Serbia arrests Kosovo police officers as tensions soar

Kosovo has demanded the release of three border guards accusing Serbia of ‘kidnapping’.

Serbian authorities said they captured three “fully armed” Kosovo police officers in Serbia near their common border, while Kosovo officials said the trio were “kidnapped” from Kosovo territory while patrolling the area.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti blamed Serbia for the kidnapping of the men and demanded their release on Wednesday. He said they were arrested 300 meters (330 yards) inside Kosovan territory near the border.

“The entry of Serb troops into Kosovo territory is aggressive and aimed at escalation and destabilization,” Kurti wrote on his Facebook page.

Kosovo’s Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla also denounced the “kidnapping” which he said “violates any agreement and violates international standards”.

The minister called on the international community “to urgently step up pressure on Serbia, not only to release our police officers, but also to stop its provocations”.

But Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the three were arrested as far as 1.8 km inside Serbian territory near the village of Gnjilica. He also accused Kurti of inciting violence.

“We are at the crossroads of whether we will have peace or not… and there is one man in the Balkans who wants to provoke conflict at all costs – and that is Albin Kurti,” Vucic said in a live TV broadcast .

He rejected Kurti’s accusation that Serbian police had entered Kosovo, saying, “They haven’t even set foot there.”

‘Difficult to return to normal’

Serbia also said the officers were armed with automatic weapons and in full military equipment with GPS devices, maps and other equipment.

A video published by the Serbian police showed masked men dragging away a group of men in handcuffs.

Vucic said Belgrade was ready to submit all evidence and accept an international investigation into the arrests.

He added that his government may move part of the army currently stationed five kilometers (3.1 mi) from the border to garrisons in Serbia to ease tensions. “It will be hard to get back to normal,” Vucic said.

In response to the arrests, Kosovo banned all vehicles with Serbian license plates from entering its territory, an interior ministry official told Reuters news agency.

The detentions could further increase tensions in the predominantly Serb northern part of Kosovo, which borders Serbia and has seen outbreaks of violence in recent weeks.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after a 90 percent ethnic Albanian uprising against Serb rule.

Belgrade, along with its main allies China and Russia, has refused to recognize Kosovo’s independence, effectively depriving it of a seat in the United Nations.

In 1999, a NATO bombardment drove Serbian security forces out of Kosovo, but Belgrade continues to regard it as a southern province.

Violence flared last month when 30 NATO peacekeepers and 52 Serbs were injured in clashes in four predominantly Serb towns in northern Kosovo, just outside Serbia.

It erupted after Serbs opposed ethnic Albanian mayors who took office after a local vote where turnout was just 3.5 percent. Serbs in the area boycotted the elections.