In the tantrums thrown by the
Western powers in the wake of the Russo-Chinese veto of their UN
Security Council resolution on Syria, the US’s UN Ambassador, Susan
Rice, expressed «disgust» at these two states’ behavior. In addition to
these kinds of «hysterics» – as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov so aptly
described them – being calculated to rally the global media further
against the two Eurasian giants, they also serve the purpose of
directing attention away from the West’s own disastrous intervention
track record. On February 8, just four days after the failed Syria
resolution, the UNSC had a chance to discuss another Western
interventionist «success story» – Kosovo.
Many might think that Russia’s and China’s reluctance to give a green
light to foreign intervention in Syria is mostly based on the recent
Libya (and Iraq and Afghanistan) experience. That is only partly true.
For the occupied Serbian province of Kosovo has been under NATO/EU
control for more than 12 years now – since June 10, 1999 – and offers a
much better view of what Western intervention brings than the
still-fresh, although already clearly disastrous, Libyan case.
The first thing that struck attention was the fact that the Assistant
Secretary-General for UN Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet, referred
to the situation in Kosovo at February 8 session as one of «fragile
calm.» Remember – this is more than 12 years after Western powers have
taken complete control of the territory, and almost four years since
they have unilaterally recognized its «independence.» With tens of
thousands of Western «peacekeepers» on the ground for over a decade and
several billion dollars spent – we have nothing more than «fragile
calm.» A «success story» – this is not.
Vuk Jeremić, the Foreign Minister of Serbia, whose province Kosovo
still is according to UNSC Resolution 1244 (as well as Resolutions 1160,
1199, 1203 and 1239, all of which the Western powers have trampled in
their unilateral recognition of the breakaway province), characterized
the situation in Kosovo as «ghetto and barbed wire,» with the Serbian
population being «the most imperiled in Europe.» Practically none of the
over 200,000 people expelled from Kosovo since NATO and the EU have
taken over have returned. The 100,000 or so Serbs and non-Albanians that
have remained are waging a daily battle, not just for survival but for
basic human rights. Pointing to this state of affairs, the Serbian FM
cited reports of international organizations such as Human Rights Watch,
OSCE and Transparency International, which talk of rampant corruption,
discrimination against non-Albanians, politically influenced judiciary,
inadequate witness protection, etc., while the European Commission has
qualified the fight against corruption and organized crime as
«inefficient.»
Economically as well, Kosovo is a basket case, to put it mildly. The
unemployment rate is variously estimated at 40-60%, or even 70%. The
territory has been identified by various international agencies as the
main European center for the distribution of heroin originating in
Afghanistan, as well as a center for money laundering and human
trafficking. It has been referred to more than once as «Afghanistan in
Europe.» In addition, the top of its ethnic Albanian leadership is
currently under international investigation for human organ trafficking.
A report by Council of Europe human rights rapporteur Dick Marty
published in December 2010 named Kosovo «prime minister» Hashim Tachi as
the head of a «mafia-like» group, responsible for smuggling human
organs, drugs and weapons. Marty accused the international community
[i.e., leading NATO/EU states] of failing to act on the intelligence
they possessed. According to his report, Thaci and his accomplices
carried out «assassinations, detentions, beatings and interrogations»
dating back more than a decade. Some members of his group are also
accused of smuggling unfortunate Serb prisoners into Albania after the
1999 Kosovo war, where they were killed and their organs harvested.
At the February 8 UNSC session, Serbia, Russia and China renewed their
calls to place the investigation of this morbid crime under the auspices
of the UNSC. However, as has been the case for almost a year, the US
and other Western Security Council members, rejected such calls,
preferring to keep the investigation under EU, i.e., their own control.
At a previous UNSC session in December 2011, Russia’s UN ambassador
Vitaly Churkin was compelled to remark that Russia «does not understand
why our Western colleagues in the UN refuse to implement» such a
measure, while Serbia’s foreign minister, Vuk Jeremić added that «some
[read Western] UN Security Council members are strongly opposed to the
adoption of a resolution [calling for a UNSC-supervised investigation]
proposed by Serbia,» calling it a «moral abdication before criminals and
war criminals.» China has also backed Russia’s and Serbia’s efforts.
