Jeremic calls on UN to support Kosovo probe

He also asked that witnesses be given appropriate protection in order to better shed light on the matter, Beta news agency reported.

At the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Jeremic recalled that the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly had recently adopted a report on the human organ trade in Kosovo which implicated the Drenica group of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army.

"The report explicitly cites Hashim Thaci, the prime minister of Kosovo, as the group's leader. It also cites Xhavit Haliti, the current deputy parliament speaker, as a key organized crime figure in Kosovo and Shaip Muja, an advisor to Hashim Thaci, as one of the main players in the human organ trade," said Jeremic.

The Serbian foreign minister said that the EULEX mission could play an important role in the investigation, but that the mission's mandate was clearly defined and it could only operate inside Kosovo.

Jeremic underlined that because of this it was important for the investigation to be carried out with a UN Security Council mandate.

In his address, the minister also noted that Serbia is a country which is home to almost 30 different ethnic and religious communities, "living together, not side by side".

These communities are respected and protected in laws and in practice, he said, but noted that in Kosovo human rights standards were not fulfilled.

Jeremic quoted Amnesty International when he said that the UN refugee agency and other international organizations "did not consider conditions to be present in Kosovo for a sustainable return of Serbs".