TIRANA, June 26 – A court in Serbia released three police officers from Kosovo who were detained near the disputed border between the former war foes, but a Serbian negotiator said Monday that the trio still faced further legal action.
According to the ruling of the Serbian court in the central Serbian town of Kraljevo, the three Kosovo police officers were allowed to return to their country after they were detained earlier in June and charged with illegal possession of weapons and explosive devices.
The officers were detained in mid-June. Serbia said they had crossed into the country from Kosovo, while Kosovar authorities insisted they had been kidnapped inside Kosovo and transferred to a Serbian prison.
In a tweet, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti confirmed the officers’ release but while welcoming the news insisted Serbia be held accountable.
“Although we are happy that they are returning to their families, their abduction is a grave human rights violation and must be sanctioned. The Serbian aggression must be held accountable,” said Kurti.
Earlier in the month, Kosovo’s Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said Serbian forces had crossed the border and seized three police officers from a post well within Kosovo.
The European Union welcomed the move and urged Kosovo and Serbia to take further steps to defuse the simmering crisis, including holding new local elections in northern Kosovo.
Josep Borrell, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, warned the EU would take “political and financial” measures against either government if it did not move towards normalising relations.
“Member states remain ready to take further measures if no progress is seen,” he told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
The dispute has increased tensions between the two countries that have flared into recent violent clashes in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo, stirring fears of a renewal of the 1998-99 conflict that left more than 10,000 people dead, mostly Kosovar Albanians.
In May, Kosovo police seized local municipality buildings in northern Kosovo, where Serbs represent a majority, to install ethnic Albanian mayors who were elected in a local election in April that Serbs overwhelmingly boycotted.
Last week the EU summoned the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia to Brussels in a bid to ease the tensions. The meeting produced no breakthrough as EU officials urged both sides to make an immediate effort to defuse the situation.
Serbia and its former province Kosovo have been at odds for decades, with Belgrade refusing to recognise Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence. /argumentum.al
