Neighbors say Kosovo smuggles drugs and organs

The president of the Czech Republic says that Kosovo, a self-declared independent state that is 95 percent Muslim, is funding terrorism from drug smuggling. President Zeman’s comments dovetail with longstanding accusations from Serbia that Kosovo profits from harvesting human organs.

Funding jihad from such activities wouldn’t be unprecedented. Elsewhere in the world, Hamas makes money from the illicit organ trade, and terrorist groups including the Taliban and Hezbollah make hundreds of millions of dollars annually from drug trafficking. Profiting from drugs is often justified by Islamists on the basis of ushr, the classical Islamic tax on crop harvests.

Thanks to Twitter user El Grillo for sending in this report from CTK, the Czech news agency, via the Prague Post:

Czech president is critical of Kosovo during his trip to Serbia

Belgrade, April 1 (ČTK) — Terrorism should not be underestimated, mainly because it is comfortably financed from drug sales, Czech President Miloš Zeman said at the beginning of his two-day official visit to Serbia today, and he indirectly mentioned Kosovo in connection with terrorism.

At the opening of an exhibition on Czech-Serbian military cooperation in Belgrade, Zeman said Islamic fundamentalism is the most visible form of terrorism.

“The Taliban enjoys strong economic support in the areas it controls because the production of opium in these areas has risen 10 times. Let alone the fact of some regimes are being financed via dealings with human organs,” Zeman said.

Serbia accuses Kosovo leaders of dealings with human bodies in the late 1990s.

In 2011, Belgrade submitted a draft resolution demanding an independent international enquiry into the suspicious cases to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

Accusations of human organ trafficking in Kosovo appeared in 2008 for the first time.

In 2010, investigator Dick Marty mentioned them in his report for the Council of Europe. He accused the Kosovo rebels’ army (UCK) of having taken organs away from Serbian war prisoners and from Kosovo Albanians who disagreed with UCK’s practices.

The present Kosovo prime pinister, Hashim Thaci, was allegedly involved in the dealings.

Kosovo, former Serbian province, unilaterally declared its independence, which Belgrade has never recognized.

Zeman, too, is against the recognition of independent Kosovo, though the Czech Republic recognized it under the then right-wing Cabinet and president Václav Klaus in 2008.

Zeman previously labeled the Kosovo regime “a terrorist dictatorship financed by drug mafias.”

In Belgrade today, Zeman said the biggest enemy of the Euro-Atlantic civilization is international terrorism.

“Let’s not underestimate the danger, if for the fact alone that it is comfortably financed from drug sales,” Zeman said…