Families of kidnapped Serbs: Kouchner has insulted the victims

The association's announcement states that Kouchner "responded most unprofessionally and cynically, insulting the victims and their families", when a reporter asked him about the case investigating the trade in organs taken from kidnapped Serbs in the province.

Two days ago in Gracanica, the French minister verbally abused the reporter, who said that some implicated him in the crime.

"Sir, you should consult (a doctor). People who talk about things like that are bums and murderers," Kouchner said, and denied that any organ trafficking took place in Kosovo.

The association stated that it was "strange" that Kouchner, UNMIK chief at the time of the alleged crime, did not know anything about the allegations of a former Hague Tribunal Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte that organs had been removed from the Serbs kidnapped by ethnic Albanians, in a yellow house in northern Albania.

"Kouchner, as a doctor and humanitarian, is obligated to help the victims regardless of religion and nation, which he did not show in practice. We believe that the Council of Europe team, led by Dick Marty, will complete the investigation about the organ trade of Serbs and other victims from Kosovo" the families said in the statement.

The reporter Budimir Nicic who found himself at the receiving end of an offensive outburst by French FM Bernard Kouchner has commented on the incident.

"I had no intention to provoke Mr. Kouchner, I was just doing my job professionally," Voice of America's reporter told Tanjug news agency.

"I asked Kouchner, noting that many families of the kidnapped accuse him of having taken part in the organ trade, what his answer to this was, and what his position on the so-called Yellow House was. He then asked me whether I'm sick and insane," Nicic recounted.

The reporter stressed that he was "hurt and offended" by Kouchner's reaction.

In Belgrade, The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) and the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS) condemned Kouchner's behavior.

"France is a country that takes pride in freedom of the press and the degree of its democracy, and its high representative cannot allow himself to, with offensive treatment of reporters, bring into question those achievements, and on the other side, efforts of the international community and Serbia to determine the truth about the crimes committed in Kosovo," said the NUNS statement.

The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) said it had notified the International Federation of Journalist about the incident.

"We believe that just because a person is a foreign minister, they should not be allowed to behave in a cordially rude manner, let alone call a reporter a lunatic, and invite him to see a doctor and check his brains," UNS President Ljiljana Smajlovic said.

"I understand that Mr. Kouchner dislikes to find out that he too is being accused by someone of involvement in the organ trade, but I am astonished by the fact that he pretended to have never heard of the Yellow House, that he knows nothing about it, because, after all, Dick Marty of the Council of Europe is conducting a very serious investigation into it." She added.

Kouchner was appointed as UN administrator in the province after the 1999 war, and remained at the post until 2001.

The Yellow House is the informal name given to the Serbian War Crimes Prosecution case probing allegations that the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1999 kidnapped hundreds of Kosovo Serb civilians, took them to northern Albania, and had their organs removed to be sold in the black market.