A Kosovo court has decided to keep a Serb man under arrest as a suspect for crimes during the 1998-99 war.

The Prizren court on Wednesday decided upon a one-month arrest period for the Serb identified as B.M. who was arrested two days earlier. In a statement, the court said armed Serb forces to which he belonged "committed war crimes against the civilian population on April 2, 1999, at the village of Sopi where 32 unarmed civilians were killed."

The court said the man should be kept under arrest because his whereabouts were not known until his detention. He holds citizenship from both Kosovo and Serbia.

About 10,000 people died and about 1,700 remain missing from the war.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Belgrade hasn't recognized.