KOSOVO: Minister of Justice Hajredin Kuqi and EU mission in Kosovo condemn the shooting between Albanians and Serbs in Mitrovica in which one died and two were injured

Record ID: 323630

  • Title: KOSOVO: Minister of Justice Hajredin Kuqi and EU mission in Kosovo condemn the shooting between Albanians and Serbs in Mitrovica in which one died and two were injured
  • Date: 11th November 2011
  • Summary: PRISTINA, KOSOVO (NOVEMBER 10, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF KOSOVO GOVERNMENT BUILDING PEOPLE WALKING SIGN READING: "REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO - GOVERNMENT" CAMERA CREWS FILMING KOSOVO MINISTER OF JUSTICE HAJREDIN KUQI (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) KOSOVO MINISTER OF JUSTICE, HAJREDIN KUQI, SAYING: "What we can say is that it was an act that doesn't serve Kosovo and acts like this Kosovo doesn't need. I call to our citizens, to Serbs and Albanians, to stay calm and trust our institutions." KOSOVO EULEX (EU POLICE AND JUSTICE MISSION) BUILDING/ EULEX VEHICLES COMING OUT SECURITY VARIOUS OF EULEX SPOKESPERSON FRANCISE LAMBERT WORKING ON COMPUTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) EULEX SPOKESPERSON FRANCISE LAMBERT SAYING: "EULEX is working in a close cooperation with KP [Kosovo Police] to investigate the shooting incident that took place last night in Kroi I Vitakut/ Brdani neighbourhood in north Mitrovica leaving unfortunately three people wounded and one person dead." SIGN READING: "EUROPEAN RULE OF LAW MISSION IN KOSOVO- EULEX" (SOUNDBITE) (English) EULEX SPOKESPERSON, FRANCISE LAMBERT, SAYING: "EULEX calls upon everyone to refrain from any violent reaction in order to let the rule of law do its work this includes freedom of movement for EULEX to be able to perform this investigation in accordance with its mandate." VARIOUS OF PRISTINA
  • Embargoed: 26th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kosovo, Kosovo
  • Country: Kosovo
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Conflict,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAA0PN5IP2L5DNBMYS6USH92ZVO
  • Story Text: Kosovo Justice Minister called for calm on Thursday (November 10), following the killing of a Serb man in a shooting late on Wednesday in the flashpoint Kosovo town of Mitrovica, which has seen a spike in tension since the summer.
    Twenty-nine year-old Sava Mojsic was among three Serbs shot during a fight between Serbs and Albanians in an ethnically mixed pocket of the city, which has been largely divided since Kosovo's 1998-99 war, doctors and police said.
    "What we can say is that it was an act that doesn't serve Kosovo and acts like this Kosovo doesn't need. I call to our citizens, to Serbs and Albanians to stay calm and trust our institutions," said Justice minister Hajredin Kuqi.
    Mitrovica has been the trigger before for wider unrest, and tensions have been simmering since July, when Kosovo Albanian police units tried to take control of two border crossings in the north, where minority Serbs reject Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia.
    Local Serb political leader Krstimir Pantic called on the European Union's police and justice mission in the country, known as EULEX, to solve the case without delay.
    "EULEX is working in a close cooperation with KP (Kosovo Police) to investigate the shooting incident that took place last night in Kroi I Vitakut/ Brdani neighbourhood in north Mitrovica leaving unfortunately three people wounded and one person dead," said Eulex Spokesperson Francise Lambert.
    "EULEX calls upon everyone to refrain from any violent reaction in order to let the rule of law do its work this includes freedom of movement for EULEX to be able to perform this investigation in accordance with its mandate," Lambert added.
    Doctors said Mojsic had been shot twice in the back. The government of Kosovo, where 90 percent of the 1.7 million people are Albanians, issued a statement condemning the shooting and calling for those responsible to be arrested.
    Kosovo police said one person had been detained. Armed Serbs repelled the Kosovo police operation to take the border crossings in July, and Serbs have been manning barricades since, challenging Western efforts to reverse the country's de facto ethnic partition.
    Serbia lost control of its former province in 1999, when NATO bombed for 78 days to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians during a two-year Serb counter-insurgency war.
    More than 80 countries, including the United States and most of the European Union, have recognised Kosovo as independent, but Serbia says it will never do so.
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