Prof. Agim ZOGAJ

The story of a fiction

It’s been two years since the arrest and detention of some of the main leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, in other words, senior leaders of the Kosova Republic. The basis for the indictment against them was Dick Marty’s Report, which Report, in fact, was a political device, an unscrupulous fabrication in cooperation with the state of Serbia, Russia and some of their allies, open and secret, that is, even in the Council of Europe. Not more than three weeks after the declaration of Kosova’s Independence, the former General Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Carla Del Ponte, gave an interview to Swissinfo. In the published interview, on March 11, 2008, Del Ponte, similarly, as Serbian and Russian propaganda opposed the legality of Kosova’s declaration of independence. Meanwhile, one day after the publication of Carla Del Ponte’s interview, the Chairman of the Committee for Foreign Policy of the Council of the Helvetic Confederation, Dick Marty, in the interview with the journalist, Silvia Cattori, published on March 12, 2008, similarly as Del Ponte, in the same position with the Serbian and Russian states, had opposed the declaration of Kosova’s independence, allegedly, “… contrary to international law”. In the same interview, Dick Marty accuses, bluntly, with the same chauvinistic language of the Serbian state, the Kosovo Liberation Army, even describing it as a “…criminal organization…that became an instrument of the Americans to enable to those in Kosovo, the creation and maintenance of the largest military base in the world”!?

Carla Del Ponte, in her role as the General Prosecutor at the Criminal Court of The Hague, always under pressure with her own will, the instructions of the Serbian and Russian propaganda, had ordered the development of investigations related to the claims of the Serbian state for allegedly “trafficking of human organs by the KLA “. After the completion of the conducted investigations, the same Del Ponte had ordered the closure, the end of that investigation, of that matter, qualifying the Serbian propaganda as “…a simple fabricated legend, just like similar stories that appear in other conflict zones” ! In the meantime, the above-mentioned issue was suddenly brought up to date in her book, “Hunt: Me and War Criminals”.

At that time, it was more than clear that this kind of witch-hunting, with the most sophisticated methods, first of all, of the Serbian and Russian secret services, will open a chapter of the special war, against the independence of Kosova, against the KLA, and of course, the spears of attacks with the poison of Serbian propaganda will fall on the leaders of the Liberation Army of Kosovo, on those who, on the military and diplomatic level, created the alliance with NATO, with Euro-Western civilization. With lightning speed, Serbia, the historical aggressor of the Albanians, on April 15, 2008 advanced in its propaganda against Kosovo and the Kosova Liberation Army. This time, through the Russian deputy in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Konstantin Kosachev, who, on April 15, 2008, submitted the proposal for a Resolution regarding “inhumane treatment of persons and illegal trade in human organs”? The Draft-Resolution was signed by 17 deputies, relying on that occasion only on the speculative, vindictive statements of Carla Del Ponte, taken from her book. One day after the signing of that Project-Resolution, at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, held on April 14-18, 2008, the Swiss and Swedish parliamentary delegations proposed to open a debate regarding the “consequences of the declaration of Kosova’s independence”. During that debate, precisely on April 16, 2008, Dick Marty’s discussion was, for many reasons, unique, exceedingly extreme and fictional.

Dick Marty did not spare the political, police, investigative, anathema, discrediting vocabulary, similar to the Serbian governors against Kosova. Even if his words are analyzed, then and today, it is understood what the objective of the Serbian plan was, conveyed and broadcast around the world, as brutally as Dick Marty has presented it. The political logic of the speculative propaganda presented by Dick Marty in his own words is in complete unison with the historically known Serbian propaganda against the Albanians and specifically against Kosova. Dick Marty concluded that: “…after ten years of international administration, Kosovo finds itself without a real civil society. All those who are concerned with the issue of criminality, know that Kosova has always been, and perhaps today more than yesterday, a center of international criminality and organized crime (…)”? Dick Marty, therefore, even before drafting his infamous Report, clarifies his position, declaring a dirty war on Kosova, labeling it as a historical “oasis” of “organized crime”. But, Dick Marty, found of his own volition, in the traps of Serbian/Russian propaganda, forgets that, from 1912 to 1999, Kosova was a land occupied by Serbia/Yugoslavia, so how could it be “the center of international criminality” when it was not self-administered?!

