Stefan850
02-25-2010, 03:22 AM
I decided to open a new thread about this, more reports and developments are comming around and the other one is not about crimes in kosovo by any side but economic situation and I think this topic deserves a discussion, being among other things about an allegations of terrible crimes being commited by the NATO allies in the 99 war with Serbia.
TIRANA (*******) - A United Nations (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org) expert accused Albania on Tuesday of stalling an international investigation into allegations of torture, killing and organ trading during the 1999 Kosovo conflict.
"None of the efforts to investigate have received meaningful cooperation on the side of the government of Albania," Philip Alston told a news conference.
Explanations offered to him by officials "amounted in practice to a game of bureaucratic and diplomatic ping pong in which the responsibility for not responding to requests was moved from one office to the next."
"Each insisted that if requested by the right authorities and under proper conditions they would not hesitate to cooperate. But the bottom line is that the issue is definitely stalled."
Former U.N. War Crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/carla_del_ponte/index.html?inline=nyt-per) said in a book published in 2008 her team had investigated reports that around 300 Serbs held in Albania had had organs removed, apparently for trafficking.
Alston, a U.N. Special *******eur mandated by the Human Rights Council to monitor extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Albanian authorities had told him the allegations were politically motivated and baseless.
He said there were investigations in progress by the Council of Europe, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor, and EULEX, the European Union (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/european_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org) police and justice mission in Kosovo.
"The (Albanian) government should do everything it can to facilitate an independent and objective investigation by the international entities investigating abuses," he added.
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/sali_berisha/index.html?inline=nyt-per) has dismissed Del Ponte's charges as fiction. However, claims persist that either Serbs or Kosovo Albanians seen as spies were tortured or killed in Albania in the camps of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/k/kosovo_liberation_army/index.html?inline=nyt-org).
Serbia welcomed Alston's comments. Bruno Vekaric, a spokesman for Serbia's war crimes prosecutor, said Serbia would support an independent international investigation. "That would be the right path to find out the truth and achieve full regional cooperation," he said by telephone from The Hague.
In 2004, U.N. investigators searched a house belonging to an Albanian family after allegations ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Kosovo had removed body organs from Serbs seized during NATO's (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/north_atlantic_treaty_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org) 1999 air campaign against Serbia to stop ethnic killings.
Investigators said they found bloodstains, gauze in the garbage area and syringes but not enough evidence for a case.
http://www.nytimes.com/*******/2010/02/23/world/international-us-albania-serbia-investigation.html
Albania urged not to obstruct organ-farming probe
http://www.militaryphotos.net/newspaper/images/boundedtile/2010/0225/1224265142248_1.jpgCarla del Ponte: was the first to make allegations public (http://www.militaryphotos.net/newspaper/images/2010/0225/1224265142248_1.jpg)
DANIEL McLAUGHLIN
A UN official has urged Albania to stop hampering efforts to investigate claims that hundreds of Serbs were tortured and murdered for their organs in the country during the Kosovo war.
Belgrade says the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted up to 500 Serb civilians and took them to neighbouring Albania for organ removal during the 1998-9 conflict with Slobodan Milosevic’s forces.
The allegations were first made public in a memoir by Carla Del Ponte, the former chief UN war crimes prosecutor, who said her office had received information about a possible Albanian trafficking network selling human organs abroad for transplanting.
She wrote that her colleagues did not find enough evidence to proceed with the case, but Serbia has demanded an inquiry, and advocacy group Human Rights Watch has reviewed the information referred to by Ms Del Ponte and said it merits investigation.
“The bottom line appears to be that the issue is definitively stalled,” said UN special *******eur Philip Alston at the end of a week-long visit to Albania.
“None of the efforts to investigate have received meaningful co-operation on the side of the government of Albania.
“While various explanations were offered to me, they amounted in practice to a game of bureaucratic and diplomatic ping-pong . . . ,” he said.
Mr Alston said it would be in Albania’s interest to have the claims investigated. “Given the strength of the belief . . . that allegations of hundreds of people killed in Albania after June 1999 are unfounded, it would be in the government’s best interest to facilitate an independent and objective investigation by one or other of the international entities currently focused on the issue,” he said.
Ms del Ponte wrote that UN investigators found medical equipment and evidence of extensive bloodstains at a house in Albania where witnesses said the organ removals took place.
