12 Ethnic Albanians Arrested in Serbian Police Raid

Serbian police have arrested 12 ethnic Albanians in raids that also netted stockpiles of weapons, uniforms and other military gear.

The raids were conducted early Saturday in the villages of Konculj and Veliki Trnovac, near Serbia's border with the U.N. administered province of Kosovo and the centers of an uprising by ethnic Albanians three years ago. Five of the suspects were subsequently released.

Serbia's deputy prime minister, Nebojsa Covic, says the raids were not an isolated action as authorities respond to Tuesday's killing of an ethnic Albanian who worked for Serbia's secret service.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08564360

08 Feb 2003 18:15

Ethnic Albanians protest at arrests in Serbia

BUJANOVAC, Serbia and Montenegro, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Ethnic Albanians protested in Serbia's southern town of Bujanovac on Saturday after police arrested 12 family members on suspicion of weapons violations, witnesses and media reported.

The 1,000 protesters, including former guerrilla leader and now municipal councillor Jonuz Musliu, stood quietly in front of Bujanovac's municipal building to demand the suspects' release.

They dispersed later on Saturday evening when asked to do so by their delegates who had talked to officials. Musliu told the crowd five of the arrested had been released.

"We hope for the best and most importantly they were not harrassed. Now, I am asking you to leave, that we all go to our homes," Musliu told the crowd.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic told reporters the 12 had been arrested on suspicion of possessing illegal arms in a pre-dawn raid on the ethnic Albanian populated villages of Veliki Trnovac and Konculj, the Beta news agency said.

Large quantities of weapons were confiscated, Beta said.

The raid followed the killing last week of an ethnic Albanian secret police officer in Bujanovac. Covic has blamed ethnic Albanian guerrillas who fought Serbian forces in 2000-01 in the area, which borders the U.N.-run province of Kosovo.

The former rebels agreed to lay down arms under a Western-brokered peace deal in May 2001 in return for guarantees of rights for the area's large ethnic Albanian community.

Covic, who won Western praise for his part in reaching the peace deal, said before the raid that police operations would last as long as needed to deal with "terrorist gangs which are trying to operate in the Bujanovac area".

"The operations have nothing to do with politics or inter-ethnic relations but are a settlement of accounts with terrorist groups who are harassing the population in southern Serbia," Covic told B-92 radio.

The situation in the area had improved over the past two years, partly because ethnic Albanians have joined the local police force. But there have been reports of sporadic shooting incidents in the last year.

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