The full letter addressed to the heads of state and government of all member countries of the Council of Europe, following the effort started with the speech before the Parliamentary Assembly, to remove the stain of shame of human organ trafficking on our nation and on the Council of Europe.

Dear…

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to ask for your attention to an essential matter, not only for the country and the people I represent, but for all of us. This issue is about justice and human rights, the basic values ​​at the foundation of any democratic system – those values ​​that we honor in our daily work and that are increasingly threatened in the current political situation.

As you may be aware, in 2008, a former prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte, published her memoir, “Lady Prosecutor.” There, she claimed that members of the Kosovo Liberation Army had committed terrible crimes, including, above all, rampant trafficking of human organs.

Her accusations were strongly denied in Albania, Kosovo and elsewhere in the region, for the simple reason that the investigations carried out over several years by the chief prosecutor of GjNPIJ, including Albania, had been completely unconvincing. That should have been enough to end the matter where it began: in the pages of non-literary fiction. Rather, it was carried forward by others, specifically by members of Putin’s United Russia party in the Council of Europe, who instrumentalized it to further fuel the Russian narrative on Kosovo. A report was then presented to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (again, in the absence of evidence). Based on the report and the seriousness of the allegations, in January 2011, the Assembly adopted resolution 1782, entitled “Investigation of allegations of inhumane treatment of persons and trafficking of human organs in Kosovo”.

Eleven years later, all the investigative efforts made since then, nationally, regionally or internationally, to prove the allegations of human organ trafficking have succeeded in proving what was known: there is absolutely no evidence, either in Albania or elsewhere in the region, for extraction and trafficking of organs, which could be charged even to a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Moreover, the indictments presented by the Specialized Chambers in The Hague do not contain a single word related to the alleged extraction and trafficking of human organs.

As strange as this may seem, there are no facts, no perpetrators, no victims of human organ trafficking. The report and subsequent resolution by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe relied more on speculation than on facts, on rumors instead of evidence. They have already become an undeserved stain on those who have been unjustly accused and a disgrace to international politics.

On October 13, 2022, I presented these arguments to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, to call for a follow-up report. The case is of paramount importance, not only to protect the rights of individuals unjustly accused of crimes they never committed. It is not simply about protecting due process through court proceedings, a due process that must be fair and unblemished. But it has to do with the citizens of my country, Albania, who continue to be the target of dangerous and baseless stereotypes like this and victims of the hostility and xenophobia that such accusations feed. It is also about truth and justice, without which the very integrity and credibility of international politics and its institutions is undermined.

For your information, I am attaching a copy of my speech delivered before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as a copy of the resolution approved on this issue by the Assembly of Albania.

I hope for your personal support and that of the members of your country’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for the approval of our request, for the initiation of the procedure that will lead to a follow-up report, as an honest and necessary correction of a mistake tragic, whose consequences continue to haunt us.

Let me thank you in advance from the bottom of my heart for your help.

Sincerely,
Edi Rama