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2004-06-05 Europe
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Serb boy killed as tensions rise in Kosovo
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A Serb teenager has been shot dead in Kosovo and police quickly arrested two Albanians suspected of trying to ignite another round of ethnic violence in the United Nations-run province. The killing in the Serb enclave of Gracanica on Saturday was the first since 19 people were killed in mid-March when the U.N. protectorate was engulfed in the worst violence in five years of international administration. NATO peacekeepers later said the riots were clearly orchestrated.
U.N. police spokesman Malcolm Ashby said 16-year-old Dimitrije Popovic was killed when gunmen fired from a car into a group of young Serbs at a hamburger kiosk at 2 a.m. Police in Pristina later stopped a suspect car and seized two Albanians with guns. It was not clear how the suspected gunmen managed to drive in and out of the village undetected. The NATO-led peacekeeping mission KFOR re-established permanent checkpoints on the outskirts of the Serbian town after the March riots.
Serb spokesman Oliver Ivanovic blamed the U.N. and NATO for failing to stop Albanian militants. "There is no living together here... We must seal off all roads through Serb districts," he told the SRNA agency.
"We were right when we demanded a full demilitarisation of Kosovo, disarmament of all extremist groups and introduction of a state of emergency after the March 17 riots," said the head of Serbiaâs Kosovo Coordination Centre, Nebojsa Covic.
Covic said the latest murder was "a message to the EU foreign policy chief (Javier) Solana who is arriving in Pristina on Monday, (and) a farewell message to Kosovoâs outgoing UN Administrator Harri Holkeri". Holkeri, Kosovoâs fourth U.N. governor since 1999, quit two weeks ago under pressure. He was due back in Kosovo on Saturday afternoon for a final meeting with Solana.
NATO said it was investigating how a car carrying armed Albanians "managed to cross the KFOR checkpoint after the incident", said spokesman, Colonel Jim Moran. Checkpoints were re-established after the March riots, but some may have been relaxed, he added. It was a similar shooting in another Serb enclave, quickly followed by the drowning of three Albanian boys in a river, that ignited mob violence in March. Albanian media were condemned for blaming Serbs for the drowning and fomenting ârevengeâ attacks.
The U.N. and KFOR admit they were caught off-guard by that spasm of violence and came close to losing control. On Saturday, Serbs in Gracanica again blocked the road from Pristina to east Kosovo, as they did three months ago, but later dispersed. By afternoon, police said the region was calm and under control but the road to Gracanica was sealed off until Monday.
Serbs were targeted for revenge after Kosovo came under U.N. control in 1999 following NATOâs 11-week bombing war to halt Serb repression of the independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
Belgrade has complained bitterly that those Serbs who chose to stay as 200,000 fled north are not adequately protected. It wants the enclaves to be made autonomous and protected by Serbian police. But the Western powers that ordered intervention in Kosovo are against its partition. 
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Posted by TS(vice girl) 2004-06-05 1:21:08 PM||
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Posted by Mark Espinola 2004-06-05 8:44:55 PM||
2004-06-05 8:44:55 PM||
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