EU launches anti-human trafficking initiative, avoids Kosovo row

Dec 21, 2010, 15:43 GMT

Brussels - European Union officials launched Tuesday a new initiative against human trafficking, but avoided commenting on allegations that the EU turned a blind eye to Kosovo authorities' involvement in the practice.

Last week the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, alleged that Western powers have long been aware that Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and his associates are 'key players (in) Kosovo's mafia-like structures of organised crime,' running money laundering, drugs and cigarette smuggling, human trafficking and prostitution operations.

'I have read about this in the papers, I do not now more than you do ... I cannot possibly comment,' EU Home Affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in Brussels.

She was speaking as she presented a new EU anti-human trafficking website, along with the bloc's newly-appointed Anti Trafficking Coordinator Myria Vassiliadou.

Asked whether the initiative was less credible in the light of the Kosovo accusations, Malmstroem denied this was the case.

'I don't feel I have a credibility problem on this ... we don't deny there are problems in Kosovo and in other countries (but) this report you refer to, I have read about it in the media, I cannot comment what is true and what is not true,' Malmstroem said.

Dick Marty - the former Swiss prosecutor who penned the report - charged that 'all of the international community in Kosovo - from the governments of the United States and other Western powers, to the EU-backed justice authorities - undoubtedly' possess the incriminating documentation he claims to have unearthed.

He lamented that no one 'seems prepared to react in the face of such a situation and hold the perpetrators to account.'

The Kosovo government reacted to the report by denouncing its 'baseless' accusations, while Thaci has hinted he may start libel proceedings against Marty.

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