Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama did not mince his words at the Council of Europe this week, where he took aim at the international community for risking repeating past mistakes and accused the Kremlin of historical misinformation over allegations of organ trafficking during the Kosovo war.
For the first time, Rama addressed the plenary of the Strasbourg-based human rights body, slamming them for a 2011 report penned by Swiss prosecutor Dick Marty which made unsubstantiated claims that Kosovo and Albania had engaged in organ trafficking during the 1998-1999 conflict perpetuated by Serbia.
He described the organ-trafficking claims as a “fantasy fabricated in the Kremlin and in a very, very intelligent way, trafficked and smuggled into the channels of international politics and brought here to the temple of human rights”.
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In 2010 Carla del Ponte, a former Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia alleged that members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had trafficked the organs of Serbian nationals who remained in the country after the end of the war. The allegations were published in a book, and the CoE appointed Marty to author a report.
“According to the information gathered by the Assembly and to the criminal investigations now underway, numerous concrete and convergent indications confirm that some Serbians and some Albanian Kosovars were held prisoner in secret places of detention under KLA control in northern Albania and were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, before ultimately disappearing”, the report noted.
It alleges that dozens of predominantly Serb captives were allegedly taken to a “yellow house” near Burrel in central Albania from June 1999 to May 2000, where their organs were systematically removed. They would have then been transported to the airport or coast and sent abroad.
At the time, Matti Raatikainen, head of the war crimes unit of Eulex, the European Law and Justice Mission in Kosovo was clear that “The fact is that there is no evidence whatsoever in this case.
Over the years, politicians and those involved in investigating the case have also pointed out the significant logistical challenges behind such an operation, considering the roads in the region at the time were either non-existent or would take days to pass, making transporting organs almost impossible.
The Albanian parliament in July adopted a resolution proposed by Rama’s ruling Socialist Party condemning Marty’s report and describing its claims as unfounded. The answer was submitted to the Council of Europe on August 12.
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Barbaric ethnic cleansing
Speaking for over an hour, Rama referred to the war waged by Serbia as an “intentional barbaric military operation of ethnic cleansing, conducted by Slobodan Milosevic,” resulting in death, displacement, and rape leaving 1600 still missing today.
He accused De Ponte of fabricating the claims to sell books and questioned why the investigation did not go further, yielding only inconclusive results.
An EU task force set up to investigate Marty’s claims found evidence of war crimes but not organ trafficking. It saw the establishment of Special Chambers in The Hague in 2015 to investigate former KLA members, much to the anger of Kosovo who questioned why a similar structure was not set up for Serbia.
As for why he was taking up the issue now, Rama said he was waiting to see if the Special Chambers would address the allegations of organ trafficking or file charges over them, but it did not.
“There are nations in the history of the world who live their entire collective lives, courageously defending their freedom, surrounded by violence, lies and the hypocrisy of an international community which stands by watching as they are tortured into submission,” Rama said, speaking in favour of the KLA fighters who fought for Kosovo’s independence.
The prime minister also addressed Kosovo’s recent application for CoE membership, acknowledging that delays such as Serbia refusing to recognise its independence should not hinder the process.
“The admission of Kosova as an equal member of the Council of Europe should not take any time anymore. Just do it. Do it now. And do it for all of us and for Europe,” he said, also imploring institutions to use the Albanian spelling of “Kosova” instead of the Serbian “Kosovo”.
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His comments roused lively debate in the assembly, with a Romanian MEP questioning how Rama could condemn Serbia on the one hand while partnering with them for the Open Balkan initiative on the other.
Rama responded that it is necessary to work together with neighbours as they remain, and the region should no longer remain the ‘powder keg of Europe.”
Serbia’s representative Elvira Kovac said she was shocked by Rama’s words.
“On behalf of the group, I am shocked; this was disrespectful to this organisation…I’ve been here 15 years, and I’ve never experienced anything like this,” she said.
Lastly, the Greek representative took aim, not over Kosovo which it does not recognise, but rather Rama’s close relationship with Turkish leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
They questioned whether Albania could adhere to EU values while getting increasingly friendly with Turkey, which violates human rights and the rule of law and adopts inflammatory rhetoric in the region.
Rama responded, “I understand it when it comes to Greece; you have your problems with Turkey. I hope you will solve them through dialogue and international justice. But when it comes to us, we don’t compare, and we don’t pick between our strategic partners,” he said.
Echoing the language used in the Commission’s country reports, published this week, Rama added “I will add that Turkey is essential for Europe’s security and stability.”
Kurti reacts
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti, not known for his close relationship with Rama, said the international community must focus on justice for victims of Serbian crimes during the war.
He said the Specialist Chambers, deeply resented in Kosovo and seen as an insult to their war heroes, are not transparent and that former KLA members have been detained without a trial date for two years and counting.
“I can say that the Specialised Chambers are not characterised by transparency, they cannot be praised for transparency, and it will also soon be two years since we have been detained without a trial date.” he noted.
“Genocide happened in Kosovo, NATO intervened to stop it, and we have countless unaddressed crimes. So you can’t talk about the war in Kosovo and defend Kosovo without addressing Serbia’s crime in Kosovo,” Kurti concluded.
