[img width= height=]http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2011/1102/kosovo_0204.jpg[/img]
Kosovars pass by portrait of Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci on a huge banner placed
on the headquarters of the Kosovo Democratic Party, in Pristina, Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011
Visar Kryeziu / AP
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http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2046726,00.html#ixzz1DxoVAT3uFor the longest time, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and other top Kosovar politicians
enjoyed an unchallenged reputation as war heroes, thanks to their roles in an armed uprising by
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that helped end violent Serb rule in 1999 and paved the way
for independence nine years later.
Now that image is shattered, as Thaci and other leading authorities find themselves accused
of grave crimes that include the harvesting and trafficking of the organs of murdered prisoners.
An official investigation into the allegations has just been launched.
But in Kosovo's climate of witness intimidation, the investigation seems to have stalled before it's even started.
It was Dick Marty, a special rapporteur for the Council of Europe, a human-rights club of countries on the continent,
who dropped the bombshell six weeks ago.
He claims that after the 1998-1999 conflict, senior KLA officers abducted Serbs, Roma and Kosovo
Albanians who were suspected of collaborating with Serbia and sent them to secret prisons in neighboring Albania.
There, Marty alleges, prisoners were tortured and killed — and, in some cases, had their organs removed to be sold to clients abroad.
Thaci, who was a KLA leader at the time, has denied the accusations,
adding that: "The KLA led a pure war. It has followed international standards."
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http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2046726,00.html#ixzz1DxmXsi4VLinkback:
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