swiss Parliamentarian at the EU, Dick Marti is traveling the region and examining the evidence on Albanian organ trade that has been gathered since del Ponte’s revelation.
Calmy-Rey said that it is the position of the Swiss government that it is important to solve the issue of Albanian organ trade.
Asked about the security that the Swiss have provided during his visit given intelligence that ethnic Albanian terrorists sought to assassinate him, Jeremic said that the his “hosts do a great job”.
Calmy-Rey told Jeremic that Switzerland still stands behind its recognition of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration.
Jeremic said that, despite that, there is room for cooperation.
In addition to the Albanian organ trade, both ministers talked about visa issues, road and air transport, social security and police cooperation.
The talks also included the free trade agreement between CEFTA and Serbia. Jeremic secured cooperation within the framework of the IMF as Serbia is a member of the Swiss-led IMF constituency.
Source: “Serbianna”
Former Albanian fighter with the terrorist group, the Kosovo Liberation Army or the KLA, says that the organs of kidnapped Serbs were pulled out not only in Albania but also in the sea, in northern Italy, north Africa and Middle East.
The witness referred to as I.T. testified that he personally transferred a group of kidnapped Serbs to Tirana and Drac, in Albania, so their organs could be taken out.
Once there, the witness says, “general” human traders loaded them in the ships that sailed into the international waters in the Adriatic.
Once in the international water, doctors, mostly from the western countries, “took them apart” as the KLA members refer to such operations.
The Albanian witness says that he was responsible for numerous kidnappings of Serbs for purposes of taking them apart.
The witness said that in 1999 he led two trucks that drove from Kosovo, via Pastrk, to Tropoje and Peskopi in Albania.
One truck was loaded with corpses of murdered Serb civilians and the other contained live Serbs that were suppose to be taken apart.
The witness says that his commanders for such operations were Daut Haradinaj, Sami Ljusaku and Jakup Krasniqi.
Daut is a relative of the KLA commanded Ramush Haradinaj who was once a so-called prime minister of Kosovo.
Jakup Krasniqi is a leader in the current Kosovo separatist government.
Another Albanian witness, who was held in concentration camp in Lapusik, says that Krasniqi and Hashim Thaci, current so-called prime minister of Kosovo, personally took part in torture of the prisoners.
The witness says that he saw them kill the prisoners there.
The witness says that the KLA was aided by Jihadis from the Middle East.
Some other KLA members involved in removal of corpses say that several Serbian solders were, after torture, taken apart in Kukes and their remains buried in the city cemetery.
They say that other captured Serb soldiers ended up in the hospitals in Valona until a buyer of an organ made an order.
The evidence suggests that an Albanian organ trade started in 1998 when Serbs from Balacevac were kidnapped.
Source: “NIN”
KLA organ trafficking routes, by Belgrade dailyVecernje Novosti
KLA Death Camps, on Land and Sea
Former KLA fighter claims that kidnapped and imprisoned Kosovo Serbs had their organs extracted for sale not only in Albania, but also on the ships sailing through the international waters, as well as in Italy, North Africa and Middle East.
In its latest edition, Belgrade weeklyNIN carries statement of a mercenary and former member of the KLA (UCK, Kosovo Albanian terrorist formation) with initials I.T, who testified about transporting one group of captured Kosovo Serbs to Tirana and Durres in Albania where, with the help of “common” human traffickers, he transferred them to a ship which sailed out to international waters of Adriatic Sea.
According to the witness, that is where surgeons, mainly from Western countries, “dismantled them to their constituent parts”, as the operation of extracting vital organs for sale was referred to by the KLA.
This KLA member, whose name is known to NIN redaction and who is responsible for multiple kidnappings and murders committed in 1999, testified that he drove two waste disposal trucks from Kosovo through Paštrik. One carried the corpses of killed Kosovo Serbs, while in the second he transported the kidnapped Serbs who were still alive. They were first tortured and then killed in KLA death camps in Tropoje and Peshkopi, in Albania.
The main individuals responsible for transfer of victims from southern Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija, according to the witnesses, were Daut Haradinaj (Ramush Haradinaj’s brother), Sami Lushtaku and Jakup Krasniqi.
One Albanian witness, who was imprisoned in the KLA camp Lapushnik, testified that Krasniqi and Hashim Thaçi (current “prime minister” of Kosovo province, appointed by the US-led NATO) directly participated in tortures in the camp, and are responsible for murders of the kidnapped Serbs imprisoned in Lapushnik.
