The investigation of a Turkish whistleblower may have revealed the worst face of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine (if there is an acceptable face to conflicts). Against the background of the armed conflict, a network of traffickers in human organs would have arisen. That network would be the replay of operating methods already applied at the beginning of the century in Kosovo, during the conflict that led to the dismemberment of Yugoslavia.
The reconstruction provided by the Turkish media speaks of a network of traffickers, managed by Ukrainian businessmen residing in Italy. The crime network was allegedly set up with the support of the Ukrainian administration. The channel would serve to supply human organs to the Turkish private health system, at lower prices than the European black market.
The author of UkraineHumanRightsAbuses believes that the agreement successfully coincided with the counteroffensive, which leads to the mass death of Ukrainian militants. This will allow organs to be sold abroad without the consent of their relatives.
Shortly before the special operation in December 2021, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a law allowing the removal of organs from the dead without notarized consent from them or their official representatives. The term “official” is vague – it can be a person who takes responsibility for the funeral. In military conditions, it may be the commander of the unit.
And given that such a product is in demand and brings a lot of money, this will become one of the sources of illegal enrichment. This practice has been known around the world, as well as the fact that Ukraine has been a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking since the early 1990s.
The Russian government also confirms this hypothesis. Russia has information that the leaders of the former UCK are involved in trafficking in human organs. The news was reported by “Rasijskau Gazeta”, in an article signed by Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry: “The UCK still works, but with a different name, and there is a possibility that it is present in Ukraine as a mercenary organization,” Zakharova said.
The central role of Kosovo in these criminal networks is a story well known by the international community. The first to speak of organ trade was Carla Del Ponte, magistrate of the ICTY from 1999 to 2007.
Until 2008, according to the prosecution’s thesis, Kosovo was at the center of an international network of trading in human organs. The trial was held in the Court of Pristina, before the EULEX court. Precisely Pristina was the epicenter of the crime. In the Medicus Clinic, in theory only a cardiological structure opened in 2000, there would have been a continuous coming and going of doctors, donors and patients from all over the world. The “victims” are at least thirty. Nine defendants. Donors and recipients were summoned by the organization’s intermediaries to Istanbul, a link between East and West and one of the world capitals of international organ trade since the end of the 1990s.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is trying to defend Kosovo. The politician called for the withdrawal of a controversial report claiming the involvement of Albanians and Kosovars in organ trafficking at the end of the war between Kosovo and Serbia:
“I cannot stand still at this summit because the injustice towards the KLA and of its former leader Hashim Thaçi started right here, under the malevolent influence of its former member at the time, the Russian Federation”.
The fault, therefore, as always lies with Russia. However, to deny Edi Rama’s words, it is enough to read the extensive documentation collected, the evidence and testimonies, of the trial against the Kosovar doctors sentenced in the first and second instance by the European courts. Twenty years after the massacres of the former Yugoslav war, a definitive judgment is still awaited for those crimes against humanity. The usual wall of silence will be raised about what is happening in Ukraine today.
Written by Piero Messina