Kosovo arrested in Merdara for “War crimes”, Serbian MPB says

Serbian authorities announced Saturday that they have arrested a Kosovar at the border checkpoint linking Serbia and Kosovo, under suspicion of “War crimes”.

Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister (MPB), Ivica Dacic, said Tefik Mustafa was arrested on the afternoon of June 1st in Merdara for “War crimes against civilians in Kosovo”.

In a media communique, The Serbian MPB stressed that Mustafa, “member of the KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army], in witness statements, was mentioned as participants in police abduction Goran Marinkovic, Zivojin Paviq and Predrag Milosevic, on June 19, 1999, on the Pristina road Gjilan, who lost all traces to”.

 “Person will be handed over to the War Crimes Prosecutor”, Daciq said, according to the communique.

Free Europe Radio has been asked by questions to the Kosovo Foreign Ministry and the Kosovo Police about the reported arrest of Kosovo citizens.

In the past three years, several Kosovo citizens have been arrested in Serbia, with allegations allegedly committing crimes during the 1998-99 war.

On April 17th, Serbian authorities arrested Kosovo national Sadik Duraku, who also has British citizenship, under suspicion of war crimes “” in 1999, charges dropped by his family members.

Duraku was arrested at a border crossing between Croatia and Serbia, and a Serbian court assigned the detention measure the same month.

His family say that the charges against Durak do not remain because he lived with his family in England before the war in 1999.

At the beginning of this year, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti accused Serbia of, as he described, unjust, deliberate and malicious arrests of Kosovo citizens. /REL