Serbian propaganda in combination with Russian propaganda, broadcasted around the world, through Carla Del Ponte and especially by Dick Marty, created an unprecedented confusion in Euro-Western opinion at the time. As a result, without any real and reasoned analysis, based on sources, facts, testimonies, the Commission for Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe on April 16, 2008, commissioned Dick Martyn to draft a Report on issues which, with the Serbo-Russian propaganda scenario, had now become public.
The Euro-Western public was shocked by the words and statements of Dick Marty, especially with his claims that, allegedly, the liberators of Kosovo have undertaken actions for trafficking the organs of murdered persons!? The Euro-Western public could not even have the most basic idea that a Euro-parliamentarian like Dick Marty deliberately becomes a spokesperson for the primitive, chauvinist, uncivilized propaganda of the Serbian and Russian states! The Albanians, while confused by that Gebelsian propaganda, completely immoral from a Euro-deputy, of a model state of civilization and political and civic education, had not taken it with concern, had not reacted to Dick Marty’s speculations. This lack of vigilance on the part of the institutions, especially of Kosova’s judiciary, would have fatal consequences.
Meanwhile, shocked and revolted by that political manipulation of the issue, so sensitive, therefore, also by the unparalleled involvement of Carla Del Ponte, in the unscrupulous spread of Serbian/Russian propaganda. Florence Hartmann, the former spokeswoman for the general prosecutor’s office, reacted. She reacted through an article published in the newspaper “Le Temps”, dated April 16, 2008. In the article entitled, “Carla Del Ponte and the rumors of organ trafficking in Kosova”, she wrote that: “…how is it possible that Carla Del Ponte, whose job it was to seek the truth, against obstacles, and thus fight denial and manipulation, today plunges us into the darkest time of propaganda… To speak today, while for five years it was not brought no new element could support this thesis, it is irresponsibility”!
It is documented, that the Serbian state, through its intelligence service, was determined to instrumentalize Dick Marty, so very soon they made contact with him and made him a victim, on purpose of their trap. It was an extraordinary chance for the state of Serbia, Russia and their allies to, in an unscrupulous way, full of poison and political bile, manipulate Euro-Western and world public opinion. The former Serbian ambassador to Switzerland, Milan St. Protić, precisely at the inauguration of his book, on October 24, 2018, made it public that, directly, he himself, in the presence of Serbian state officials, had given Dick Marty “… the evidence prepared by the institutions of Serbia for the trafficking of bodies and for the Yellow House”!? He felt proud and was praised by propagandizing that he was the main person who influenced the establishment of the Special Court. He had openly admitted that, in several meetings, in a row, where the Serbian Chief Prosecutor and BIA agents had also participated, Dick Martyn had managed to convince him to draw up the Report on the alleged crimes of the Albanians.

