Eurasia Press & News
Over 1,000 war veterans and policemen from various parts of Serbia protested Tuesday in Leskovac demanding the release of four policemen arrested over suspicion that they committed war crimes in Kosovo in 1999.
Protesters gathered near police headquarters in Leskovac under a banner saying: ”Who’s Next”.
“Are we next? I am using this opportunity to say that the first half time is over, but that we will use every possible means to reclaim Kosovo,” said chairman of the Association of War Veterans from Leskovac Dusan Nikolic.
Chairman of the Association of War Fighters of 1999 from Nis Rodoljub Vukovic accused some Serb human rights activists of being “instruments of Albanian terrorists”, while the chairman of the association ”Iron Regiment” Dejan Milosevic said that the arrest of the Serb policemen was ordered by the very same people who had sent the war veterans to fight in the first place, as protesters jeered at the mention of the Serb interior minister Ivica Dacic, from the Socialist Party that ruled Serbia in 1999.
“We demand that the arrested policemen be released, because they were freedom fighters, they fought to defend their homeland,” said Milosevic.
“We did not go to defend the regime, we went to defend our homeland. Are we supposed to be collectively sent to the Hague so that Serbia could become a part of Europe,” said Milosevic.
Blazo Markovic from the Independent Policemen’s Union assessed that individual arrests of policemen must not indicate the beginning of the persecution of all their colleagues.
Protesters carried slogans saying: “Today it is better to desert than fight for one’s homeland”, “Fighters are being arrested”, “Wake up Serbia”, “Release the policemen, arrest the terrorists”, and others.
The four policemen from Leskovac, former members of the 37th force of Special Police Units, were arrested on 13 March over suspicion that they committed war crimes in Kosovo during the bombing in 1999.
This was the largest protest against the arrests so far.