Certainly, one of the keys to this sort of «disgusting» behavior can be
found in the startling admission made at the end of January by former
Chief Prosecutor for the International Tribunal for war crimes in The
Hague (ICTY), Carla del Ponte. In an interview given to the Serbian
weekly «Nedeljnik,» she charged that «NATO and UNMIK [the UN’s civilian
Kosovo mission] prevented an investigation of the organ trafficking
charges» and that, in addition, someone in the hierarchy had ordered the
evidence destroyed. Obviously, an independent investigation under UNSC
auspices would open up a highly embarrassing can of worms for the
Western «humanitarians.»
In any case, Western «hysterics» regarding Syria are old hat to those
who’ve been watching similar performances being played in the Balkans
over the past two decades: first comes the Western media frenzy,
followed by calls from Western capitals that «something must be done,»
followed by threats, sanctions and, lastly, foreign [i.e., NATO/EU]
intervention and the installation of dysfunctional, kleptocratic,
incomparably worse regimes, such as Thaci’s «Kosovo» mafia-state.
Thus, when one reads of «unverified reports» of atrocities allegedly
committed by the Syrian authorities, the first reflex ought to be –
let’s verify the reports first – especially as the Arab League Observer
Mission had detected the presence of an unidentified «armed entity»
(which is certainly one of the reasons why its report has been rejected
not just by the West but by the very states that sent it) that was
responsible for provoking armed response from government forces.
However, on the heels of the first thought should come a second – who
would do the verifying? Just before the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999,
Western «observers/verifiers» came into the Kosovo province under the
auspices of the OSCE, led by another US diplomat, William Walker, whose
previous experiences included (democratically?) suppressing
investigations into death squad killings of Jesuits in El Salvador
during the 1980s, and accompanied by Western reporters. The result? The
targets that were subsequently bombed were precisely located and marked
by the «observers» (a nice name for reconnaissance agents, as it turned
out) – while the Western media, with the help of several fictional
«massacre stories» helped prepare the pretext for the almost 80-day
bombing that ensued a few weeks later. Can anyone doubt that something
similar is being planned for Syria? Can anyone blame Syrians that do not
wish to become «Afghanistan of the Middle East?»
That is why it is vitally important for Russia, China and all the
countries that support them, to succeed in ensuring a balanced and,
above all, sustainable solution to the Syrian crisis, one that involves
the active participation of the entire Syrian public, whose outcome will
not be the simple installation of purportedly «pro-Western» thugs. It
does not, however, appear that Western politicians and media are willing
to give either Russia, China, or the Syrian people this opportunity.
As status quo states that respect international law – one of whose
chief principles is non-interference in other countries’ affairs –
Russia and China are once again at a clear disadvantage. They have been
put on the defensive by the extremely aggressive Western global media
apparatus. There is no country in the world – and there has never been –
whose government does not have flaws. But there has never been a media
force that is able to exploit them to such an extent as today’s Western
global media – while simultaneously ignoring cases such as Kosovo, which
no longer suit their immediate interventionist purposes. It seems,
thus, that, if they do not draw a line in the sand on Syria – Russia and
China will just be faced with a similar scenario elsewhere – closer to
their own borders. So perhaps it’s time for them to be more active and
aggressive not just in defending the status quo, but in pointing to the
West’s own sordid interventionist track record. The «disgusting» case of
Kosovo is just one of the good places to start.
-----------------------------------------
Will Kosovo organ trafficking case be put on wrong track?
| Pyotr ISKENDEROV | 12.02.2012 | 15:27 |
| |
The situation in Kosovo was
expected to become the key issue on the agenda of the UN Security
Council’s meeting on February 8 in New York. Before the meeting the
members of the Security Council received a report by Assistant
Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet. In his
report Mulet notes that the resumption of the talks between the
authorities of Belgrade and Kosovo has «eased the tensions» but the
stakeholders are facing new «significant political challenges». Among
such challenges the official names the situation in the regions
populated by Kosovo Serbs, which remains unsolved.
