Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 41: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the claims made by the former chief United Nations war crimes prosecutor, Ms Carla del Ponte, as to the murder and sale of organs of Serb and other civilians and the end of the 1998-1999 Kosovo War. [16827/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by UN Security Council Resolution 827 on 25 May 1993. The aim of the ICTY was to respond effectively to the serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991. Since the inception of the ICTY, it has indicted 161 persons for serious violations of humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Trial and appeal proceedings have been completed against 111 of the accused. The 50 remaining cases are at various stages of completion.

Ms Carla del Ponte served as Chief Prosecutor for the ICTY from September 1999 to December 2007, and was succeeded by the current Chief Prosecutor, Mr Serge Brammertz. The allegations the Deputy refers to were made in a book by Ms Del Ponte which was published last month. I note that the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICTY has recently commented to the effect that ICTY investigators looked into this matter but were unable to substantiate the allegations.