Thread: Serbia seeks urgent international probe into Kosovo organ trafficking

Serbia has demanded an urgent international investigation into the Balkan country's claims that Kosovo rebels trafficked in human organs during and after the former province's 1999 war for secession.

Serbia proposed a resolution at an annual conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe held in Belgrade, seeking "a comprehensive and independent" U.N.-led investigation into the alleged organ trade.

A December report by the Council of Europe alleged that Kosovo's independence-seeking rebels kidnapped mostly Serbs and took them to Albania where they were killed and had their kidneys harvested for sale on the international black market.

Former Kosovo Albanian rebel leaders have denied the allegations as a Serbian campaign to undermine Kosovo's statehood. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia has refused to recognize its sovereignty.

[...]

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/wor...125133674.html

The U.S., Britain and France have suggested in the U.N. Security Council that the European Union should conduct the Kosovo organ trafficking probe through its mission there, which the Kosovo government supports. Russia and China, which have refused to recognize Kosovo, support a U.N.-led investigation.

Do Russia and China smell a cover-up with an EU investigation?

"Black market" organ donorships and transplants are controlled by powerful people. Could this have started during the war?

Kosovo organ donor ring: the Israeli connection

It is fitting that the man described as the "fixer" in Kosovo's alleged organ ring was an Israeli of Turkish descent. Moshe Harel, a fugitive wanted by Interpol in connection with the case, is accused of matching potential donors recruited in Turkey with recipients, many if not all of whom had connections with Israel.
The Israeli market for donor livers has been well-documented, and most international trafficking rings have involved wealthy Israeli patients on so-called "transplant tours". Organ donation in Israel is low due to concerns in the Orthodox community about the body after death.
Until recently, experts said, Israeli citizens were able to claim partial subsidies from health providers when receiving transplants abroad. The loophole is said to have been recently closed after international pressure.

Last month the recipients of organs illegally tranplanted in a private hospital in South Africa were described as Israelis. The donors – said to have included children – were Brazilians and Romanians paid $6,000 (£3,869) for a kidney.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...or-ring-israel