Committee adopts Kosovo organ trafficking report

The draft report, detailing locations where members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) took kidnapped civilians to have their vital organs removed and later sold, was adopted by the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee.

In it, Kosovo Albanian Premier and former KLA leader Hashim Thaci has been named as the ringleader of a group that was involved in organ, drugs and arms trafficking.

Reports from Paris today said that the decision came despite "some attempts" to postpone it.

The Marty report confirms information obtained by the Serbian War Crimes prosecution that some 500 Serbs were kidnapped in Kosovo, to be killed in prison camps in Albania, where their organs were removed.

Deputy Prosecutor Bruno Vekaric says that the document will be a reason for justice systems in the region to "mobilize", while Serbian President Boris Tadic says the accusations from the report should be "checked".

After the closed-door debate of the committee in Paris today, a decision will be made whether to send a draft resolution to the CoE Parliamentary Committee (PACE).

Serbian representatives expect this to happen during the day. Amendments to the draft can then be submitted, while the debate on the resolution could take place on January 25.

CoE resolutions have "high moral value", but are not legally binding.

If the resolution were to be adopted in its present form, without significant changes through amendments, it would be the first international document that designates the KLA as a terrorist organization.

Some believe that this ought to be "more than enough" for the EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX, to start a comprehensive criminal investigation, which the UN mission in the province, UNMIK, failed to do.