Thaci says "anti-independence network" out to get him

The Kosovo Albanian prime minister and former member of the KLA has been named in the Council of Europe (CoE) rapporteur Dick Marty's report as responsible for kidnapping Serb civilians in the province in order to remove their body parts and sell them in the black market.

Thaci says Marty's charges against him "will not hold him back", and that the accusations had been launched by a "network which opposes Kosovo's independence".

In an interview,his first since the shocking revelations emerged last week - Thaci said he was "accustomed to such accusations".

Thaci believes that "Marty was not alone in this process, but rather that there was an 'anti-independence club' behind him".

Asked if there was an "international plan for his elimination", Thaci only said he enjoys "fantastic cooperation with the international community".

According to Thaci, Dick Marty's accusations had therefore "also been addressed against the United States and other Western friends".

The outgoing Kosovo Albanian PM said "everything had been planned to deal a blow to the Kosovo state and its war for freedom"

"I'm ready to go to the end, not only politically but also legally," Thaci said.

Albania reject Marty's report

Albanian authorities denied allegations of the country's involvement in organ trafficking presented in a report by CoE's Dick Marty.

Albania's Deputy Prime Minister Ilir Meta said that Marty's report is full of prejudice and based on fabrications, and Interior Minister Lulzim Basha called the allegations unfounded and unsupported by facts, Albanian news agency ATA reported.

Asked about the claims in certain media of his alleged visit to the Yellow House, Basha said his response is the same as in 2008, when the accusations first appeared in the memoirs of former Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.

He added that the unfounded accusations resurfaced in Dick Marty's report in an attempt to defame Kosovo's authorities, ATA reported.