Pristina's arrests under pretext of alleged war crimes are aimed against Serbs - gov't office

BELGRADE - The Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija said on Wednesday the arrest of Dejan Pelevic, a Kosovo-Metohija Serb from Socanica, was another in a series of arrests of Serbs under the pretext of alleged war crimes and represented a planned crackdown by Pristina on Serbs in the province that was aimed at intimidating and expelling them.

In a statement, the Office said eight Serbs had been arrested on such unfounded charges since the beginning of the year.

Pelevic, a family man and a father of three, has never left the territory of Kosovo-Metohija since the 1999 events as he had nothing to run away or hide from, the statement said.

As a former member of the so-called Kosovo Police, Pelevic has had had to pass detailed security checks by Pristina, and the fact that he has served as a guard at Pristina's so-called prosecutor's office in Kosovska Mitrovica means that the checks had to be even more detailed, the Office also said.

"All that indicates that Pelevic was arrested based on political criteria, under which Pristina is using war crimes accusations as a mechanism of retaliation against the Serbs, rather than for implementing some kind of 'rule of law,'", the statement noted.

The Office called on representatives of international missions to engage in accordance with their mandates to ensure respect for Pelevic's human rights and rights during trial, as well as the rights of other unjustly incarcerated Serbs.

"Once again, we point out that these are politically motivated and legally unfounded actions based exclusively on suspicious testimonies, without verifiable and relevant evidence," the statement added.

Pelevic, who was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of committing a war crime against civilians, has been placed in 48-hour detention.