Organ Theft in Kosovo - Leaked Documents

Leaked Documents

In January 2011, The Guardian released NATO documents from 2004 that identified Hashim Thaçi as under the control of the Albanian mafia, in particular former KLA chief of logistics Xhavit Haliti. Haliti, who "serves as a political and financial adviser to the prime minister", was described as "highly involved in prostitution, weapons and drugs smuggling". According to the article, Haliti uses fake passports to travel abroad because he is blacklisted in several countries, including the United States. "Haliti is also named in the report by Marty, which is understood to have drawn on NATO intelligence assessments along with reports from the FBI and MI5," according to the article.

On 17 February 2011, the media obtained a classified document which suggests that the UN knew about the organ trafficking and the criminal involvement of senior KLA commanders as early as 2003. On 20 February 2011, Jose Pablo Baraybar, former UNMIK Forensics and Missing Persons Office head, confirmed that the United Nations was given confidential material about organ trafficking in Kosovo by an anonymous official. The statements, compiled in 30-pages, were made to the UN by at least eight "low to midlevel ranking KLA members". The documents have been given the name "CX-103".

Head of the ICTY Mission to Skopje and Priština Eamon Smith sent a letter to the ICTY Chief Investigator Patrick Lopez Terez on 30 October 2003, informing Lopez about Smith's meeting and conversation with UNMIK Justice Department head Paul E. Coffey. Smith presented his conclusions regarding the human organ trafficking case based on testimony by former KLA members. In 2002-2003, a number of ex-KLA ethnic Albanian witnesses from Kosovo and Montenegro gave detailed testimony about the revenge killings of Serbs and trading of kidneys, livers and other organs in the aftermath of the Kosovo War, taking place as late as the summer of 2000.

The witnesses reported that between 100 and 300 people were kidnapped in mid-1999 and transported to detention facilities in northern Albania, where they were held. Some of the captives in the 25-50 year age range were subjected to medical exams at given locations. The witnesses described how they buried victims to hide evidence of killings. The UN briefly investigated the claims but did not launch the probe, prompting accusations of double standards against the UN by Serbia.

Most of the victims were Serbs who were abducted in Kosovo between June and October 1999, the document stated. Those people were allegedly held at different KLA-run prisons in Albania and in some cases their organs were removed at a home set up as a medical clinic, where specialized equipment and medical personnel were in place to carry out the operations.

In December 2003, a top justice official in Kosovo, Paul Coffey, wrote to Jonathan Sutch, an ICTY official in Kosovo, that the crimes were reported to the UN in Kosovo by "multiple sources of unknown reliability." Coffey said the information was "based on interviews with at least eight sources, the credibility of whom is untested, all ethnic Albanians from Kosovo or Montenegro who served in the KLA." One of the witnesses is quoted as telling the UN that the first two organ harvesting surgeries were done "to breach the market", and that traffickers later were able to make up to $45,000 per body. "The largest shipment was when they did 5 Serbs together. ... He said they took a fortune that time. Other shipments were usually from two or three Serbs," according to the document.

A source said that the organs were taken through Tirana's International Airport Nënë Tereza to the Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul, and that workers at the airports were bribed "to close their eyes". Two sources said they personally took part in delivering body parts (hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys) to Tirana’s international airport. One source said he was instructed by his KLA superiors not to mistreat the prisoners and that he became suspicious when they were to deliver "a briefcase or a file with papers that would be given to the doctor when the captives were delivered" to the house in northern Albania, adding that he used to bring prisoners there but never drove any of them back.

Witnesses state that top KLA members and doctors from Kosovo and abroad were fully aware of the transport and surgeries and that they were actively involved in them. The sources also told the UN that the house where the organs were harvested was a two-hour drive from Tirana airport. The UN and ICTY investigators visited a house in the village of Rripë in 2004 and found pieces of medical equipment, medicine boxes and blood traces. Other victims include some women described as "prostitutes", of whom at least two were believed abducted in Albania.