Police arrest ten members of OVK “Gnjilane group”

Vranje/Presevo, Dec 26, 2008 – First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic stated that in cooperation with security agencies, the police have taken in ten persons suspected of crimes against civilians near Gnjilane in 1999.

Dacic told a press conference in Vranje police administration that 17 facilities in the Presevo municipality were searched during the arrest, adding that leaders of the so-called Gnjilane group of the Kosovo Liberation Army (OVK) Fazli Ajdari, Redzep Ajiri and Saip Saciri live in Gnjilane and are not available to the Serbian police.

An international warrant will not be issued for them and instead the Serbian police will ask for UNMIK’s assistance, said Dacic.

The suspects are believed to have tortured and murdered over 50 persons on the territory of Gnjilane, said Dacic adding that the arrest confirms that Serbia’s security and defence system functions well.

The War Crimes Prosecution has even more evidence and depositions on crimes against Serbs and other non-ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, said Dacic adding that a serious process is yet to begin by far wider in scope than today’s arrest operation in Presevo.

The police took in ten persons, members of the OVK Gnjilane group on suspicion that from June to October 1999 they kidnapped 159 civilians of Serbian nationality and murdered at least 51, stated the Prosecution.

Apart from murder, they will also be charged with other criminal acts, such as rape, imprisonment, mutilation, torture and robbery, committed with the aim of banishing the Serbian and non-ethnic Albanian population from the Gnjilane municipality.

The arrest was carried out with the help of the Serbian Security and Intelligence Agency after several months of careful planning, adds the Prosecution’s statement.