"Diplomatic offensive" in organ harvesting case

20 December 2010 | 09:29 | Source: B92

BELGRADE -- Serbia "will not allow" for the Kosovo human organ trafficking organized by the KLA to be swept under the carpet and be "made relative". Rasim Ljajić (Beta, file) This is according to Labor Minister and Hague Cooperation Council head Rasim Ljajić, who spoke for B92 in Belgrade late on Sunday. Serbia will "enter a diplomatic offensive in all international forums in order to bring this case to its conclusion," said he. Ljajić is today traveling to Strasbourg to meet with top Council of Europe(CoE) officials whose investigator, Dick Marty, revealed his report last week. They will discuss "further steps" in the light of the report, which named Kosovo Albanian PM Hashim Thaci as the leader of a KLA gang of organ traffickers. Their victims are believed to have mostly been Kosovo Serb civilians kidnapped in the province in 1999 and 2000. Ljajić says he will tell his interlocutors that Serbia expects the draft resolution sent to the CoE and based on the report to be adopted - without any amendments. "However, this is not enough, we will also say that it is important to adopt recommendations, toward CoE and its member-states, regarding further steps needed to be undertaken by the CoE to bring this investigation to its conclusion," said Ljajić. "We believe it is important, without any politicizing, to enter the field of law and courts and for EULEX (EU mission in Kosovo) to take over the responsibility for the entire investigation. Serbia is asking for nothing else than for the truth to be established about all accusations, and naturally, for justice to be done, because that is a condition for reconciliation in the region," concluded Ljajić. Meanwhile, Dick Marty is traveling to Moscow today, where he will present his report to Russian officials. The Russian delegation at the CoE said they would announce their position on the document after they had consulted with the Swiss. Last week, Russian FM Sergei Lavrov said in his first reaction to the news that his country was "very seriously worried", and that, if proven true, the accusations from the report detailed for crimes against humanity.