Hashim Thaci and so-called Kosovo Liberation Army were responsible for organizing human organ trafficking

This is according to a report submitted by CoE investigator Dick Marty, that should be discussed in late January 2011.

Members of the KLA kidnapped Serb and other civilians in Kosovo in 1999, to transport them to Albania, where their organs were extracted to be sold in the black market, according to this.

International authorities in Kosovo "did nothing to solve this case even though they had the evidence," the report says.

The Swiss investigator, who previously revealed CIA-operated prisons in Europe, is thus once again in the spotlight, with the revelation concerning the so-called Yellow House case.

According to the report, Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's outgoing prime minister, was the leader of the criminal group that abducted civilians and removed their organs.

Thaci headed the KLA Drenica Group in 1999 and organized kidnappings and the illegal organ trade, said the Marty report compiled after two years of investigating.

Thaci's KLA group is described as "the most extreme".

Marty further implicates the now Kosovo Albanian politician, whose party won most votes in the elections in Kosovo held on Sunday, in heroin trafficking and trade in other narcotics, which he substantiates with numerous intelligence reports from several European countries.

"Our first-hand reports have confirmed for us that Hashim Thaci and his close associates ordered, an in some case oversaw murders, imprisonment, beatings and interrogations in Kosovo, especially in the context of operations that the KLA conducted in the territory of Albania, from 1998 until 2000," the report says.

The document blames the Drenica Group for responsibility for the secret prisons in Albania and the fate of people imprisoned there, "among them many civilians kidnapped in the territory of Kosovo".

Marty's draft resolution to be discussed by the Council of Europe (CoE) states that there are many indications and evidence that confirm that both Serbs and ethnic Albanians were held in secret prisons in northern Albania operated by the KLA.

Although many wintesses to these crimes have been killed themselves, others are alive but afraid to testify.

The still-secret report, seen by the BBC in Strasbourg, shows that prisoners were treated inhumanely and were subjected to humiliation, "before they disappeared".

The draft directly names KLA leaders, and says the crimes took place after the end of the 1999 war, and before international forces could impose order.

The human organ trade, which developed in the "post-war chaos", then took other forms in Kosovo and continued to this day, says the report, noting the Medicus Clinic case investigated by EULEX.

Dick Marty specifies that organs were extracted from prisoners in a clinic in Albania near the town of Fushe Kruje. The organs were then transported via the airport in Tirana to rich clients abroad.

Marty writes in the document that concrete signs that the trade took place were evident in the early 2000, but that international authorities in Kosovo "did not consider it necessary to investigate in detail", or investigated "superficially and unprofessionally".

The Marty report will be discussed by a CoE commission on Thursday. If adopted, the Parliamentary Committee will debate it in late January of next year.

"Allegations against Thaci baseless, slanderous"

The Kosovo Albanian government says the CoE report, which states Prime Minister Hashim Thaci headed a criminal organization, is "baseless and slanderous".

"Allegations published in The Guardian were investigated by local and international judicial organs several times and it was determined in all cases that such claims were baseless," the announcement reads.

"It is unacceptable for Thaci's government that a member of CoE Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) is making defamatory statements," said Thaci's outgoing government.

"It is clear that somebody wants to embarrass Prime Minister Hashim Thaci after parliamentary elections in which he was given clear and massive support by the citizens to continue his program of development and governing our country," the statement said.

Marty's report is further described as "low and bizarre", and as "coming from people without any moral credibility", while the document "can only bring benefit to certain circles that do not wish well to Kosovo and its citizens".

The government and Thaci have announced that they will take "all necessary measures - including legal and political", against the Swiss investigator, who made his name revealing CIA's illegal prisons in Europe.

Now the government in Priština is calling upon "all CoE member states to strongly protest against Marty's report and not to take the side of those who want to prevent stability, progress and good governance in Kosovo at any cost".

Jeremic: Thaci has no political future

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic reacted to the news by saying that Hashim Thaci's future is uncertain following the draft CoE report linking him to a crime ring.

"I don't know what sort of future this person has if you take into account the report about the investigation from the Council of Europe about his participation in the heroin trade, human trafficking and human organs and his role as the head of one of the most organized criminal-mafia clans in the Balkans."