Giving credit to the diplomatic assessments made by Mulet it is
necessary to stress that the situation in Kosovo remains tense not
because of the activities of Kosovo Serbs but because of the policy of
the regional government headed by Hashim Thaci, the former political
leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). For the Serbian
government and Kosovo Serbs KLA is a terrorist organization while Thaci
is the person who is involved in many crimes.
Thaci and other current political leaders of Kosovo are mentioned in
the Kosovo organ trafficking report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (PACE). According to the report a criminal group of
Kosovo Liberation Army fighters had kidnapped and executed Serbian and
Albanian prisoners and sold their organs on the international black
market. It was expected that in the result the investigation initiated
by the EU mission in Pristina all the details of the criminal activities
of Kosovo separatists would become known.
So far this has not happened. The international representatives even did not demand that Thaci should suspend his office for the period of the investigation.
The investigators are trying to narrow down the case to the activities
of the Medicus clinic in Pristina (closed in 2008), where
transplantation of kidneys to rich patients from Europe, the US and
Canada were performed. But the Medicus is not an infamous «loony bin» in
the north of Albania where in the early 2000-s traces of such
operations were discovered. Ilir Recaj, the former Kosovo Healthcare
Secretary, one of the persons involved in the case is not Hashim Thaci.
It is not a coincidence that that the EU prosecutor Jonathan Ratel, who
is busy with the investigation, said recently that the investigation did
not have any item of evidence pointing at the link between the Medicus
case and the accusations of KLA leaders.
Although in 2010, PACE’s member Dick Marty directly pointed at such a connection, the
investigators are continuing to focus on Ilir Recaj, Israeli mediator
Moshe Harel, Turkish surgeon Yusuf Soimez and Kosovo urologist Lutfi
Dervishi, on anyone but not on the key actors without whose assistance
the organ trafficking in Kosovo simply could not exist. Except for few
cases Serbs are not mentioned among the victims.
Russia insists that the investigation on the involvement of Kosovo
leaders in illegal trade with human organs should be controlled of the
UN Security Council. Russia’s permanent envoy in the UN Vitaly Churkin
made such a statement at a meeting of the Security Council. According to
him, the facts point directly at the involvement of Kosovo’s current
leaders in those crimes. But the investigation is led by the governments
of the countries which earlier helped those people to come to power.
Churkin stressed that Americans are playing the main role there: «What a
coincidence! It is a US citizen who now heads the investigation», he
said meaning the US prosecutor John Clint Williamson. All the materials
including KLA leadership’s worksheets for 1998-1999 are in Williamson’s
disposal. These documents remarkable notes: «A middle aged Serbian woman
detained, of no interest» or «A blonde man caught, must be sent to
by-products. No matter who he is - Serbian or American».
The list of witnesses, made by the US and EU investigators, is also
remarkable. First of all it is Raul Fain, a Canadian citizen, who was
operated in the Medicus clinic in 2008. Somehow the prosecution managed
to attach his evidence to the case unlike the claims of many local
witnesses who had withdrawn their initial complaints or were «reported
missing», like Jilma Altun from Turkey. In order not to let it happen to
Raul Fain he was allowed to testify from Canada through video
communications.
As we can judge from the evidence of the Canadian, who needed kidney
transplantation, he had initial talks with Israeli mediators who
introduced him to the administration of the Medicus clinic. The
operation cost € 87,000. Fain transferred the money to the account of
the mediator Moshe Harel and flew to Pristina via Istanbul where he was
examined by transplant surgeon Yusuf Sonmez, who is now one of the main
defendants in the case. After that the Canadian patient together with a
patient from Germany was taken to the clinic where they received kidney
transplants. According to the prosecution’s report, two women from the
CIS countries served as the donors for the Canadian and German patients.
According to information leakages in some mass media, one of them was
Anna Rusalenko from Russia’s Far East. It was her kidney that was
transplanted to the Canadian patient but she did not receive the
promised compensation of €20,000 and was sent back to Istanbul.
