The chairman of the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, Rasim Ljajic, stated on Dec. 20 that EULEX should assume responsibility and process as soon as possible the cases of trafficking in human organs in Kosovo.

"We believe this issue must be free of any politics, that it is in the interest of Serbia for the entire case to be processed as soon as possible, that EULEX should assume responsibility, because this is an exclusive issue that is a precondition for the establishing of the process of reconciliation in the entire region," Ljajic said in a telephone statement to BETA from Strasbourg.

Ljajic and the director of the Office for Cooperation with the ICTY, Dusan Ignjatovic, had talks in Strasbourg about the report of Dick Marty on trafficking in human organs with the commissioner for human rights, Tomas Hammarberg, and the general secretary of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (CoE), Mateo Sorinas.

"Considering that Serbia has done much in the processing of crimes in the field of war crimes, that our war crimes prosecution has so far processed 383 cases in war crimes proceedings, we therefore expect others to do likewise in this concrete case - for EULEX to do so," Ljajic said.

He said that "the responsibility is primarily that of representatives of the international community or, more precisely, UNMIK, which has so far done nothing in solving these cases." Ljajic said he hoped the CoE Parliamentary Assembly will adopt a resolution and recommendations, in order for the Ministerial Committee to be able to order the CoE member states to demonstrate readiness and help EULEX in processing the cases described in Marty's report.