Serb arrested at Merdare, KP says he is suspected of war crime

The Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija said the 52-year-old Priluzje resident, with initials T.B., was taken to Pristina (Kosovo and Metohija is the official name for what the Serbian authorities consider to be the country’s southern province).

The Kosovo Police in the meantime confirmed the arrest for KoSSev, and said that T.B. is suspected of a war crime against the civilian population in Vucitrn, northern Kosovo.

The Office for Kosovo said that, at the time of the arrest, T.B. and his wife were on their way home from Krusevac, a city in central Serbia that he occasionally visits.

“Pristina's new arbitrary arrest of a Serb sends a message to our people that they are not welcome on their home soil and intimidates them further with a view to expelling them permanently from the territory of Kosovo and Metohija,” the Office said.

It said this was a case of “silent institutional ethnic cleansing of Serbs and implementation of (Kosovo Prime Minister) Albin Kurti's plan of an ethnically clean Kosovo and Metohija where the message to the Serbs is that they can end up in Kurti's dungeons at any time.”

Earlier in the day the Kosovo Police said that a Serbian national was arrested Tuesday in Kosovo on an Interpol notice issued by Serbia.

A statement issued by the Kosovo Police does not say what crime the suspect is wanted for, or where he was arrested. It said that he has been detained for 48 hours and that other measures will be taken in line with the procedures envisaged for such cases, which the KP failed to explain.