Marty: Many expected no positive results from report

The report by Clint Williamson, the lead prosecutor in the special team set up by the EU to investigate crimes against Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo, has come as a surprise to Western governments, which did not expect it to produce positive results, says Dick Marty, a former special rapporteur of the Council of Europe.

(kosovocompromisestuff) Thursday, July 31, 2014

Williamson refers to crimes against humanity, and he does not do it lightly - he knows what that implies, Marty has told the Swiss radio station SRF, noting that this makes his report very significant.It was hard to produce evidence because witnesses have no trust in Kosovo's judiciary or international courts, and there are reasons for that, Marty said, adding that some witnesses faced threats and intimidation, while others disappeared.Marty said that he shares Williamson's optimism with respect to finding the missing evidence of trafficking of human organs (harvested from kidnapped Serbs and Roma).He also refers to crimes against humanity and cases of torture, and the organ trafficking was never my main point, Marty said.I have mentioned some cases, and Williamson obtained the same result, Marty explained.The European and US governments are now surprised because they did not expect Williamson to come up with positive results, he said, adding that three years ago, when the investigation started, no one even thought that a court would be formed to examine these allegations.That means that everyone believed that Williamson will find no corroboration of Marty's report, but today the opposite has happened, and I think that they are in a difficult situation from a diplomatic point of view because now the court must be formed, he said.Although Williamson did not mention the names of those responsible, instead saying that they were senior officers of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) - a paramilitary organisation of ethnic Albanians - Marty believes that it is perfectly clear who they are.Marty published his report in December 2010, placing the blame for these crimes on members of the KLA and its commanders, including Kosovo's outgoing Prime Minister Hasim Taci.In the statement to the radio station, he expressed hope that they will be brought to justice because, he said, the citizens of Kosovo deserve to finally have political leaders whose hands are clean.So far, the links between high-level politics and organised crime have been so huge that it was impossible to establish normal authorities, and the international community is also greatly responsible for this, Marty concluded.The report by the EULEX special investigating team headed by Williamson confirmed Marty's allegations about the KLA's crimes in Kosovo as true.Presenting the report in Brussels on Tuesday, Williamson said that he gathered a large amount of evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the KLA as well as a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing conducted in 1999 and 2000 against Kosovo's Serbs and Roma, and announced indictments against several senior officers of the KLA.However, he said that the investigating team did not find sufficient strong evidence that would warrant an indictment for the war crime of human organ harvesting, but added that there are compelling indications that over 10 people were victims of this crime, and that the investigation will continue.