OFFICE FOR KOSOVO AND METOHIJA AND SERB LIST DEMAND RELEASE OF DETAINED SERBS

BELGRADE, JUNE 28 /SRNA/ – Serbia's parliamentary Office for Kosovo and Metohija and the Serb List have condemned the detention of dozens of people during the Vidovdan marking at Gazimestan and the conduct of the Priština police, informing international representatives on incident calling on them to make efforts to release of all those detained.

The Office and the Serb List announced that legal assistance would be provided to those detained. The Office for Kosovo and Metohija said that Kurti's police had carried out another uncivilized act of violence contrary to the spirit of peace, tolerance and reconciliation. As they stress, Albin Kurti's phalange forced several Serbs leaving Gazimestan into pre-positioned improvised metal enclosures before transporting them in police vehicles to an undisclosed location. "Priština once again used this great holiday as a pretext for retaliation against the Serbs and for depriving our people of their basic human rights, above all the right to celebrate their national holidays freely, peacefully and without fear," the Office said in a statement. The Serb List said it viewed today's operation by the Priština police as an attempt at intimidation and evidence of repression by Kurti's administration. "We have informed international representatives about this act, which we see as an attempt at intimidation and proof of the repression of the regime in Priština, and have asked them to intervene urgently and demand the release of all those arrested," the Serb List said. The so-called Kosovo police today detained dozens of people at Gazimestan following the memorial service held in honour of the Kosovo heroes over Vidovdan. After people left the memorial complex, police officers singled out certain individuals and placed them in a small temporary structure before transferring them in police vans and patrol cars to a police station.