Human Rights Watch says it has seen an official UN report that largely corroborates those claims.
Officials in Kosovo insist the allegations are part of Serb efforts to discredit their new state.
UN rights expert sounds alarm over ‘blood feuds’ and domestic violence in Albania
http://www.un.org/News/dh/photos/2010/424550-alston.jpg Special *******eur Philip Alston
23 February 2010 – An independent United Nations human rights expert today voiced concern over Albanian society’s widespread acceptance of settling personal scores through deadly violence and prevalence of violence in the home.
“Blood feud killings – revenge killings by a victim’s family against the killer’s family – continue to have corrosive effects on society,” Philip Alston, the UN Special *******eur on extrajudicial killings, said in a press statement released at the conclusion of a nine-day fact-finding mission to the Balkan country.
Mr. Alston stressed that this is especially true of the “practice of self-isolation by families who fear revenge killings, and a still widespread belief in the justness of collective punishment of innocent family members.”
Urging the Government to conduct a survey and analysis of blood feud incidents in Albania and to increase measures facilitating the reconciliation between families, Mr. Alston noted that the number of such disputes has fallen over the past five years.
“Civil society organizations and some media reports have clearly inflated the extent of blood feud killings,” he said. “While the true numbers are closer to those provided by the Government, official figures – especially relating to isolated children and families – are probably too low.”
In addition, the UN human rights expert underscored the prevalence of violence in the home, noting that at least 15 women were killed in domestic disputes last year and a third of Albanian women reported abuse at home.
“While the Government has adopted important initiatives to reduce the widespread violence against women in Albania, it must allocate funds for its programmes,” said Mr. Alston. “Much remains to be done to address the deep-seated patriarchal attitudes leading to violence.”
During the mission, Mr. Alston also made inquiries into accountability for the Gërdec explosion, killings after the Kosovo war, and communist-era abuses, including allegations that a few hundred people were tortured or killed in Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) camps in Albania.
“None of the international efforts to investigate KLA abuses in Albania has received meaningful cooperation from the Government of Albania,” he said. “Albania still has not comprehensively dealt with human rights abuses, including torture, disappearances and killings, committed during the Communist regime.” Mr. Alston, a Professor of Law at New York University and Special *******eur since 2004, reports to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council in an independent, unpaid capacity.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33866&Cr=albania&Cr1=
TIRANA (*******) - A United Nations (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org) expert accused Albania on Tuesday of stalling an international investigation into allegations of torture, killing and organ trading during the 1999 Kosovo conflict.
"None of the efforts to investigate have received meaningful cooperation on the side of the government of Albania," Philip Alston told a news conference.
Explanations offered to him by officials "amounted in practice to a game of bureaucratic and diplomatic ping pong in which the responsibility for not responding to requests was moved from one office to the next."
"Each insisted that if requested by the right authorities and under proper conditions they would not hesitate to cooperate. But the bottom line is that the issue is definitely stalled."
Former U.N. War Crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/carla_del_ponte/index.html?inline=nyt-per) said in a book published in 2008 her team had investigated reports that around 300 Serbs held in Albania had had organs removed, apparently for trafficking.
Alston, a U.N. Special *******eur mandated by the Human Rights Council to monitor extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Albanian authorities had told him the allegations were politically motivated and baseless.
He said there were investigations in progress by the Council of Europe, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor, and EULEX, the European Union (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/european_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org) police and justice mission in Kosovo.
"The (Albanian) government should do everything it can to facilitate an independent and objective investigation by the international entities investigating abuses," he added.
Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/sali_berisha/index.html?inline=nyt-per) has dismissed Del Ponte's charges as fiction. However, claims persist that either Serbs or Kosovo Albanians seen as spies were tortured or killed in Albania in the camps of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/k/kosovo_liberation_army/index.html?inline=nyt-org).
Serbia welcomed Alston's comments. Bruno Vekaric, a spokesman for Serbia's war crimes prosecutor, said Serbia would support an independent international investigation. "That would be the right path to find out the truth and achieve full regional cooperation," he said by telephone from The Hague.
In 2004, U.N. investigators searched a house belonging to an Albanian family after allegations ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Kosovo had removed body organs from Serbs seized during NATO's (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/north_atlantic_treaty_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org) 1999 air campaign against Serbia to stop ethnic killings.
