On March 2, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner argued with journalists in Gracanica on the alleged trafficking of human organs harvested from captive Serbs, telling one journalist who questioned him in connection with the case to go see a doctor.

According to a KIM Radio report from the Serb enclave of Gračanica today, journalist Budimir Ničić asked the French minister about his position regarding the human organ trafficking allegations.

After meeting with Health Center director Rada Trajkovic in Gracanica, journalists asked Kouchner to comment on claims by the families of Serbs kidnapped in Kosovo concerning his alleged role in the trafficking case.

Kouchner first smiled at the question, and then asked the reporter: "Are you ill...? Do not believe everything that you hear. What are you saying, that Rada and I took corpses to steal organs?" the French foreign minister said.

When reporters asked about the so-called "yellow house" in northern Albania, where witnesses say organs were harvested from captive Serbs, Kouchner replied with a question of his own: "What is a yellow house? Why yellow?"

"You must go get a checkup. Those who say that are idiots and murderers," Kouchner said, in the company of Rada Trajkovic.

The Serbian war crimes prosecution is investigating the allegations of organ theft in Kosovo and northern Albania.

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Prosecutor Carla del Ponte first publicized the allegations in a book called "The Hunt: Me and War Criminals," which she published after leaving office.

On March 2, the Serbian Independent Journalist Association condemned Kouchner's actions saying that "France is a country that is proud of its freedom of the press and degree of democracy and no senior representative (of France) should allow himself to bring into doubt, on the one hand, these achievements, and on the other, efforts by the international community and Serbia to establish the truth concerning crimes committed in Kosovo," the association said.

The association also requested an official explanation from France on Kouchner's behavior, which it said, had more than stretched the boundaries of proper conduct and that it hoped that similar incidents would not happen in the future.

The case, investigated by the Serbian War Crimes Prosecution, a Council of Europe rapporteur, and recently addressed by a high-ranking UN official, is known informally as the Yellow House.