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Probe urged into 'missing Serbs' | |
(about 4 hours later) | |
Human Rights Watch has called for an investigation into claims that ethnic Albanians in Kosovo abducted and killed Serbs, and may have sold their organs. | |
The claims involve about 400 Serbs who went missing after the war in 1999. | |
The rights group says new information has come to light, some of it in a book by former UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte. | |
But Albanian PM Sali Berisha said the claims were like "an Agatha Christie novel" and had been investigated. | |
Kosovo's assembly is due to convene in the coming weeks to discuss whether to sue Ms Del Ponte for allegedly tarnishing the image of Kosovo. | Kosovo's assembly is due to convene in the coming weeks to discuss whether to sue Ms Del Ponte for allegedly tarnishing the image of Kosovo. |
'Organs removed' | |
Ms Del Ponte said in her book that she had learned from "credible journalists" that organs were being sold. | |
She said the sources had told her that between 100 and 300 mostly Serb civilians were taken from Kosovo into Albania, where "doctors extracted the captives' internal organs". | |
At the time UN and Nato forces were being deployed to Kosovo as the war between Serbian forces and separatists was ending. | |
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it had reviewed investigations carried out at the time, and that it believed the allegations that Serbs were abducted were "serious and credible". | |
Fred Abrahams, senior emergencies researcher with HRW, called on Kosovo and Albania to "show their commitment to justice and the rule of law by conducting proper investigations". | |
He added that the particular allegations of organ trafficking were "suggestive but far from complete". | |
But Mr Berisha said: "There has been a clear investigation by both national and international prosecutors and they have found no evidence." | But Mr Berisha said: "There has been a clear investigation by both national and international prosecutors and they have found no evidence." |
He added: "Carla Del Ponte never presented an official request to my government on the matter." | He added: "Carla Del Ponte never presented an official request to my government on the matter." |