Albania - Interview of Mr.Meta with AFP in Belgrade

Albania is ready to open a full probe into alleged trafficking of organs taken from Serb prisoners at the end of the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict, Albanian Foreign Minister Ilir Meta said Friday.

"Albania is ready for a full investigation to (put) an end to these allegations of (former UN war crimes prosecutor) Carla del Ponte," the minister told AFP at the end of a rare two-day visit to Serbia.

Claims that ethnic Albanian rebels kidnapped and killed Kosovo Serbs in Albania to sell their organs abroad, first surfaced in Del Ponte's book "Madame Prosecutor".

According to the former prosecutor her office briefly investigated allegations that some 300 mainly Serb prisoners were kidnapped and taken from Kosovo to Albania where their organs were taken for sale to foreign clinics before they were killed.

Last month the UN rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Philip Alston urged Albania to allow an independent probe into the claims.

"We are ready to cooperate very openly and also in a very transparent way for a full investigation which (will) end these allegations and speculations," Meta said.

"I am convinced they are unfounded," the minister told a press conference earlier when asked about the claims.

Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic asked Albania last year to be allowed to open a probe into the allegations, but he was not mentioned by Meta Friday.

The Albanian foreign minister, who is also the deputy prime-minister, arrived in Belgrade Thursday for a rare two-day visit during which he met Serbian President Boris Tadic.

Meta stressed that Serbia and Albania needed to "speed up the bilateral and regional cooperation" despite the countries' "different views about the status of Kosovo".

Tirana was one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo when it unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 while Belgrade still considers the territory a run-away province.

"I am in Belgrade because we want to be in Brussels as soon as possible and not as a guest but as an equal member of the European Union and as you know Serbia is looking towards that as well," he said.
To get into the EU, countries need "a close regional cooperation and this cooperation would be a utopia without a further improvement of the relations between Serbia and Albania," Meta explained.

Source:isria.com