According to the witnesses, in organ harvesting and trade, KLA was also being helped by some mujahedeen with “good connections” in the Middle East hospitals.
Some KLA members who participated in the removal of bodies of the killed Serbs from Kosovo, claimed that a number of captured Serb soldiers, after torture, were dismembered in Kukes, and their remains have long been buried in the Kukes city cemetery. Soon after the war, it was discovered some of the captured Yugoslav Army soldiers ended up on surgical tables in Valona (Vlore, Albania) hospitals, where their organs were harvested for the benefit of the rich buyers from Western Europe and Middle East states.
Others were transported by ships to Italy and North Africa, where they were used in the same way, and the same harrowing fate befell Kosovo Serb civilians who were kidnapped in 1999, after Yugoslav Army withdrew and NATO took over the safety and governing of the Serbian province.
Pound of Flesh
According to data collected by NIN, Kosovo Albanian harvesting and trade of organs started in 1998, with kidnapping of Serbs from Belacevac mine, most of whom were killed in death camps where the mujahedeen were stationed, in suburbs of Kukes and Bajram Curri in Albania.
Information about the mass graves on the mountain Cemernik, in southern Serbia, is of special interest, making this an important location, since it points to the organ traders’ route through Macedonia, toward Bulgaria, Turkey, Moldova and the Arabian Peninsula countries.
One of the most morbid details the report reveals is information about some Kosovo Albanians who carried out their own kidney via this route, extracted in order to “repay debt” to certain KLA members with their own flesh.
As the investigation run by Serbian War Crimes Prosecution progresses, the notorious “yellow house” of horrors in the town Burrel in north Albania has been reduced to only one sequence in a much bigger tragedy, being that the KLA had branched their organ harvesting “business”, spreading it to Bulgaria, Macedonia, Turkey, Middle East, Italy, Germany and Moldova, in addition to various locations in their native Albania. Furthermore, the number of victims who were used in this way and diminished to a status lower than the cattle is far greater than 300 victims mentioned in Carla Del Ponte’s book.
The report reveals that Hague tribunal’s team of investigators which in February 2004 visited the yellow house — believed to be one of the places where the organ extraction surgeries were conducted — had found traces of blood not only in the basement and ground floor of the house, as it was published, but also on the upper floor. Moreover, they have found unmarked grave sites near the house.
Apart from burying the remains of kidnapped Kosovo Serbs who had their vital organs extracted for sale in the vicinity of their training, prison and death camps, KLA was also hiding bodies of these victims by burying them with remains of their fighters, like at Qafa Prušit and Morina (both on border between Serbia and Albania), as well as in the village and city graveyards throughout Kosovo province and Albania.
Source: Russian Television
An old house in Albania has drawn worldwide attention with gruesome accusations that Serbian prisoners had their organs cut out to be sold on the black market for transplants.
Serbian war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric says he’s got more evidence for a story that keeps throwing up new twists.
“We have evidence that there was an operating room in a certain yellow house,” Vekaric said.
Last year, the former United Nations war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte claimed Serb war prisoners had been kidnapped for their body parts. But now it seems she knew only half the story.
“An UNMIK (The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo) report that we got through our own channels said they found a couple of bottles of penicillin in that very house. There’s not enough proof to say there was an operating room, but the investigation is now on and we are trying to find out what really happened,” said the prosecutor.
The alleged crimes took place in the remote villages of northern Albania. New evidence suggests the same could have happened in the country’s capital, Tirana, and even in Macedonia.
According to Del Ponte, Serb prisoners were brought to Ripp village in 1999 by Kosovo Liberation Army fighters. She said they then cut out their organs and sold them on the black market, which provides around one-fifth of the 70, 000 kidneys transplanted around the world.
The claims zero in on one house in particular, a house identified through satellite imagery. It’s well hidden, and has been dubbed “the house of horrors” or the “yellow house.” It’s since been painted white, and the resident family is furious over the allegations.
“Our family has lived in this house for generations, and we were all here during the time these crimes were supposed to take place, we haven’t done anything wrong,” said Mersim Katuci who lives in the “yellow house.”
But that’s not what United Nations investigators are saying. Five years ago, they conducted their own search, and found bloodstains on one of the basement walls, and medical equipment lying on the ground nearby: syringes, drip bags, and a muscle relaxant pump had been thrown there.
