KURTI'S POLICE DETAINED SERBS, INCLUDING 90-YEAR OLD MAN, IN ZUBIN POTOK RAIDS

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 27 /SRNA/ - The Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija said that Priština Prime Minister Aljbin Kurti sent his police squads early this morning to arrest nine Serbs, with the aim of exerting further pressure on Zubin Potok, driving out and intimidating the remaining Serb population in Ibarski Kolašin.

"Kurti's armed units raided the homes of Serb families at around 6.00 a.m. this morning, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, in the villages of Drijen, Kaludra, Velji Breg, Crepulja and Ugljare, and detained nine Serbs. While people were sleeping, police woke them by breaking down doors and smashing everything in their way," the Office said. The statement said those detained included a 90-year-old man who had repeatedly been targeted by what it called the Kosovo police, as well as a father caring for a child with developmental disabilities and relatives of Serbs who had previously been targeted by Priština. The Office added that those detained had lived in Zubin Potok for more than two decades and had never had reason to leave their homes despite numerous detentions and police operations in the municipality. It alleged that they had become targets because Priština's goal was to drive out all adult Serbs and label them as criminals. "Our representatives on the ground are in contact with the families of those detained in order to provide them with legal assistance," the Office for Kosovo and Metohija said. The statement said mass arrests had become a new method of retaliation against Serbs by Priština, while recent discoveries in Zubin Potok /excavations of alleged graves/ were being used as a pretext for stigmatizing and targeting the remaining Serbs. "In addition, through the latest arrests, Kurti wants to conduct a political campaign aimed at diverting the attention of the Priština public from the Hague indictments against leaders of the so-called KLA, with the sinister intention of creating an artificial balance so that the burden of war crimes does not rest solely on the Albanian side," the statement said. Kosovo police arrested nine people in Zubin Potok on suspicion of alleged war crimes against the civilian population.