ZCZC
BFF-37
KOSOVO-SERBIA-CRIME-POLITICS-LEAD
Three Kosovo Serbs arrested over politician’s murder
MITROVICA, Kosovo, Nov 23, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Three Kosovo Serbs, including
two police officers, were arrested Friday over the murder of prominent Serb
politician Oliver Ivanovic who was shot dead in January, Kosovo authorities
said.
The early morning arrests were a rare intervention of Kosovo’s special
police forces into the northern half of Mitrovica, an ethnically divided city
with Serbs in the north and Albanians in the south.
“Four people were arrested,” Baki Kelani, a police spokesman in Pristina
told AFP, adding that the fourth man was detained because he was trying to
interfere.
Two of those arrested were police officers, Kosovo police later confirmed
in a statement.
It added that authorities are searching for an additional suspect who was
not home.
Ivanovic, a moderate Serb politician in a deeply polarised city, was
assassinated by gunmen in front of his office in northern Mitrovica on 16
January 2018.
His killers have never been identified.
The 64-year-old was considered a rare Serb politician capable of building
bridges between his community and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority.
But associates of Ivanovic, who was tough on crime, have said they believe
the murder was more likely a mafia hit than related to communal relations.
The arrests come amid high tensions between Pristina and Belgrade, which
retains strong influence over Serb communities in Kosovo, even after it
declared independence in 2008.
Serbia does not recognise Kosovo as an independent state, locking the
neighbours in a diplomatic feud.
In the latest provocation, Kosovo this week slapped Serbian imports with a
100 percent tariff in retaliation for Belgrade’s efforts to undermine its
statehood.
Following reports of Friday’s arrests, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic
called a meeting with his defence and interior ministers and other security
officials.
In Mitrovica, a Serb political leader Igor Simic slammed what he described
as a “brutal arrest” and called on locals to come out and protest.
Meanwhile from Pristina, Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj urged
citizens to remain calm and said the operation was “in no way related to any
political development.”
BSS/AFP/RY/1708 hrs