RESIDENT HASHIM THACI IS CONCERNED THAT WASHINGTON IS NEITHER MUCH INTERESTED IN NOR FRIENDLY TOWARDS HIM, AND WILL SEEK DEMONSTRATIONS OF APPROVAL, LARGELY TO BOLSTER HIS IMAGE IN KOSOVO, BUT ALSO BECAUSE HE WANTS THE RECOGNITION.
Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) are foreign organizations that are designated by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended. FTO designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business.
"I know a terrorist when I see one and these men are terrorists,"
President Clinton's special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, February 1999
"Albanian drug lords established elsewhere in Europe began contributing funds to the “national cause” in the 80s. From 1993 on, these funds were to a large extent invested in arms and military equipment for the KLA (UÇK) which made its first appearance in 1993… Of the almost 900 million DM which reached Kosovo between 1996 and 1999, half was thought to be illegal drug money."
Statement of Ralf Mutschke, Assistant Director, Criminal Intelligence Directorate, Interpol
Committee on Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime on 13 December 2000
"The KLA was responsible for serious abuses… including abductions and murders of Serbs and ethnic Albanians considered collaborators with the state. Elements of the KLA are also responsible for post-conflict attacks on Serbs, Roma, and other non-Albanians, as well as ethnic Albanian political rivals... widespread and systematic burning and looting of homes belonging to Serbs, Roma, and other minorities and the destruction of Orthodox churches and monasteries... combined with harassment and intimidation designed to force people from their homes and communities... elements of the KLA are clearly responsible for many of these crimes."
Human Rights Watch report, 2001
The Security Council,
...
Welcoming the decision of the Special Session of the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of 11 March 1998 (S/1998/246),
Condemning the use of excessive force by Serbian police forces against civilians and peaceful demonstrators in Kosovo, as well as all acts of terrorism by the Kosovo Liberation Army or any other group or individual and all external support for terrorist activity in Kosovo, including finance, arms and training,
...
POLITICIAN IN SEARCH OF...
--------------------------
3. (C) AS PDK PRESIDENT THACI LEAVES KOSOVO FOR THE U.S.
SEPTEMBER 11, HE IS A POLITICIAN WHOSE RHYTHM HAS BEEN BROKEN
BOTH BY HIS COMPATRIOTS' PREFERENCE FOR MOVING PAST THE WAR
AND FOR POLITICAL MODERATION, AND BY AN ACUTE AWARENESS OF
POLITICAL CHANGES IN WASHINGTON. NEVER ONE TO LOOK TO OTHER
EUROPEAN CAPITALS, THACI NOW FEARS THAT HIS STOCK HAS FALLEN
IN U.S. POLICY CIRCLES. A MAJOR REASON FOR HIS TRIP, HE HAS
IMPLIED, IS TO GAUGE JUST HOW DEEP THE DISENCHANTMENT WITH
HIM GOES THERE.
"In 2010, a report by Swiss prosecutor Dick Marty to the Council of Europe (CoE) uncovered "credible, convergent indications"[7] of an illegal trade in human organs going back over a decade,[1] including the deaths of a "handful" of Serb captives allegedly killed for this purpose."
"The Swiss senator conducted a two-year inquiry into organised crime in Kosovo after the Council of Europe mandated him to investigate claims of organ harvesting bythe Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) after the war with Serbia ended in 1999.
The claims initially surfaced two years ago, when the former chief war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, said she had been prevented from properly investigating alleged atrocities committed by the KLA. Marty's report suggests the KLA held Serbs and other captives in secret detention centres in Albania for almost a year after the war ended. A small number of prisoners, the report suggests, were transferred to a makeshift clinic just north of the capital Tirana, where they were shot in the head before their kidneys were removed."
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