Similar evidence was given by another international witness - Joseph
Koralashvili, a manager from New York who in October 2008 accompanied
his father, who needed a kidney transplant, to Kosovo. The safety of
this witness was ensured directly by the FBI but his testimony was aimed
only to confirm the EU’s official version of the events. Koralashvili
said that during his six day stay in Pristina none of the local doctors
had introduced himself/herself by name and he did not know whose kidney
had been transplanted to his father.
The testimonies of Fain and Koralashvili definitely prove a high level
of international coordination of «black» transplant surgeons’
activities. At the same time the materials of the case still lack the
main facts which were stated by the former Chief Prosecutor of the
International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Carla del Ponte in her
book and reported by Dick Marty - the involvement of the Kosovo
leadership headed by Hashi Thaci in the organ trafficking business. Even
taking into consideration serious accusations against Yusuf Sonmez and
the officials of Kosovo Healthcare Ministry it is hard not to notice
that the EU officials who supervise the investigation are trying to take
the heat off the key persons involved in the case.
Meanwhile in the materials collected and published by Carla del
Ponte contain names of hundreds of Kosovo Serbs who were brought to
Albania in the late 1990s and became victims of organ trafficking
business. The report also states that KLA leaders headed by Thaci were involved in this criminal business.
By all accounts, the EU investigators circumvent these episodes in
their current investigation. The problem is not lack of evidence or
West’s reluctance to put at threat the picture of the Kosovo crisis in
which Albanians are seen as victims and Serbs as aggressors and
criminals. This distortion of real facts served to justify bombings of
Yugoslavia by NATO air forces in 1999 and the following recognition of
Kosovo's independence by the US and the EU member states. It is not a
coincidence that del Ponte published the materials on organ trafficking
not in the early 2000s but in April 2008, after the West had recognized
Kosovo's independence. If the truth on the terrible crimes had become
known earlier Western public would not have made such a confession.
Today the investigation led by the EU faces similar obstacles. That is
why there is a probability that the court will confine itself to passing
sentence upon Turkish doctor Yusuf Sonmez and all references to Serbian
victims will be deleted.
In a recent interview with Belgrade’s daily Press Carla del Ponte noted
that the current investigation is lacking political will. She said that
the international society does not want to know the truth about those
crimes. Human Right Watch’s experts agree with her. They think that
neither the EU mission nor the International Criminal Tribunal for
former Yugoslavia in the Hague are capable to investigate the organ
trafficking case in which Kosovo regime leaders are involved and it is
necessary to establish a new international institution for it. Fred
Abrahams, a representative of the Human Right Watch, is convinced that
the list of hundreds of Serbs who were executed and whose organs were
sold on the international black market is far from being complete.
According to the documents which have been recently released by France
24 TV channel, the UN high ranking officials knew about organ
trafficking and the involvement of KLA commanders in it as early as
2003.
In January, the European Commission decided to start talks with Kosovo
authorities on granting its residents visa-free regime. Another transfer
of financial aid to Pristina is next on agenda. I wonder how the
European tax payers take such money consuming advances the EU make to
the political leaders with such a dingy reputation like Hashim Thaci?
Is Serbia strongly interested in a full scale investigation into crimes
committed in Kosovo? Belgrade and Pristina avoid this topic in their
talks. Speaking in the UN Security Council Vuk Jeremic, Serbia’s
Security Minister said only that the spirit of truth should prevail in
the talks. That sounded encouraging especially considering that Pristina
authorities were presented by the delegation of the government of
Hashim Thaci, the boss of the Drenica group how he was called in the
report by Dick Marti.
Here have been reports in Serbia that a personal meeting between
Serbian President Boris Tadic and Hashim Thaci is to take place soon. In
an interview with Alfa TV (Skopje) Thaci said that Tadic and he should
shake hands. Taking into account that by March Serbia is to report to
the EU on normalization of the relations with Pristina, the probability
of this handshake is high. To punish Turkish doctor and an
Israeli mediator for the crimes of «black» transplant surgeons, to
narrow down the crimes of the Albanian leaders to tricks of a second
ranking official and to make Tadic and Thaci seat at the negotiating
table - the architects of the «new world order» could only dream about
such a solution of the Kosovo issue...
|
---------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment