EU prosecutor in organ probe visits Kosovo

(PRISTINA) - The EU prosecutor probing a Council of Europe report linking prime minister Hashim Thaci to organ trafficking on Wednesday visited Kosovo for the first time, an official said.

John Clint Williamson "is visiting Pristina, having introductory meetings. One of his priorities is to come down and look at where we are," his spokesman Juri Laas told AFP. The visit was due to last several days.

"The first step is to do a preliminary investigation. We are still at the stage of preliminary investigation," he said.

The EU mission in Kosovo (EULEX) in June set up a task force to start a preliminary investigation into the report by the Council of Europe.

The task force is composed of prosecutors and investigators and led by US prosecutor Williamson, who is based in Brussels for the probe.

The Council of Europe report said that Thaci headed a Kosovo guerrilla faction which controlled secret detention centres in Albania where the organ trafficking allegedly took place in the aftermath of the 1998-99 war between the Kosovo Liberation Army's guerrillas and Serbian forces.

Laas said the task force had unlimited time to fulfil its mandate.

"Obviously, gathering information and establishing facts will take time."

The war ended after a NATO air campaign ousted Milosevic's forces from the territory pawing the way for the establishment of the UN administration over Kosovo.

EULEX was launched in Kosovo only months after it declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.

It is mandated to oversee and strengthen the rule of law area and can take over cases deemed too sensitive for the local judiciary.