Serbia Said To Arrest Alleged Ringleader Of Kosovo Violence

Zvonko Veselinovic

An alleged fuel smuggler accused by NATO of orchestrating violence against its troops in Kosovo last month has reportedly been arrested in Serbia.

Radio B92 in Belgrade said police arrested Zvonko Veselinovic and his brother in the Kopaonik mountain region of southern Serbia.

Serbs in north Kosovo reject the majority-Albanian territory's 2008 secession from Serbia, and since July they have been manning roadblocks to prevent movement by Kosovo authorities.

Western diplomats say Veselinovic provided money and trucks for the roadblocks.

This month, NATO's top commander in Kosovo, German Major-General Erhard Drews, named Veselinovic as the chief organizer of an attack in late November on NATO peacekeepers trying to remove the roadblocks, in which some 30 German and Austrian soldiers were wounded.

compiled from agency reports