Office for Kosovo and Metohija: Mass arrests have become Pristina’s new method of retaliation against Serbs

Mass arrests have become Pristina’s new method of retaliation against Serbs, while recent discoveries in Zubin Potok are being used as a pretext to stigmatize and target all remaining Serbs, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija said today in a statement following the arrest of nine people in the municipality.

“With the aim of exerting additional pressure on Zubin Potok and expelling and intimidating the remaining Serbian population in Ibarski Kolasin, Albin Kurti sent his police phalanxes this morning to arrest nine Serbs under the pretext of their alleged involvement in a war crime. Kurti’s armed units raided the homes of Serbian families at around six o’clock this morning, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, in the villages of Drijen, Kaludra, Velji Breg, Crepulja and Ugljare, and detained nine Serbs,” the statement said.

While the residents were sleeping, they were awakened by police officers who, the Office said, broke down doors and damaged everything in their path.

The Office noted that those detained included a 90-year-old man who had repeatedly been targeted by Kosovo Police, a father who has a child with developmental disabilities at home, as well as relatives of Serbs who had previously been targeted by Pristina.

The statement said that representatives of the Office were on the ground and in contact with the families of those detained in order to ensure that they received legal assistance.

“These are people who have lived in Zubin Potok for more than two decades and who, even after numerous arrests and police operations in this municipality, had no reason to leave their homes. Yet they have now become targets for Pristina because the objective is to expel all adult Serbs and label them as criminals,” the statement added.

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija also said that, through the latest arrests, Kurti was seeking to conduct a political campaign aimed at diverting the attention of the Pristina public from the Hague indictments against the KLA leaders, with what it described as the “sinister intention of creating an artificial balance so that the burden of war crimes would not rest solely on the Albanian side.”

Kosovo Police arrested nine people in Zubin Potok early this morning on suspicion of committing a “war crime against the civilian population.”

“As part of investigative measures related to a war crimes case, Kosovo Police—specifically, the War Crimes Investigation Directorate, with the support of other specialized police units—conducted an operation codenamed ‘File 23’ early this morning in the municipality of Zubin Potok, acting on the orders of the Special Prosecution Office of the Republic of Kosovo,” a joint statement by Kosovo Police and the Special Prosecution Office said.