John Clint Williamson
| John Clint Williamson | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 3rd United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues | |
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In office June 29, 2006 – September 7, 2009 |
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| President | George W. Bush and Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Pierre-Richard Prosper |
| Succeeded by | Stephen J. Rapp |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ruston, Louisiana |
| Alma mater |
Louisiana Tech University Tulane University Law School |
John Clint Williamson is a U.S. diplomat and prosecutor who has served in a variety of senior-level roles with the United States Government, the United Nations, and the European Union.
Ambassador Williamson was born in Ruston, Louisiana. He holds a bachelor's degree from Louisiana Tech University and a law degree from Tulane University Law School.
In October 2011, he was appointed to serve as the European Union's Special Prosecutor, examining allegations of war crimes committed by Kosovo Albanians during and in the aftermath of the 1999 war in Kosovo. The most prominent charges involved allegations that individuals associated with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) murdered Serb prisoners for the purpose of harvesting and trafficking their bodily organs. As Special Prosecutor, he headed the multi-national EU Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) which has responsibility for conducting this investigation and bringing any prosecutions that are warranted.
On 29 July 2014, in Brussels, he announced SITF's investigative findings. In this statement, he indicated that "certain senior officials of the former KLA bear responsibility for a campaign of persecution that was directed at the ethnic Serb, Roma, and other minority populations of Kosovo and toward fellow Kosovo Albanians whom they labeled as political opponents." He went on to say that these acts of persecution effectively resulted in the ethnic cleansing of large portions of the Serb and Roma populations from Kosovo and that these crimes were not the acts of rogue individuals acting on their own accord, but rather that they were conducted in an organized fashion and were sanctioned by the KLA leadership. He added that the widespread or systematic nature of these crimes justifies a prosecution for crimes against humanity. As to the organ trafficking allegations, he said that "there are compelling indications that this practice did occur on a very limited scale and that a small number of individuals were killed for the purpose of extracting and trafficking their organs." He stated that SITF's findings were largely consistent with those in the Marty Report, but that the investigation had not yet secured a level of evidence sufficient to charge those crimes. He concluded by saying that this aspect of the investigation is still ongoing, however, and that SITF will continue to vigorously pursue these allegations.
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