Albania asks human rights body to cancel stolen organ claims

By LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — The Albanian Parliament has asked Europe’s top human rights body to rescind a 2011 resolution that cited since-unsubstantiated allegations of human organ harvesting during the 1990s war in Kosovo. The parliament voted 125-0 late Thursday for a motion asking the Council of Europe to clear both Albania and Kosovo of the organ trafficking claims. In 2011, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly passed a resolution calling for a European Union mission to investigate “war crimes and organ trafficking” in Kosovo and Albania. It cited allegations that Kosovo Liberation Army fighters trafficked human organs taken from prisoners, slain Serbs and fellow ethnic Albanians. In 2014, an EU prosecutor said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute anyone.