The lies, the shocking speculation in the Marty Report

Perhaps, not even Dick Marty himself believed in the morbid fabrication of false information by the Serbian Secret Service, regarding the alleged “trafficking of organs” of murdered persons, and the existence of the so-called Yellow House. Dick Marty, while cooperating with Serbian officials, that is, with their Secret Service, seems to have been too naive to believe in Serbian “scary tales”, or, deliberately, as an opponent of Kosovo’s independence and a staunch anti-American, has believed that, with the slandered Report, it will be at the service of Serbian plans. Even in the investigation phase, always secret and in cooperation with the Serbian Secret Service (BIA), even through Serbian “investigative” journalists, regarding the allegation of organ trafficking, Marty had not found any evidence! EULEX experts on war crimes had informed him of this, even clarifying that the accusations of organ trafficking are only “scary tales”. What’s more, as the investigations developed, Dick Marty, therefore, even in relation to the Yellow House in the North of Albania, found no evidence. That fact was making Dick Martyn and his Serbian collaborators extremely frustrated. However, under the pressure of his macabre purpose, against the Kosova Liberation Army and the liberation struggle of the people of Kosova, although without any evidence, the fraudster and evildoer, Dick Marty in his infamous, completely fabricated Report, writes paragraphs about “the removal of organs for the purpose of trafficking…”!?
It is worth highlighting the fact that, precisely on December 12, 2010, the reporter Dick Marty, part of the group of liberal-democratic deputies in the Parliamentary Assembly, submitted the document, with the same title as the Russian, Konstantin Kosachev, “Inhumane treatment of people and illegal trafficking of human organs in Kosova”! Dick Marty in his Political Report of the Council of Europe, among other things, writes that: “…organs have been illegally removed from detainees in some locations in Albania and then trafficked for transplantation in third countries…”!? But now, two years after the indictment of the Special Court against some of the leaders of the Kosova Liberation Army, none of the relevant paragraphs of the indictment mentions organ trafficking or the Yellow House. Suspicions of organ trafficking were never proven. This was also stated by former prosecutor Clint Williamson, who, through the EU’s Special Investigative Task Force, was involved in the investigation of the Dick Marty Report.

Former prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal and lawyer, Geoffrey Nice, while in a statement for the media in Kosovo, he said that: “…As an external observer, I think the time has come for the prosecutor of this court, Mr. Smith to recognize the harm he has done to your people and come clean and say that we have no such evidence and that no one will be charged with this crime…When I was informed of the suspected organ harvesting by a magazine which wrote about a report and about a witness that Serbia referred to, as K 144, it seemed to me a completely slanderous article!

The story of Dick Marty’s furious campaign and slander, according to the Serbian script, continues with the case of Medicus, one of the longest and most talked about cases in the legal history of Kosova after the war. Referring to the defamed Dick Marty Report, the Council of Europe Resolution in paragraph five states that: “…this criminal activity (organ trafficking)…has continued to this day, as shown by an investigation being carried out by…EULEX -I in connection with the Medicus clinic in Pristina”. The mentioned point takes place in paragraph 168 of the Report approved by the Council of Europe, in which it is stated that the organ trafficking identified in the Report is closely related to the case of the Medicus Clinic. The trial of the Medicus case began in October 2011 and continued for 19 months, until April 23, 2013. The international judge, Dean B. Pinels, in his testimony, among other things, states that: “During the course of the trial, we considered it vital to take the testimony of Dick Marty as he claimed to have relevant evidence as mentioned above. Then we made a formal request through diplomatic channels to the Council of Europe for his participation in the trial and, of course, we assumed that he and the Council of Europe would agree easily.” However, always, according to the aforementioned witness, “To our shock and surprise, Marty and the Council of Europe claimed that he was not available on the grounds that he had immunity to testify. In our opinion, this claim was absolutely nonsensical under the rules of the Council of Europe, which provide for an exception in important cases, but we were never able to secure his attendance at the trial or learn the real reason for his refusal… “!?

Does this mean that the indictments, which were filed, as in the case of Sali Mustafa, with falsifications of false, fabricated “testimonies”, just like the Serbian-Russian scenario, should be dismissed by the Special Court itself? Is he responsible and should there be criminal prosecution against the fraudster, Dick Marty, who, in case he considers himself to have a role in the establishment of the Special Court then, is tainted and is a suspect even with the fact that he refused to testify in the Judicial Process, of the Medicus case? Then, the history of this Special Court and of the Indictments against the leaders of the Kosova Liberation Army will also give the verdict on the responsibility that the Council of Europe bears? And, above all, the institutions of the Republic of Kosova should request, in the international courts, criminal prosecution against the institutions of Justice of the state of Serbia, for the fabrication and dissemination of all those alleged “evidences”, staged “evidences” which what, in the establishment of the special court and in the filing of indictments against the liberators, former innocent leaders, of the Kosova Liberation Army?