Kosovo: Xhavit Haliti Slates Marty’s ‘Political’ Report
By Petrit Collaku
A senior Kosovo official mentioned in the Marty report said the report was in essence a “political” document, which had relied on sources that had an agenda to discredit the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA.
Xhavit Haliti, senior official of the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, is mentioned in the report of the Council of Europe rapporteur, Dick Marty, as a member of the so-called Drenica group.
The report says the group, led by Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, committed grave crimes during the 1999 conflict, including trafficking in the organs of prisoners captured in Kosovo and taken over the border to Albania.
“I was not surprised by the report. I have followed this issue for years and the content of the report is political,” Haliti told Balkan Insight.
He said data in the report had not been verified and its content was based on unreliable sources and media reports.
“When I say ‘media’, I have in mind the media in Kosovo and Albania and particular people who for political reasons have tried to discredit the KLA,” he said.
Haliti said the report would probably be approved on January 25 at the next session of the Council of Europe and Kosovo and Albania needed to ready themselves for probes by European investigators.
“I believe the result will be similar to the results of previous investigations by [the UN body in Kosovo] UNMIK and [the EU rule-of-law mission] EULEX into the KLA,” Haliti said.
He said Marty and all other factors that helped him to compile the report should deliver the facts to the EULEX investigators.
“I think it’s a competent investigating body. It’s a European investigation body. I think that there is no possibility that EULEX investigation unit to be affected by Kosovo or Albanian politics,” said Haliti.
He admitted that the report has caused heavy damage for Kosovo but this would be fixed when the investigations will prove that none of the allegations in the report are true.
