EULEX incapable of probing Kosovo organ trade: Del Ponte

(BELGRADE) - Kosovo's EU rule of law mission (EULEX) is "incapable" of probing alleged organ trafficking by ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Albania in late 1990s, the former UN war crimes prosecutor said Wednesday.

"As far as I know, EULEX is incapable of leading the investigation because, first of all, it does not have an efficient witness protection" programme, Carla Del Ponte, former chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal, said in an interview to Serbian state radio Belgrade.

Del Ponte said the United Nations Security Council should decide on the probe in order to make it "independent."

"EULEX can not lead the probe outside Kosovo borders as it is not authorised to do so, and this investigation demands exactly that," Del Ponte said in an interview, broadcast in Serbian translation.

In 2008 Del Ponte was the first to reveal the claims that Kosovo Albanian separatist guerrillas -- fighting security forces by the regime of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic -- had trafficked organs taken from Serbs during the 1998-1999 war in her book.

An investigation by Council of Europe's special rapporteur Dick Marty into the allegations in late 2010 linked Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaci and other commanders of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army to an organ trafficking ring that used mostly Serb prisoners held in camps in Albania.

Both Kosovo and Albania denied the accusations and rejected the report.

In late January, EULEX said it has launched a probe into the allegations, although Belgrade argued it would support an independent investigation.

But Serbia's war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said in March he was "concerned" with a lack of "activities related to the probe."

The assembly also adopted a resolution calling on Albania and Kosovo authorities to "initiate a serious and independent investigation" into the issue.