“The blood stains are from when my daughter-in-law gave birth,” said Abdulla Katuci, another resident of the “house of horrors.”
“I’ve no idea where the medical equipment came from. We are innocent, simple people. If we are guilty, lock us up in chains, but this is worse – to have the accusations with no proof.”
He says that as many as seventeen people from the UN came to their house.
“They forced us outside for two days, and put strange chemicals around. They had shovels, and took some parts of my wooden floor with them. I don’t think anybody’s house in Albania has been checked like mine,” said Katuci.
All of Del Ponte’s eight eyewitnesses have since disappeared. But they all claimed the same thing – that the killings took place in the basement of the house.
One of the places the investigators checked was the local cemetery. They wanted to dig up the bodies here to see if there was any evidence. But the villagers were up in arms, and because they lacked proof, they had to bury the idea.
Villagers are adamant the crimes could not have happened. They claim the area was almost impassable in those days, and point out that if something like organ harvesting was taking place, someone would have seen something.
“Each day, they would drive to the border to look for proof of the genocide of Serbs. Scientifically, it’s impossible it happened there,” believes village doctor Agif Bruci.
“An organ for transplant has to be done in a hospital. Why would someone choose a house so far away from any hospital or airport? What’s more, Albania only did its first kidney transplant this year, and with foreign assistance.”
But the case is far from being closed and is being reexamined by the Council of Europe.
And the European Union’s mission in Kosovo, Eulex, has just announced it plans to conduct its own investigation into a case that divides a nation and the international community.
Kosovo Liberation Army maintained a network of prisons in their bases in Albania and Kosovo during and after the conflict of 1999, eyewitnesses allege. Only now are the details of what occurred there emerging.
In a run-down industrial compound with shattered windows and peeling plaster in Kukes, Albania, chickens rummage for food and two trucks sit idle in a courtyard surrounded by rusted warehouses and a crumbling two-story supply building.
In the middle of the compound stands a cinderblock shack that was once the office of a mechanical plant that produced everything from manhole covers to elevator cages.
But, during the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia, from March to June 1999, this facility took on another purpose. It was occupied by a guerrilla force, the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, as a support base for their operations across the border in Serbian-ruled Kosovo.
But the factory was not merely the headquarters for guerrillas fighting the regime of Slobodan Milosevic to secure the independence of Kosovo from Serbia.
It assumed more sinister purposes: dozens of civilians, mainly Kosovo Albanians suspected of collaboration, but also Serbs and Roma were held captive there, beaten and tortured. Some were killed, their remains never recovered. The men who allegedly directed the abuses were officers of the KLA.
At least 25 people were imprisoned in Kukes, witnesses say. Amongst them were three Kosovo Albanian women. In the camp at least 18 people were killed, while others were later rescued by NATO troops.
It appears that Kukes housed one of a number of secret detention centres in Albania and Kosovo, and that prisoners were transferred from one facility to another.
Even after the NATO interventions, a camp was maintained in Baballoq/Babaloc in Kosovo, holding around 30 Serb and Roma prisoners, whose current whereabouts are unknown. Other camps in Albania may have held Serbs kidnapped in Kosovo after the war, according to four sources.
The names of several alleged perpetrators have been known to UNMIK for some time. One of them is still holding a high position in the Kosovo judiciary, Balkan Insight understands.
Bislim Zyrapi, an official of the Kosovo Interior Ministry, who was responsible for KLA operations in Kukes, told Balkan Insight that there were no people killed, either at the base or outside of it.
Two of the KLA’s former top leaders rejected the allegations in separate interviews with the BBC.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, who was then the political director of the KLA, and Agim Ceku, former Prime Minister and former chief of the KLA headquarters, told the BBC they were not aware of any KLA prisons where captives were abused or where civilians were held.
Thaci said he was aware that individuals had “abused KLA uniforms” after the war, but said the KLA had distanced itself from such acts. He added that such abuse was “minimal”. Ceku said that the KLA fought a “clean war”.
However, Jose Pablo Baraybar, the chief of the Office of Missing Persons and Forensics within UNMIK for five years, says: “There were people that are certainly alive that were in Kukes, in that camp, as prisoners. Those people saw other people there, both Albanians and non-Albanians. There were members of the KLA leadership going through that camp. Many names were mentioned, and I would say that that is an established fact.”
