Arsenijevic: So-called Kosovo police kept us tied up at the station for more than an hour

"We were confused that the police characterized us as extremists, instead of the people who were defacing our national symbols and the monument to the Milic brothers"

The leader of the Serb Democracy, Aleksandar Arsenijevic, said after his release from custody that he and another official of that party, Stefan Veljkovic, were held in a police station for more than an hour by members of so-called Kosovo police, accused of obstructing an on-duty official person.

They were taken to the police station in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica after they protested because workers were painting over the images of the Serbian flag on a wall not far from the bridge over the Ibar River, which separates the southern and northern parts of Kosovska Mitrovica.

The so-called Kosovo police used force to detain them.

"We reported to the police that our national symbol was being defaced. We were confused that the police characterized us as extremists instead of people who were defacing our national symbols and the monument to the Milic brothers. We call for peace and tolerance and to protect what is ours. These images of our people (who protested) will encourage us to act even stronger and better and know that we are on the right path," Arsenijevic told the media.

He added that this "political stunt" was carried out by individual policemen.

"We don't know who sent the workers to paint over the symbols and who their private guards were. In the videos that I will publish, you can see the persons who accompanied them (workers), bearded and dressed in black, and they were the first to engage in a verbal argument and attack us," said Arsenijevic.

The main bridge over the Ibar divides Kosovska Mitrovica into the southern part of the city, where ethnic Albanians live, and the northern part, which is 95 percent Serb.

Over the years the Albanians have repeatedly tried to invade the northern part of the city by crossing that bridge, which would lead to clashes, and the bridge is guarded around the clock by Italian carabinieri from KFOR.

The authorities in Pristina recently announced that the bridge would be opened, which is opposed by the EU, OSCE, EULEX, KFOR, and the US, who are saying that this topic must be part of the EU mediated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)