United Nations forces have arrested a Serb male suspected of killing an Indian officer earlier this month in the first fatal attack on the UN police force in Kosovo.
The man (21) was arrested without incident in thevillage of Slatina, in the area of Northern Mitrovica that is mainly populated by Serbs, the UN force said.
Indian officer Satish Menon (43) was shot dead in an ambushon his UN patrol car in northern Kosovo. Local media tradedaccusations about the ethnicity of the killer, blaming either Serbian or Albanian "gangs".
Kosovo's UN police had offered a €50,000 reward for the killers of the Indian officer. They did not sayif today's arrest resulted from a tip-off.
"Police have also recovered a number of AK-47 rifles that are being examined in connection to this murder," the UN police said, adding that further searches were beingcarried out in nearby villages.
The arrest comes less than a week after suspected Albanian extremists killed two Serb youths and wounded four others in an attack on a bathing party in another Serb enclave in UN-run territory in Kosovo.
Kosovo was placed under UN administration in June 1999 after an 11-week NATO bombing campaign to halt Serbianrepression of the province's majority Albanians by thegovernment of former president Slobodan Milosevic.