Zubin Potok: Nine Serbs Held for 48 Hours

Kosovo police and the Special Prosecution carried out an operation codenamed “Dossier 23” in villages of the Zubin Potok municipality on Sunday, September 27, the day of the Orthodox feast of Krstovdan. Nine Serbs were arrested, identified by the initials D.D., M.R., M.R., R.R., S.D., S.D., V.L., R.R. and D.D., on suspicion of war crimes against the civilian population.

The operation was carried out by the War Crimes Investigation Directorate, on orders from the Special Prosecution, with support from Kosovo police special units. Prosecutors ordered all nine held for up to 48 hours. Petar Petkovic, director of Serbia’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija, says the group includes a ninety-year-old man and the father of a child with developmental disabilities. Kosovo’s prosecution did not disclose the ages of those detained in its own statement.

According to Kosovo authorities, the raids began around six in the morning in the villages of Drijen, Kaludra, Velji Breg, Crepulja and Ugljare. Searches turned up nine mobile phones, two military ID booklets, one long barreled rifle, a hunting rifle, 7.65 millimeter ammunition, hunting cartridges and four hand grenades. Police also seized about 23,000 euros and roughly 60,000 dinars in cash.

Link to the “Group of Intellectuals” case

Prosecutors say the arrests are tied to the case known as the “Group of Intellectuals”, involving 23 Albanians, mostly from Srbica and Mitrovica, activists and public figures whom Kosovo authorities say were abducted and disappeared in the Zubin Potok area on April 19, 1999.

Grave sites were found near the villages of Kaludra and Jabuka. Sources differ on when the remains were found: Radio Free Europe reports the exhumations took place in August, while the newspaper Danas writes that remains were recovered from late June through early August. A DNA analysis sent to The Hague on September 19 identified three bodies from the grave, including Idriz Recaj, according to Radio Free Europe.

Four other people, identified by the initials J.R., M.J., R.K. and M.B., were arrested earlier on the same grounds and remain in custody.

Reactions from Belgrade

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, speaking on RTS, called the arrests the most insidious form of ethnic cleansing.

“I hear that Kurti and his special forces have again arrested Serbs, nine of them this time, in the Zubin Potok municipality, over alleged, fabricated war crimes.”

Vucic said lawyers had been engaged to represent those arrested and that Serbia was in contact with their families.

Petkovic reacted the same day on X.

“Kurti and his servant Rasic, who just yesterday gave the blockader Students’ List their most open financial and logistical backing, arrested nine Serb heads of household in Zubin Potok early this morning, smashed everything in their path, put handcuffs on a ninety-year-old man and traumatized our children! Pristina and the blockaders share one goal, to bring down Serbia, and to frighten and persecute honest Serbs! It will not work! The Serbian people will answer with even stronger unity in a united Serbia.”

Serbia’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija said in a statement that the arrests are part of Kurti’s campaign of pressure on Zubin Potok, aimed at expelling and intimidating the remaining Serbs in the Ibar Kolasin area, and that office representatives were in contact with the families of those detained.

The Serbian List, the largest party representing Kosovo Serbs, said the process had not respected the presumption of innocence.

“This is not a legal process conducted with full respect for the presumption of innocence and the right to a defense. It is retaliation, Kurti’s method of persecuting Serbs. The fact is that Serbs in Zubin Potok have spent recent months under horrific pressure reminiscent of an occupation.”

On Monday, September 28, Petkovic posted again on X, linking the arrests to the upcoming election campaign in Pristina.

“Nine Serbs from Zubin Potok were arrested by the very man who backs you wholeheartedly, Albin Kurti, together with his servant Rasic!”

Students demand transparency

Students taking part in the blockade also called, on September 28, for clear public information about the grounds for the arrests and for international missions to monitor how those detained are treated.

“Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija have lived far too long in an atmosphere where every new police operation raises the same question, what comes next.”

Kosovo’s prosecution had not released further details on the investigation as of this morning, and Kurti had not personally commented on the Zubin Potok arrests. Kosovo’s prime minister said earlier that Pristina expects DNA results in the coming weeks for the remaining samples sent to The Hague, part of an investigation that, according to the Institute for War Crimes committed during the Kosovo war, covers 1,577 people still listed as missing from the 1998 and 1999 war.