7 Peacekeepers Held for Hours by Serb Police

Serbian police detained seven Czech peacekeeping soldiers for more than eight hours Saturday when they crossed from the Kosovo border, the NATO-led KFOR peace force said.

The Czechs, in an armored vehicle, were stopped about 10 a.m. and were released after nightfall, a KFOR spokesman said.

Another KFOR spokesman initially said four Czech soldiers had been arrested.

News of the arrests was given by Lt. Col. Henning Philipp, who said the patrol had lost its way and inadvertently crossed the demarcation line. Kosovo is a province of Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic.

The patrol members were detained near the village of Merdare, close to the main road north from Pristina, the provincial capital, Serbian sources in the area said.

“The KFOR patrol was patrolling along the boundary to Serbia proper on the northeastern part of Kosovo, lost its way, inadvertently crossed the boundary and was stopped by local police,” Philipp said.

He said the mountainous terrain made it easy to get lost.

Peacekeepers patrol the demarcation line between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia to prevent the return of Serbian forces who withdrew last June after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 78-day air war.