The NATO mission in Kosovo (KFOR) told Radio Free Europe on Monday that it is aware of the Kosovo Police's report that a Kosovo Serb is suspected of being injured and kidnapped by Serbian gendarmerie inside Kosovo territory, but the security situation at the administrative border line is calm.
"The Kosovo Police has launched investigations and continues to be in close contact with several entities, including KFOR. The Kosovo Police has coordinated its activity on the Kosovo side of the administrative boundary line with KFOR," the mission's response said.
Kosovo authorities accused Serbia on Monday of violating Kosovo's territorial integrity, after the Kosovo Police announced that on November 1, it received information that in the Leposavic area, a Kosovo citizen of Serbian nationality, with the initials MV, was suspected of being injured and kidnapped by Serbian gendarmerie.
On the other hand, authorities in Serbia have not commented on this case.
According to the Police announcement, the scene where the incident is reported to have occurred is suspected to be located within the territory of the Republic of Kosovo, that is, within the area [as the zero point -0- is called], near the area of Leposaviq, a city in the north of the country, inhabited by a Serb majority.
According to this institution, the Kosovo Police has cooperated with the NATO mission in Kosovo [KFOR] as responsible for the border area/belt.
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani has said that the democratic world must react and stop these attacks by Serbia.
According to her, "this is yet another proof of its hegemonic approach, where any citizen who dares to speak the truth about Vučić's autocratic regime is attacked and tortured in the most barbaric way possible."
Kosovo's acting Minister of Internal Affairs, Xhelal Sveçla, has said that this action is part of Serbia's policies of intimidation and persecution of citizens who do not obey the regime of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
"This aggressive and provocative approach by Serbia is unacceptable. It constitutes a serious violation of our state borders and the rights of our citizens," Svečla said in a Facebook post, and called on the international community to react to Serbia and ensure that these hostile actions are not repeated.
What else did the Police say?
Kosovo Police said that the victim, identified with the initials MV, according to witnesses, was taken by ambulance to the city of Niš in Serbia.
The police said they had interviewed eyewitnesses and through them had obtained information that "masked persons had entered the territory of Kosovo, injured and kidnapped the victim, who had then taken him to the territory of Serbia."
Regarding this case, Radio Free Europe has sent questions to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of Serbia, but so far these institutions have not responded.
There was no response from the University Clinical Center in Niš either.
The first information about the alleged injury and kidnapping was first made public by lawyer Ivan Ninic in Serbia. He wrote in X that Milan Vukasinovic had been seriously injured during the shooting in the village of Jelakce, near Leposavic, and that doctors at the University Clinical Center in Nis were trying to save his life.
Leposavic is located on the border between Kosovo and Serbia. The NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, is the third security responder in the country, after the Police and the European Union rule of law mission, EULEX.
KFOR, among other things, is responsible for security on the border between Kosovo and Serbia.
This is not the first time that Kosovo authorities have accused Serbian gendarmerie of trespassing on state territory. In March 2012, two Kosovo police officers were arrested in the Dumnica area of Podujevo. They were released 48 hours later.
Meanwhile, in 2023, three members of the Kosovo Police were arrested.
According to authorities in Belgrade, they were captured more than a kilometer deep in Serbian territory, while officials in Pristina said they were kidnapped in Kosovo, during a border patrol./REL
