Another Kosovo-Metohija Serb arrested - government office

BELGRADE - The Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija said on Tuesday the so-called Kosovo Police had arrested a Kosovo-Metohija Serb at the Merdare administrative crossing this afternoon without any explanation whatsoever and taken him to Pristina.

In a statement, the Office said 52-year-old Priluzje resident Tomica B, a father of three, had crossed the administrative line without problems on several occasions in the past years.

At the time of the arrest, he and his wife were on their way home from Krusevac, a city in central Serbia that Tomica occasionally visits.

"Pristina's new arbitrary arrest of a Serb sends a message to our people that they are not welcome on their home soil and intimidates them further with a view to expelling them permanently from the territory of Kosovo-Metohija," the Office said.

It said this represented a "silent institutional ethnic cleansing of Serbs and implementation of Albin Kurti's plan of an ethnically clean Kosovo-Metohija where the message to Serbs is that they can end up in Kurti's dungeons at any time."