Baraybar tracked missing citizens in Kosovo and across the border in Albania.
Karin Limdal, spokeswoman for the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, told Balkan Insight that the mission is aware of the allegations concerning the Kukes case, and that prosecutors are looking at the evidence to see if they can bring indictments.
YELLOW MERCEDES OF DEATH
These grave allegations about the Kukes camp, in the north west of Albania, are based on interviews with several sources: two eyewitnesses – one former inmate and one member of the KLA, records from a cemetery in Albania and UN documents that we have gained access to, which detail the testimonies of people ill-treated in Kukes.
Together, they paint a portrait of a brutal prison regime that is at odds with the claims of former KLA leaders, who say they adhered to international human rights conventions and never detained civilians.
The abuses in Kukes may not have been isolated events. According to former KLA fighters who talked to us, as well as independent testimony provided to UN investigators, the KLA maintained a loose network of at least six secret jails in the dozen or so bases they operated in Albania and the two they had in Kosovo during and after the 1999 war.
Those jails were used for interrogations that routinely included torture, according to sources interviewed for this story.
Most former KLA soldiers we interviewed are proud of their war with the Serbian forces, whose bloody actions forced the mass flight of hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians from their homes in 1999.
But some said they felt shamed by what some KLA commanders and leaders had done under the cover of war.
“It didn’t seem strange at the time,” one former KLA soldier, who witnessed the events, said. “But now, looking back, I know that some of the things that were done to innocent civilians were wrong. But the people who did those things act as if nothing happened, and continue to hurt their own people, Albanians.”
Another eyewitness, a Kosovo Albanian, says he was held at the KLA base in Kukes on the pretext of being a Serbian spy, an allegation he vehemently denies.
This man, who did not wish to be named, described witnessing KLA soldiers abusing and torturing prisoners at the base for weeks, often under the supervision of KLA officers.
“I saw people being beaten, stabbed, hit with batons,” he said. “I saw people left without food for five or six days. I saw coffins being thrown in graves. I’ve seen people killed.”
This man claimed most of the captives held at Kukes were non-combatant civilians, mainly Albanians accused of working for the regime, and some Roma. There were also some KLA soldiers, imprisoned for disciplinary measures.
According to both sources, three prisoners were Kosovo Albanian women. Two were Roma from Prizren. The rest were young Kosovo Albanian males, aged between 20 and 27, all accused of collaborating with Serbian forces. The inmate said he also heard shouts in Serbian from prisoners who were being tortured a short distance away from the compound.
The inmate said that he heard “people crying and yelling at being tortured, and I could specifically distinguish native Serbian being spoken there.”
He said some Kosovo Albanian prisoners were shot or beaten to death on the base, while others were driven off in a yellow Mercedes. One Kosovo Albanian prisoner died in front of him and five other inmates, after being shot in the calf by his interrogators and then left untreated.
The records of the cemetery in Kukes shed light on the man who died after being shot in the calf.
According to cemetery records, he was buried on June 6th 1999, four days before Serbian forces pulled out of Kosovo, in a plot reserved for Kosovo Albanians who died in Albania during the conflict ,.
“Every time I saw the yellow Mercedes, someone was taken in that car and then I would never see that person again,” he said. “They were never found.”
The same former inmate said he believed the people had been taken captive for various reasons, which included revenge and greed, as well as allegations that they were Serbian spies.
One prisoner had worked as a policeman in the western town of Gjakova/Djakovica under the Milosevic regime. He was taken away in the yellow Mercedes and has not been seen since.
Another had been a teacher, whose apparent offence was to have a license to carry a gun issued by the Serbian authorities.
The inmate said he believed that more than 25 people were held there from March to June 1999, from the start of the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia until NATO forces moved into Kosovo.
The inmates were mostly from the city of Prizren and surrounding villages. The KLA had apprehended them after waves of Kosovars entered Kukes during the NATO bombing. At least one was arrested as far away as Durres, or Lushnja, in central Albania, according to both sources.
Our source, who was an inmate, recalls another inmate, a Kosovo Albanian, yelling from the barred windows to the troops in the yard, telling them that if they killed him, he had six brothers who would avenge him. “What would you do about them?” he challenged them.
According to the same two sources, and UNMIK documents from their investigation into the case, some of the survivors were transferred in the aftermath of the war to detention cells at the police station in Prizren, in Kosovo.
