JURIST - Paper Chase: Serbia and Albania prosecutors meet to discuss organ trafficking allegations

[JURIST] Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic [official website] and Albanian state prosecutor Ina Rama met Monday to discuss allegations of organ trafficking in Kosovo. Former Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Carla Del Ponte [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] alleged last spring [JURIST report] in a new book on her time at the tribunal that about 300 Serbian and other non-Albanian prisoners were victims of organ trafficking during the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo. A spokesman for the Serbian prosecution said [B92 local coverage] that the meeting was productive, despite the "diametrically opposed" opinions held by both prosecutors about what actually happened. CP has more.

In April, Serbia announced plans to officially request [JURIST report] that the ICTY resume its probe into the allegations after Vuk?evi? received "informal statements" [JURIST report] from ICTY investigators concerning illegal organ harvesting. The same month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged [JURIST report] the leaders of Kosovo and Albania to launch an investigation. In June, the Council of Europe announced [press release; that it will prepare a report. Del Ponte has maintained that reliable sources told her that members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) [advocacy website] took the organs of young, healthy prisoners for black market sales.

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