BRUSSELS, 19. JAN. 2015 – David Schwendiman, Prosecutor of the EULEX working group for investigating war crimes and human organ trafficking said on Jan. 19 that the Specialist Court for War Crimes in Kosovo, which will be based in The Hague, meant that, “Of course, this is just one step that must be taken to make proceedings before the Specialist Chambers possible. The process of establishing the Specialist Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office is not yet complete, and more will need to be done, but this decision brings us closer to address the very serious allegations contained in the Council of Europe report of January 2011. He also said that, “It is crucial that this process remains a priority for all those involved, and that the highest standards of international criminal justice are taken into account and fully safeguarded, as they have been so far.” Schwendiman’s predecessor as prosecutor for war crimes, John Clint Williamson, said at the end of an investigation in July 2015 that he believed that there were about “a dozen” cases of human organ trafficking involving former members of the Albanian paramilitary Kosovo Liberation Army, and that the number could be somewhat higher. Williamson stressed that he would be able to raise an indictment against highly-placed representatives of the former KLA for crimes against humanity and likely for war crimes, since they had killed, abducted and persecuted Serbs, Roma and members of other national minorities in Kosovo as well as Albanians who were their political opponents.
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