On June 18th, they, and other people detained by the KLA in Prizren, were released by German KFOR troops, who stormed the building.
The same sources estimated that as many as 18 captives may have been killed in Kukes.
The source who was a member of the KLA said: “I understand that they had cooperated with the Serbs and had done a lot of harm. This would make people mad when one thinks of the massacres happening across the border. But their treatment was brutal. At times, I was sorry for them.”
The former inmate we spoke to was sceptical about whether any of the captives had actively collaborated with Serbian death squads.
“But even if they deserved punishment, no-one had the right to do that [torture] to someone [else],” he said. “No-one has the right to do such things to other human beings.”
A NETWORK OF CAMPS
Kukes was an important strategic location for the KLA. Weapons, uniforms, cash and fresh recruits all flowed through the warehouses and storage buildings at the site.
The base was also important for the KLA military police, which reportedly rounded up suspects from among the mass of civilians who fled to Albania, or were expelled by Serbian forces.
A unit of the Albanian army, stationed at the base in Kukes, assisted the KLA to set up its military police operations, according to several policemen we interviewed.
It appears that Kukes was one of many detention centres in Albania and Kosovo, and prisoners would be transferred from one to another.
Two captives were brought to Kukes from a similar KLA facility near the town of Burrel, where the KLA ran a barracks for training soldiers during the last two months of the war, said the former inmate.
“They told us about people being killed there, people put into lime pits there,” he said. “I could also see what was going on in Burrel from the state [in which] they were brought in… They’d been tortured badly.”
According to the UN documents, the interviews with KLA members and the inmate, other captives were transferred to Kukes from KLA facilities in at least two other places – Durres, and after the war, Prizren in Kosovo itself.
The KLA had intelligence units and military police in most bases they maintained in Albania.
Halil Katana, a military journalist from Tirana, in his authorised biography of Kudusi Lama, the commander of the Kukes division, ‘Kudusi Lama: War General’, writes: “Those units [of the KLA military police] played an important role in establishing the discipline in KLA groups trained in the Kukes area, and in seizing Serb agents who entered the country amongst refugees from Kosovo.”
These units maintained detainment cells in Babine, a logistics centre near the border region of Tropoja; in the training camp of Burrel and at a KLA base in Durres, according to our third source, another member of the KLA.
Bislim Zyrapi, currently an official at the Interior Ministry of Kosovo, was responsible for the KLA operations at the base in Kukes from early May to the end of the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia on June 10th.
He says that the people detained at the jail in Kukes were soldiers with disciplinary problems, and that there were no people killed at the base, or outside of it. But he added that he found the KLA in disarray, with armed soldiers and individuals who wandered freely in town and elsewhere in Albania. “One of the first things I had to do was to discipline them,” he said.
PERPETRATORS AT LARGE
According to eyewitnesses, two Albanian citizens involved with the KLA took part in these interrogations.
One man, described as having long black hair, was especially brutal to the Roma from Prizren, according to one source.
One source said KLA fighters coming back from fighting in Kosovo sometimes took out their rage on the inmates.
The other said the prisoners were tortured into admitting they had cooperated with the Serbian state security forces, UDBA. The interrogators wanted to record the prisoners confessing collaboration with the Serbs.
The same sources that witnessed the base in Kukes, told us that the interrogators in Kukes were KLA officers who had been involved in the capture of suspected collaborators.
Both our sources concerning the base, identified several KLA officers involved in the abuses at Kukes.
One of them is currently in a top position in the judicial system in Kosovo.
We have withheld names of the alleged perpetrators, so as not to endanger our sources.
Some men involved in the abuses at Kukes were also involved in abducting Kosovo citizens after the war, according to former KLA soldiers we interviewed.
Their targets were not Albanian ‘traitors’, but Serbs or Roma who had remained in Kosovo after NATO troops entered the territory.
One Kosovo Albanian who returned to fight in Kosovo after spending many years abroad, told us he saw nearly 30 Serbs and Roma held in a KLA camp in Baballoq/Babaloc, near Decan in western Kosovo, after the war, in summer 1999.
He said he heard screams from the location and assumed the inmates were being tortured. When NATO patrols passed through the area, the prisoners were hidden in a workhouse, the same source added.
This former KLA fighter said he suspects the group was taken over the border to Albania and killed. “I never saw them again, never read anything about them in the newspaper,” he said. “So they probably disappeared into the mountains.”
Source: balkaninsight.com
