Serbia - Eight arrested in Belgrade, five of them on suspicion of war crimes / Leader of the Serbian

Описание: (11 Jun 2012) On May 4th 2012 police arrested eight people in Serbia's tense, ethnic-Albanian dominated south, five of them on suspicion of war crimes against Serb civilians during a 2001 conflict.
The group was arrested in a police sweep in towns and villages in the region bordering Kosovo, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told a news conference in the southern city of Vranje.
He said five people were arrested for alleged war crimes, two accused of resisting a police search, and one man on suspicion of weapons possession.
Later in the day, masked special police brought the five war crimes suspects to Serbia's capital, Belgrade, where legal proceedings against them will continue.
The arrests were part of an ongoing investigation, Serbia's War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said.
The official Tanjug news agency reported the five men are suspected of abducting and killing two young Serbs, aged 18 and 19, in 2001.
The agency said two main suspects in the killing still remain at large and are probably in Kosovo.
Ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia rebelled against Belgrade's rule in 2000-2001.
The clashes between rebel groups and Serbia's security forces ended after several months in a Western-brokered peace plan.
May 4th's arrests could fuel tensions in the volatile area, but also in Kosovo, where there are already fears of trouble linked to May 6th's Serbian general election, which
is being held in some Serb-populated areas of Kosovo as well.
Nationalist voters in Serbia view the ruling pro-EU camp as too soft towards ethnic Albanians and Kosovo.
Most Serbs refuse to accept the 2008 declaration of independence of the former province they regard as the cradle of their national identity.
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On May 7th there were mixed reactions in Belgrade as Tomislav Nikolic, a pro-Russian ultranationalist and former ally of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, beat incumbent Boris Tadic for Serbia's presidency on Sunday May 6th.
Nikolic won the Serbian presidency, a result that adds to the political turmoil in the Balkan country and could slow down its attempts to join the European Union.
Nikolic must name a prime minister, but that task has been complicated because of the outcome of the May 6th parliamentary election.
Although Nikolic's Progressive Party won the most seats, Tadic's Democrats have tentatively agreed on an alliance with Socialists that would give them a majority.
In Mitrovica, Kosovo, ethnic Serbs were happy that Nikolic won the election, as its northern part is considered a stronghold of Nikolic's party and many fear the ethnic division there will become even more evident.
May 6th's vote is likely to further strain relations and add more difficulties to an already EU-mediated dialogue.
"It will be tougher now," said Ilir Deda of KIPRED think tank. "It will be a lot more complicated, but at the same time we all need well designed processes. We are, both Serbia and Kosovo, part of that design as we can end open questions as soon as possible."
Kosovo and Serbia have reached a string of agreements to free travel for citizens on both sides and for goods to flow through a contested northern border.
But, the deals have seen little success mainly because minority Serbs in Kosovo's north refuse to work with Pristina's ethnic Albanians and consider the deal to be a recognition of Kosovo's independence.
The outcome of May 6th's vote was a sign of the fading allure of the EU, which is plagued by a debt crisis, and voter discontent with Serbia's weak economy.
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Tadic had ruled Serbia for eight years.
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He promised to help Serbia continue on that road.

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