The Yugoslav military roughed up a US diplomat in Belgrade last night when they broke in on his dinner with Serbian Deputy Minister Momcilo Perisic, a State Department official said today.
"We're mad about it. ... The military burst in and our guy got roughed up," said the official, who asked not to be named.
The United States will make a strong statement about the incident, in which the diplomat was arrested and detained for 15 hours, later today, he added.
Even if the Yugoslav military did not know who the US diplomat was when they mistreated him, the United States is angry they held him for 15 hours, he said.
The official said the diplomat did not need hospital treatment. He could give no details of any injuries.
Military security arrested Mr Perisic, chief of staff of the army under former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, his chief of staff said.
Mr Perisic and the diplomat were having dinner at a restaurant at the time of the incident, the US official said. He said the target of the operation appeared to be Mr Perisic, rather than the US diplomat.
In Belgrade, US Embassy spokesman Mr Paul Denig said: "An American Embassy official in Belgrade meeting with a Serbian government official in a public restaurant last night was arbitrarily arrested and held incommunicado for 15 hours."
He has been released to the embassy and the embassy is protesting the fact that he was arrested and detained, Mr Denig said. He refused to give further details.
Mr Perisic was army chief of staff until November 1998, when Slobodan Milosevic fired him after he criticized the then president's policies in Kosovo. Mr Milosevic is facing war crimes charges in The Hague.