PRISTINA (Reuters) – Global police agency Interpol has issued international arrest warrants for ethnic Serb gunmen accused of storming a village last year in north of Kosovo and battling police in a shootout, which left four dead, Kosovo’s interior minister said on Friday.
On Sept. 24, police said around 80 gunmen entered Kosovo from Serbia in armored vehicles and barricaded themselves on a Serbian Orthodox monastery near the village of Banjska, from where they attacked the police, killing one officer.
Three gunmen were also killed and the rest escaped to Serbia on foot through mountains, leaving cars loaded with weapons, ammunition and explosives.
Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said Interpol has informed that all suspects of the Banjska attack have been added in the arrest warrant.
Svecla did not mention and his office did not say how many people are on the list, when asked by Reuters.
Local media have reported that the list contains the names of 19 people, including the leader of the group Milan Radoicic, a former top Kosovo Serb politician who publicly admitted taking part in the gun battle.
All suspects are believed to be in Serbia.
“This is an important step and as such it has its full effect when Serbia, which is sheltering and accommodating these terrorists, will hand them over to our authorities to face justice,” Svecla said in a statement on Facebook.
Kosovo blames Serbia of being behind the shootout but Belgrade has denied such accusations.
Some 50,000 Serbs who live in north Kosovo do not recognise Pristina’s institutions and see Belgrade as their capital. They have often clashed with Kosovo police and international peacekeepers, but last September’s violence was the worst since Kosovo declared independence in 2008.
Kosovo is still not a member of United Nations and all arrest warrants for Interpol are handled through a UN mission that arrived in Kosovo in 1999 when the war ended.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
Comments