Investigators said they found bloodstains, gauze in the garbage area and syringes but not enough evidence for a case.
http://www.nytimes.com/*******/2010/02/23/world/international-us-albania-serbia-investigation.html
Albania urged not to obstruct organ-farming probe
http://www.militaryphotos.net/newspaper/images/boundedtile/2010/0225/1224265142248_1.jpgCarla del Ponte: was the first to make allegations public (http://www.militaryphotos.net/newspaper/images/2010/0225/1224265142248_1.jpg)
DANIEL McLAUGHLIN
A UN official has urged Albania to stop hampering efforts to investigate claims that hundreds of Serbs were tortured and murdered for their organs in the country during the Kosovo war.
Belgrade says the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted up to 500 Serb civilians and took them to neighbouring Albania for organ removal during the 1998-9 conflict with Slobodan Milosevic’s forces.
The allegations were first made public in a memoir by Carla Del Ponte, the former chief UN war crimes prosecutor, who said her office had received information about a possible Albanian trafficking network selling human organs abroad for transplanting.
She wrote that her colleagues did not find enough evidence to proceed with the case, but Serbia has demanded an inquiry, and advocacy group Human Rights Watch has reviewed the information referred to by Ms Del Ponte and said it merits investigation.
“The bottom line appears to be that the issue is definitively stalled,” said UN special *******eur Philip Alston at the end of a week-long visit to Albania.
“None of the efforts to investigate have received meaningful co-operation on the side of the government of Albania.
“While various explanations were offered to me, they amounted in practice to a game of bureaucratic and diplomatic ping-pong . . . ,” he said.
Mr Alston said it would be in Albania’s interest to have the claims investigated. “Given the strength of the belief . . . that allegations of hundreds of people killed in Albania after June 1999 are unfounded, it would be in the government’s best interest to facilitate an independent and objective investigation by one or other of the international entities currently focused on the issue,” he said.
Ms del Ponte wrote that UN investigators found medical equipment and evidence of extensive bloodstains at a house in Albania where witnesses said the organ removals took place.
Human Rights Watch says it has seen an official UN report that largely corroborates those claims.
Officials in Kosovo insist the allegations are part of Serb efforts to discredit their new state.
UN rights expert sounds alarm over ‘blood feuds’ and domestic violence in Albania
http://www.un.org/News/dh/photos/2010/424550-alston.jpg Special *******eur Philip Alston
23 February 2010 – An independent United Nations human rights expert today voiced concern over Albanian society’s widespread acceptance of settling personal scores through deadly violence and prevalence of violence in the home.
“Blood feud killings – revenge killings by a victim’s family against the killer’s family – continue to have corrosive effects on society,” Philip Alston, the UN Special *******eur on extrajudicial killings, said in a press statement released at the conclusion of a nine-day fact-finding mission to the Balkan country.
Mr. Alston stressed that this is especially true of the “practice of self-isolation by families who fear revenge killings, and a still widespread belief in the justness of collective punishment of innocent family members.”
Urging the Government to conduct a survey and analysis of blood feud incidents in Albania and to increase measures facilitating the reconciliation between families, Mr. Alston noted that the number of such disputes has fallen over the past five years.
“Civil society organizations and some media reports have clearly inflated the extent of blood feud killings,” he said. “While the true numbers are closer to those provided by the Government, official figures – especially relating to isolated children and families – are probably too low.”
In addition, the UN human rights expert underscored the prevalence of violence in the home, noting that at least 15 women were killed in domestic disputes last year and a third of Albanian women reported abuse at home.
“While the Government has adopted important initiatives to reduce the widespread violence against women in Albania, it must allocate funds for its programmes,” said Mr. Alston. “Much remains to be done to address the deep-seated patriarchal attitudes leading to violence.”
During the mission, Mr. Alston also made inquiries into accountability for the Gërdec explosion, killings after the Kosovo war, and communist-era abuses, including allegations that a few hundred people were tortured or killed in Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) camps in Albania.
“None of the international efforts to investigate KLA abuses in Albania has received meaningful cooperation from the Government of Albania,” he said. “Albania still has not comprehensively dealt with human rights abuses, including torture, disappearances and killings, committed during the Communist regime.” Mr. Alston, a Professor of Law at New York University and Special *******eur since 2004, reports to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council in an independent, unpaid capacity.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33866&Cr=albania&Cr1=