Serbia’s elite police protest arrest of war crimes suspects

Associated Press

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia – In a challenge to the government, elite Serbian police officers blocked a highway Saturday to protest the arrests of suspects wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal, and claimed they were duped into detaining two of them.

About 30 members of the Special Operations Unit, which once fought in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo under former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, used eight armored vehicles to block Serbia’s northern highway 70 miles northwest of capital, Belgrade.

Armed with rifles and wearing flak vests, the men ended the blockade peacefully after an hour, and a government delegation was sent to talk to the organizers.

But the wider political dispute continued, with the unit demanding a halt to the arrests and the resignation of the interior minister of Serbia, the main remaining Yugoslav republic.

The officers are angry about the arrest on Thursday of two Bosnian Serbs indicted by the U.N. court for atrocities allegedly committed during the Bosnian war. The men, who were hiding in Serbia, were extradited to the Netherlands for trial.

The elite unit said it arrested the men on orders from the interior minister, but was unaware that the men were wanted for war crimes. Many Serbs consider extraditions, including that of Milosevic on June 28, illegal.

“Our unit was deceived and led to commit an illegal and unconstitutional act, against its will,” the officers said in a statement they faxed to The Associated Press on Friday. “Members of this unit refuse to hunt Serbs, chased like wild animals without any legal grounds.”

Due to opposition from nationalists and pro-Milosevic supporters, the new government has been unable to push through a law setting firm legal grounds for cooperation with the war crimes tribunal.

Although the elite police unit has declared loyalty to the new leadership that took power last year, many of its members fear they could be indicted for their actions under Milosevic.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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