Arrests follow Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly decision to recommend Kosovo's membership
April 18 () –
The Kosovo Government has denounced this Wednesday the arrest by Serbia of ten of its police officers and hundreds of citizens, one day after the decision of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to recommend Kosovo's entry into this organization.
“Ten members of the Kovoso Police (Albanians and Serbs) have been detained at border crossings (…) Five of them have been released and another five remain in custody,” reads a statement from the Ministry of the Interior, which specifies that among those arrested is the deputy director of the Serbian Community Police, Dejan Jankovic.
For this reason, he has called on the Serbian authorities for the “immediate release of all citizens and members of the Kosovo Police detained without any justification and as a sign of revenge”, while he has asked the international community “to strongly condemn this behavior of Serbia” towards the Kosovars.
“After yesterday's victory of Kosovo in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where the report recommending the accession of Kosovo was approved by majority vote, Serbia has activated its methods of revenge by mistreating our citizens traveling through the territory “Reza lamented.
Thus, he noted that, “from early in the morning, the vehicles transporting” Kosovars “were attacked, detaining them, confiscating their personal documents and interrogating them without any justification.” “Our citizens have been locked up for hours in the offices of the Serbian authorities,” she denounced.
However, it has stressed that this “prohibition” on movement and “mistreatment” constitutes “a flagrant violation” of freedom of movement. Therefore, it has asked its citizens to “avoid traveling through Serbia” given “the security situation and Serbia's constantly threatening language.
The president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, has criticized that “Serbia is retaliating against” its citizens, a day after the body's vote, and has pointed out that “the man responsible for this” is the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic.
For his part, the Kosovo Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, has indicated that during the morning “more than” 300 citizens, including children, “have been arbitrarily detained at the border, deprived of food and medicine.” “A serious violation of Human Rights!” He has asserted.
