Kosovo Detains Serb Ex-Policeman as War Crime Witness

Police on Wednesday detained Zarko Zaric, who was a policeman in Kosovo before the war, for questioning as a witness in a war crime case.

Media reported that Zaric, a Serb who left Kosovo after the war but returned to live there again three years ago, was held in the village of Ljubozda in the Istog/Istok municipality and then taken to the capital Pristina to be interviewed.

"The Kosovo police, with the authorisation of the Special Prosecution of Kosovo, accompanied a person of Serb nationality to interview him," police confirmed to BIRN.

No details of the war crime to which Zaric was allegedly a witness have been made public so far.

Zaric's detention sparked angry reactions from officials in Serbia and from Srpska Lista, the main Belgrade-backed Serb political party in Kosovo.

The Serbian government's office for Kosovo said it was part of a "campaign of systematic intimidation of the Serb people" by the Kosovo judicial authorities, and called for Zaric's immediate release.

Srpska Lista said that Zaric's detention was intended to discourage other Serbs from returning to Kosovo.

"The situation in which Serbs need to prove their innocence, rather than the prosecution proving they are guilty, needs to end once and for all," Srpska Lista said in a statement.