LJUBLJANA — Killing of witnesses, the fact that everybody knew what Hashim Thaci was doing and destruction of evidence is a scandal, Dick Marty told Slovenian daily Delo.
“Everybody kept quiet. That’s the real scandal, not my report in which I only wrote what many have known for a long time,” the Council of Europe (CoE) rapporteur was quoted as saying.
He added that Thaci’s name had often been mentioned in police reports, diplomatic cables, criminal studies and foreign intelligence agencies’ reports.
“That means that the West knew all along very well what was happening in Kosovo, but no one took any action,” the CoE rapporteur told the Slovenian daily.
Commenting on first UNMIK Chief Bernard Kouchner’s reaction to a reporter’s question about the human organ trafficking, Marty said: “A man who laughs at such a horrific topic says a lot about himself”.
Marty also spoke about his visit to The Hague, adding that he had been utterly surprised by the fact that evidence from the Yellow House had been labeled as irrelevant and then destroyed. He explained that the Hague Tribunal had said it was a normal procedure but according to him, this is not the way evidence is handled anywhere in the world.
Speaking about EULEX, the CoE rapporteur said that there were several highly professional people there but that conditions they worked in were horrible and unacceptable.
“There is no secrecy. All translators are local, there are many local staff. That is why even the most confidential information has been systematically leaking,” he said, adding that if he were a lawyer of a witness in Kosovo he would never advise them to testify before EULEX, “primarily because they cannot protect the witnesses”.
Marty also told Delo that he had more confidence in the Americans than the Europeans when it came to the investigation into the allegations from his report and added that Brussels would do everything it could to make the case sink into oblivion as soon as possible.
“The only solution is a special investigative unit outside Kosovo, with special authority and with a very serious witness protection program. Europe is never going to accept that. Because it knows that my witnesses would really talk and reveal that a large part of the European politicians knew all along what was going on in Kosovo. Do you really think that Brussels wants to hear something like this,” the CoE rapporteur concluded.
