Another Kosovo Serb arrested for alleged war crimes

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, - Kosovo Serb Zlatan Arsic, a resident of the Ajnovce village near Kosovska Kamenica, has been arrested for alleged war crimes, Tanjug learns.

Arsic, 45, was arrested at the Bela Zemlja administrative crossing and the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija immediately assigned an attorney to him.

Arsic, a former Serbian police officer, is charged with alleged involvement in the beating of an ethnic Albanian man at a Kosovska Kamenica police station in March 1999 and with inflicting severe injuries to him.

Arsic is also charged with involvement in manhandling, expulsion and displacement of ethnic Albanians from Kosovska Kamenica and its surroundings between February and March 1999 in collaboration with other Serbian police officers and paramilitary groups and with subsequently looting the victims' homes.

In a statement, the Office for Kosovo-Metohija said the arrest of Arsic, a father of three, was another form of pressure and harassment targeting Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija, especially in the region south of the Ibar River.

Arrested Kosovo-Metohija Serbs are publicly declared guilty by Pristina even before their trials are over, the Office said.

Arsic is a Kosovo Police officer, which raises the logical question of how he has passed the required checks and tests to join the police force, only to be suddenly charged with alleged war crimes now, the Office said.