Kosovo slams arrest of former guerrillas in Serbia

Source: Xinhua | 12-28-2008 10:10

BELGRADE, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Kosovo parliament speaker Jakup Krasniqi on Saturday condemned the arrest of 10 former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in south Serbia and demanded their release.

"The arrests and Serbia's strong military presence in Presevo Valley serve to scare the local Albanian population, but like before, this objective won't be achieved," Krasniqi said in a statement release by his office.

Krasniqi said the arrests were an attempt by the Serbian government to create hostility between Serbs and Albanians and to provoke the Kosovo authorities.

Krasniqi, a former KLA spokesman and its military leadership member, called on Belgrade to demonstrate responsibility and to return to "the good-neighborly policy towards Kosovo."

On Friday Serbian police, acting upon the orders of the war crimes prosecutor, arrested 10 former KLA members in Presevo, near the border with Kosovo, on suspicion that from June to October 1999 they kidnapped 159 Serb civilians and killed at least 51 in Kosovo's region of Gnjilane.

Nine of the suspects were transferred to custody in Belgrade on Friday afternoon, while one remained under further investigation in southern Serbia's Vranje town.

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Saturday that the operation for the arrest of the former KLA members in Presevo was not aimed against the ethnic Albanian population, and that the fight against organized crime and war crimes does not differentiate between nations.

A breakaway province of Serbia, ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in February. However, Serbia has vowed it would never recognize Kosovo's independence.

Presevo is a region in south Serbia with a large community of ethnic Albanians, who waged an insurgency against Belgrade in 2001.It ended with the help of NATO and EU diplomacy.

Editor:Xiong