Wed, Jan 26, 2011 page6

• Kosovo leader a ‘big fish’ criminal: report

  MAFIA’S MAN? Leaked documents produced by NATO-led peacekeepers handling security in Kosovo contain explosive claims about Hashim Thaci and a close ally

  • The Guardian, LONDON
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  Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has been identified as one of the “biggest fish” in organized crime in his country, according to Western military intelligence reports leaked to the Guardian newspaper.

  The NATO documents, marked “Secret,” indicate that the US and other Western powers backing Kosovo’s government have had extensive knowledge of its criminal connections for several years.

  They also identify another senior ruling politician in Kosovo as having links to the Albanian mafia, stating that he exerts considerable control over Thaci.

  Marked “USA KFOR”, they provide detailed information about organized criminal networks in Kosovo based on reports by Western intelligence agencies and informants. The geographical spread of Kosovo’s criminal gangs is set out, alongside details of alleged familial and business links.

  The Council of Europe was yesterday expected to formally demand an investigation into claims that Thaci was the head of a “mafia-like” network responsible for smuggling weapons, drugs and human organs during and after the 1998-1999 Kosovo war.

  The organ trafficking allegations were contained in an official inquiry published last month by the human rights rapporteur Dick Marty. His report accused Thaci and several other senior figures who operated in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) of links to organized crime.

  The report also named Thaci as having exerted “violent control” over the heroin trade, and appeared to confirm concerns that after the conflict with Serbia ended, his inner circle oversaw a gang that murdered Serb captives to sell their kidneys on the black market.

  The Council’s of Europe’s parliamentary assembly in Strasbourg was to debate Marty’s findings and vote on a resolution calling for criminal investigations.

  Kosovo functioned as a UN protectorate from the end of the Kosovo war until 2008, when it formally declared independence from Serbia. Thaci has been strongly backed by NATO powers and his government has dismissed the Marty report as part of a Serbian and Russian conspiracy to destabilize his fledgling state.

  However, the latest leaked documents were produced by KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping force responsible for security in Kosovo. It was KFOR military forces that intervened in the Kosovo war in 1999 to bring an end to a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Serbian forces.

  NATO said in a statement on Monday night that it had instigated an “internal investigation” into the leaked documents.

  In the documents, Thaci is identified as one of a triumvirate of “biggest fish” in organized criminal circles. So too is Xhavit Haliti, a former head of logistics for the KLA who is now a close ally of the prime minister and a senior parliamentarian in his ruling PDK party. The NATO intelligence reports suggest that behind his role as a prominent politician, Haliti is also a senior organized criminal.

  Describing him as “the power behind Hashim Thaci”, one report states that Haliti has strong ties with the Albanian mafia and Kosovo’s secret service. It suggests that Haliti “more or less ran” a fund for the Kosovo war in the late 1990s, profiting from the fund personally before the money dried up.

  “As a result, Haliti turned to organized crime on a grand scale,” the reports state.

  Haliti is linked to the alleged intimidation of political opponents in Kosovo and two suspected murders dating back to the late 1990s. One was a political adversary who was found “dead by the Kosovo border,” apparently following a dispute with Haliti.

  A description of the other suspected murder — of a young journalist in Tirana — also contains a reference to the prime minister by name, but does not ascribe blame.

  Citing US and NATO intelligence, the entry states Haliti is “linked” to the murder, going on to state: “Ali Uka, a reporter in Tirana, who supported the independence movement but criticized it in print. Uka was brutally disfigured with a bottle and screwdriver in 1997. His roommate at the time was Hashim Thaci.”

  Haliti is also named in the report by Marty, which is understood to have drawn on NATO intelligence assessments.
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