Kosovo PM claims three police officers ‘kidnapped’ by Serb forces

Kosovo’s prime minister said border security would be tightened following what he described as Serbia’s role in the “kidnapping of three police officers”.

Prime minister Albin Kurti also criticised Nato-led international peacekeepers for not providing an official explanation of what happened to the three border police officers.

Mr Kurti says they were “kidnapped inside Kosovo’s territory”, while Belgrade says they were “arrested” in Serbian territory.

[ Kosovo PM presents plan to defuse tensions in Serb-majority area following unrest ]

Mr Kurti, speaking at a news conference, showed maps of where the incident allegedly occurred, saying Serbia’s special police and army units had entered deep into Kosovan territory.

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After a meeting of Kosovo’s top security council, the prime minister said border checks would increase and traffic from Serbia would be limited, but he added they were not “commercial steps”, suggesting goods would continue to move freely across the border.

“What surprises us is the silence and tolerance of international bodies to Serbia’s actions. Serbia continuously looks for pretexts to escalate and destabilise, and when there is no pretext it is ready and able to create one,” Mr Kurti said.

Last week, Mr Kurti complained of bias against his country from the US and EU, and tolerance of what he called Serbia’s authoritarian regime.

The latest incident further raises tensions between Serbia and its former province. Serbia had put its troops on the border on the highest state of alert amid a series of recent clashes between Kosovan Serbs on one side, and Kosovan police and Nato-led peacekeepers on the other.

[ Nato sends 700 more troops to Kosovo, puts battalion on standby in case riots spread ]

A Kosovan official in Belgrade has requested to visit the three officers.

Mr Kurti also contacted US officials and asked them to press Serbia to release the police officers.

The incident came a day after Kosovan police arrested an alleged organiser of Serb protests in the country’s north, in northern Mitrovica – an area mostly populated by the ethnic Serb minority – including a protest last month in which 30 Nato-led peacekeepers were injured.

Three police officers were injured in the arrest operation.

Tensions in Kosovo flared anew late last month, including with violent clashes, after Kosovan 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 after Serbs overwhelmingly boycotted the vote. – AP