Kosovo Holds Serbian Citizens for Weapons Possession Amid Protests

Pristina Basic Court on Thursday remanded two Serbian citizens, Sinisa Jevtic and Ivan Sekulic, in custody for 30 days after they were arrested the previous day at the Jarinje border crossing point with Serbia.

They are being held on suspicion of terrorist activity, hooliganism and unauthorised possession of weapons.

According to the prosecution's file, which BIRN has seen, knives and explosive devices, camouflage masks and hats emblazoned with the words "Baretave Serbe" ("Serbian Berets"), as well as a military knife and four pepper sprays, were confiscated from Jevtic and Sekulic when they were arrested by Kosovo police on Wednesday.

Police also confiscated a metal rod and a hammer. They suspected that the weapons were intended to be used against troops from the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, and the Kosovo police at ongoing protests by Kosovo Serbs.

The protests are against newly-elected ethnic Albanian mayors in the Serb-majority northern of Zubin Potok, Zvecan and Leposavic.

On Monday, the protesters clashed with KFOR troops in Zvecan where 30 soldiers, 11 Italians and 19 Hungarians, were injured. Three of the soldiers had gunshot wounds.

KFOR's commander, Italian Major General Angelo Michele Ristuccia, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Wednesday that "if we had not intervened, now they would be mourning the dead".

The protests started on Friday and are still ongoing.

"Considerable material damage has been caused to the vehicles of KFOR, Kosovo Police and journalists," the prosecution's file says.