The resolution sponsored by the Socialist Party in the Parliament of Albania, which opposes a report of the Council of Europe with allegations of human organ trafficking during the war in Kosovo, is commented as a good initiative and as an activation of the foreign policy of the Albanian state.

The 2010 report, drawn up by the then Swiss senator, Dick Marty, and approved by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, claims that the leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army were involved in organ trafficking during the 1998- 99.

These claims were investigated by US Attorney Clint Williamson, who in July 2014 announced that his team's findings did not include evidence of organ trafficking, but of other war crimes.

This, in 2015, led to the formation of the Kosovo Specialized Chambers to investigate alleged crimes by KLA members against ethnic minorities and political rivals, allegedly committed between January 1998 and December 2015. of the year 2000.

In the Specialized Chambers in The Hague, otherwise known as the Special Court, the process has already started against some former leaders of the KLA, including: Hashim Thaçin, Kadri Veselin, Rexhep Selimin and Jakup Krasniq.

They are in custody in The Hague since November 2020.

War crimes and crimes against humanity are mentioned in the indictment against them, but "trafficking in human organs" does not appear.

Rama: Albania's voice will be heard all the way to Strasbourg

"Albania's voice on this matter will be heard all the way to Strasbourg [where the European Court of Human Rights is located]", said the prime minister of Albania, Edi Rama, at the same time leader of the Socialist Party, in Thursday's session in the Assembly of Albania.

"Dick Marty is no longer a member of the [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe].

We have nothing to do with Dick Martyn.

We now have the reputation and dignity of an Assembly in the Council of Europe, which has been taken and voted for it.

Okay, they voted for it because they thought it should be investigated.

This investigation process has not brought any justice to the presumed victims, but it has made victims of the main figures of the KLA, because that was also the goal... it has made the Kosovo Liberation Army a global victim - one of the most important moments of national pride of the Albanians", said Rama.

The resolution sponsored by Rama's party states that the claims made by Dick Marty about "killing people for the purpose of extracting and selling their organs and illegal trafficking of human organs in Albania and Kosovo" are claims that "remained unargued, unapproved and not based on evidence and facts".

Milo: Better late than never

The opposition to Dick Marty's report in Albania, in the form of a resolution, comes 11 years after its approval in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The former Foreign Minister of Albania, Paskal Milo, says for Radio Free Europe that, while nothing has been proven about the accusations of "trafficking in human organs", the resolution of the Assembly of Albania is correct, although it could have been done more early.

"Yes, it could have been done faster and it should have been done faster.

But our people say: 'Better late than never'.

Now is, indeed, a very interesting moment.

Albania did very well to take the initiative.

This means active foreign policy, active policy in the national interest and active policy to correct an injustice", says Milo.

Hasani: We waited anxiously

The professor of law and international relations at the University of Pristina, Enver Hasani, says that he does not see Albania's resolution as a delayed initiative.

He says that the initial mandate of the Special Court was to investigate the claims made by Dick Marty about "trafficking in human organs", despite what prosecutor Williamson stated in 2014 that "there was no evidence of organ trafficking".

Consequently, according to him, the current mandate of this court is not in harmony with the investigation of these claims.

"Everyone has expected that organ trafficking will be in the indictment, because that's what Dick Marty's report was.

Therefore, we have all been anxious and had to wait a while, because you cannot stop the indictments.

The end, the indictment or the content of the indictments should have been determined by Dick Marty's report and not by what Williamson says," says Hasani.

Raising the issue in the Council of Europe "depends on the countries that will support it"

In the text of the resolution sponsored by the Socialist Party, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is also called upon to review Resolution 1782, with which it approved Marty's report, as well as "to re-evaluate the allegations of illegal trafficking of human organs in Albania and Kosovo, in the light of the developments that have taken place" during the last decade.

The Council of Europe did not answer Radio Free Europe's questions about whether revising an earlier resolution is the practice of this institution.

Rama, during a media conference in Brussels on July 19, has warned that in September he will personally address the Council of Europe about Dick Marty's report.

The former foreign minister of Albania, Milo, estimates that initiating a discussion on the revision of Resolution 1782 will not be easy.

"It will depend a lot on the ratio of the countries that will support it.

It will depend a lot on the lobbying that will be done not only by Albania, but also by Albania's partners.

First, if they will be convinced that here we are dealing with a case that requires justice and, second, not to affect the work and the process of the [Special] Court in The Hague", says Milo.

He adds that it remains to be seen what will happen in the fall of this year, but, according to him, raising this issue in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe "would be a strong political act and solidarity of Albania in the address of the Albanians and the leaders of the KLA".

Professor Hasani says that the resolutions, recommendations and opinions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have no legal force.

But, according to him, they can have a political effect, because one of the authorizations of this assembly is to investigate the state of human rights.

According to Hasan, if there are enough allies to support Albania, then a commission can be formed regarding the human rights situation of those who are in detention in The Hague.

"The Parliamentary Assembly itself can ask the Venice Commission, for example, to give an opinion regarding the constitutional amendments that established the [Special] Court or regarding the law on the Special Court, for the part that has do with the evidence.

The influence can be colossal if there is political will there [in the Parliamentary Assembly] and this has nothing to do with the fact that someone is contesting it or interfering with the work of the Court", says Hasani.

If Albania's initiative were to go to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Hasani says that this would have an impact not on the work and decisions of the Special Court, but on the acceleration of the procedures that, according to him, are dragging on, as well as on making it more transparent and professional work of the Court itself.

According to Hasan, in the Special Court, the aspect of "judgment in a reasonable time" has been violated, as far as the trial in the first instance is concerned.

Even almost two years after the arrest of the former leaders of the KLA, the date of the start of their trial is still unknown./REL.