Inquiry
sought in Ahtisaari bribery allegations
June 25, 2007 -- The Speaker of the Parliament of Serbia, Oliver Dulic,
is calling for a formal inquiry into allegations that the Finnish UN Envoy
for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, has received bribes in access of 2 million
Euros from an Albanian organized crime figure in order to have Ahtisaari
write a proposal that will recommend independence for the Serbian province
of Kosovo.
A report alleging Ahtisaari took bribes was reported over the weekend
by a Bosnian news agency, Focus, specifying that German intelligence, the
Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND, has uncovered accounts held by Ahtisaari
that received 2 million Euros and that on at least two occasions Ahtisaari
was a recipient of cash payments totaling in access of 40 million Euros.
According to Focus, German BND Secret Service Brigadier Luke Neiman,
who ran the operation, has a recorded conversation Ahtisaari held with
an unnamed ethnic Albanian talking about a transfer of 2 million into Ahtisaari's
account from a Swiss bank with an account number 239700-93457-00097 that
was masked by an offshore account with a code XS52-KOLER.
It is alleged that these accounts were ownership of Exhet Boria, a Kosovo
Albanian known in the criminal circles to be in the very high echelons
of the Albanian organized crime that dominates heroin trade in Europe.
Focus also alleges that German BND has records as of February 12, 2007,
6:23 a.m., where a jeep owned by the Kosovo Albanian government arrived
at the building where UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari was stationed and
handed over two silver color briefcases to Ahtisaari. Focus says the BND
agents confirmed later that the briefcases were loaded with cash.
"All of this his, of course, should be looked into," said Serbia's speaker
of the Parliament Oliver Dulic "and if proven true, it will throw a long
shadow over the final [Kosovo] resolution."
According to the Focus, a German report was already filed at the UN.
Both UN and Martti Ahtisaari have not made any statements in regards
to the allegations made.
Kosovo is a Serbian province administered by the UN since 1999 when
NATO drove off Serbian forces defending themselves from the Muslim Albanian
separatists.
serbianna June 25, 2007
Views
& Analysis
