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Marty: The Hague Tribunal destroyed the evidence about the "yellow house"

Photo: Time / illustration

The former rapporteur of the Council of Europe, Dick Marty, has said that the Hague Tribunal has destroyed the evidence for the so-called "yellow house".

In an interview for the Serbian newspaper "Novosti", Marty, who drafted a report accusing the leaders of the KLA, including the current president of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi, of involvement in "organ trafficking, kidnapping and ill-treatment of prisoners" during the war , has said that he was interested in the Hague Tribunal for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia in relation to the information and evidence gathered in the field about what was called the "yellow house", but that they told him that "those evidences are no longer exist and that they removed them to free up space, because even then they were of no use to anyone", reports Koha.net.

He says he was surprised by this answer and says that this is really disturbing.

On the basis of Marty's report, the Special Court in The Hague was established, which has already begun to invite the former leaders of the KLA for interviews.

Below is Marty's full interview with Novosti, translated by Koha.net:

News: Eight years have passed since your famous report, and indictments have not yet been filed. Are you satisfied with the speed of the investigations by the justice bodies?

Marty: Your question already contains answers. If I have managed to complete my reporting in just over a year, they have also been able to do so in the meantime. US Attorney Clint Williamson publicly stated in July 2014 that the results reached by his investigative unit, which consisted of forty highly qualified individuals, covered the essence of my report. Immediately after this conference, he resigned! We waited over a year for it to be replaced. His successor from that time has also gone. The third has been appointed, while there are still no results.

News: Is someone doing this on purpose?

Marty: I cannot know this, but I can notice that there have been a series of appointments, which has slowed down the work of the court. There are two dynamics that conflict with each other. I am convinced that there are people who want to work sincerely in uncovering the truth. I also think that there are political interests that want to stop all this. At first they believed that it will not be found. Now they are in a very uncomfortable situation because the people who supported them were involved in something so terrible.

News: Do you believe that in the end there will be justice for those who are responsible in the government in Pristina?

Marty: I don't know what to tell you! It may happen that they are not punished. You know, most of the war crimes around the world, unfortunately, remain unpunished.

News: Can the judiciary be trusted, if the former prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal, Geoffrey Nice, who allegedly hid the evidence of the "yellow house", is now one of the main defenders of the Kosovar leaders?

Marty: When I heard this news, I thought there are two Geoffrey Nice! It is senseless that the deputy chief prosecutor of The Hague suddenly becomes the lawyer of the suspects. This seems strange to say the least. Perhaps, from the point of view of justice, this is possible, but personally, from the ethical point of view, it seems doubtful to me.

News: What happened in the end with the testimonies? Carla del Ponte said they exist, while Nice said they don't exist...

Marty: I know the evidence existed. Journalist Anthony Montgomery was present when the Hague Tribunal investigators were in the "yellow house" and collected evidence. They did this, however, in a very amateurish way. For example, they did not analyze traces of blood. But they found drugs, syringes and many other things and all this was sealed in the Tribunal.

News: How is it possible that some of the main protagonists of your report still deal with high politics in Kosovo?

Marty: What can I tell you? I wrote that report, while on the other hand there is also the political reality.

News: Has Hashim Thaçi sued you for defamation, as you suggested, if he already thinks that you did not write the truth?

Marty: No. In either case, I am confident that such a suit would be rejected. Not only because as a rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe I enjoyed immunity, but also because I can prove that my report is based on the testimony of people who were directly involved in the described acts. There were also those who accused themselves!

News: But the witnesses still fear for their lives...

Marty: Of course you know the case of Ramush Haradinaj before the international court. each time witnesses disappeared, there were mysterious deaths. I completely understand that witnesses are afraid. I am convinced of this myself. Those people are scared to death. They fear for their lives and those of their relatives. Almost 20 years have passed, new generations have grown up, and all those people are not predestined to play the hero.

News: Do you still have threats?

Marty: Just in my new book I write about a comical situation when, while I was in Bern, in front of the main train station, I was waiting for the tram, a man approached me, raised his finger and in German, with a noticeable accent, shouted at me that I have wrote a scandalous report and began to loudly accuse me of having received 1 million euros from the Serbs for it! There were quite a few people around and they were looking at us in shock. I asked him if I would really be there, in the cold weather, waiting for the tram, if I would have accepted that amount of money? Everyone laughed as he ducked away. There were also threats, but I don't want to talk about them.

News: Everyone says you are brave, which is undeniable. Unfortunately, in the 21st century, we still have to talk about the courage of people who are just doing their job.

Marty: I really don't claim to be brave because, as you said, I just did what was my duty. The problem is not that I am brave because I do the right thing, but those who don't are cowards. And these are different things. Only the truth about the Kosovo conflict can lead to reconciliation. I have discovered only a little. Much work remains to be done in this area.

- We are in a hurry to get acquainted - 

News: When it comes to justice, does Kosovo have the right to secede from Serbia, because there was no Republic in the former Yugoslavia, which, according to the Badinter commission, was a condition for secession? Can such complex issues be resolved with formulations such as "sui generis"?

Marty: At the time when I was president of the Commission for Foreign Policy, Switzerland quickly wanted to recognize Kosovo. I objected to the international-legal character, with the support of the expertise of Professor Cohen from the University of Geneva. Switzerland is in a specific situation because it has over 10 percent citizens of Kosovo. I think we were in a hurry and that we could have found some other solution. Kosovo already lives in international infusion.

- I would come to Belgrade -

News: The Serbian delegation from Strasbourg has invited you to Belgrade. Will you come and will your book be translated in Serbia?

Marty: If any Serbian publishing house would be interested in it, I wouldn't have anything against it! Of course I have to think about the invitation. I would not go on a political visit to the Parliament, but to the university, why not.

Translated and adapted from Serbian by the editorial office of Koha.net.