Harassment of Serbs only task of so-called Kosovo Police - office

BELGRADE - The Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija said on Wednesday the so-called Kosovo Police had continued to harass and arrest Serbs in north Kosovo municipalities and that its only goal was to lead to a fresh escalation of tensions and the crisis on the ground.

In a statement, it said the only task of the so-called Kosovo Police was to terrorise the Serb population in the north of the province.

"First, Serb M M was detained in a village near Leposavic, in front of his wife and five children, and then his flat was searched in detail in the presence of the Kosovo special police. Under the same scenario and according to the same diktat, Kurti's special police started searching and rummaging several privately-owned buildings in the north of Kosovo-Metohija, near the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica as well as in Zvecan," the statement said.

"Kurti has an obsessive wish to subjugate the Serbs in the north of Kosovo-Metohija and he is using the tragic events in Banjska to carry out persecution, retaliation, torture and arbitrary detentions of Serbs with the sole goal of a complete ethnic cleansing of the north of Kosovo-Metohija, in front of the eyes of the entire international community," the Office said.

"We demand that international missions stop Kurti's daily abuses and put an end to daily detentions and arrests of Serbs and make a contribution to a calming of tensions and prevent the Pristina authorities from setting the entire territory of Kosovo-Metohija and beyond, the Western Balkan region, further ablaze," the statement said.