"Violate administrative line - get arrested"

Anyone who crosses and violates the administrative line must bear the consequences, Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic has been quoted as saying. Dacic made made the statement a day after two members of the Kosovo police, KPS, arrested over the weekend, were released from custody. "Violate administrative line - get arrested" The administrative line in question runs between Kosovo and central Serbia. If the international community wants peace, continued Dacic, "it must not allow for innocent (Serb) people to be arrested in Kosovo and Metohija just because they are employed by institutions located in the territory of central Serbia". "I am personally interested in peace in Kosovo and for this sort of thing not to happen again, precisely because members of the ministry that I head suffer the most in that case," he was quoted as saying in news agency reports. Dacic also asserted - speaking about the detention of the KPS members - that "this type of arrest ends in that way - the violation is recorded, complaints filed, while detention is rarely extended". As for the release of Serbs who work as policemen in central Serbia, who were arrested by the Pristina authorities last month, the minister said they would not have been set free "had (ethnic) Albanians not been arrested". "The international community did not react when Serbs were arrested, but I stress that we did not implement reciprocal measures, because this is about people who had broken the law," he said of the two KPS members, found armed on the central Serbian side of the line. Reciprocal measures, he continued, would see the Serbian police "arrest some of the Albanians who work in institutions in central Serbia", which would, according to him, lead to new arrests of Serbs "just because they are from Kosovo and work in central Serbia", and said that for the authorities in Pristina, "this was obviously the only language that they understand". Ivica Dacic (file) Tanjug

"Violate administrative line - get arrested"

The administrative line in question runs between Kosovo and central Serbia.

If the international community wants peace, continued Dačić, "it must not allow for innocent (Serb) people to be arrested in Kosovo and Metohija just because they are employed by institutions located in the territory of central Serbia".

"I am personally interested in peace in Kosovo and for this sort of thing not to happen again, precisely because members of the ministry that I head suffer the most in that case," he was quoted as saying in news agency reports.

Dačić also asserted - speaking about the detention of the KPS members - that "this type of arrest ends in that way - the violation is recorded, complaints filed, while detention is rarely extended".

As for the release of Serbs who work as policemen in central Serbia, who were arrested by the Priština authorities last month, the minister said they would not have been set free "had (ethnic) Albanians not been arrested".

"The international community did not react when Serbs were arrested, but I stress that we did not implement reciprocal measures, because this is about people who had broken the law," he said of the two KPS members, found armed on the central Serbian side of the line.

Reciprocal measures, he continued, would see the Serbian police "arrest some of the Albanians who work in institutions in central Serbia", which would, according to him, lead to new arrests of Serbs "just because they are from Kosovo and work in central Serbia", and said that for the authorities in Priština, "this was obviously the only language that they understand".