- Title: YUGOSLAVIA: THREE ROMA MEN KILLED BY BOOBYTRAP BOMB
- Date: 3rd August 2000
- Summary: MALI ALAS, KOSOVO YUGOSLAVIA (AUGUST 2, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. MV CORDONED OFF AREA, FINNISH KFOR AND UNMIK POLICE BLOCKING ACCESS TO SITE OF INCIDENT (2 SHOTS) 0.09 2. SCU BRITISH COMMANDER AND FINNISH COMMANDER INSPECTING SITE, TALKING TO EACH OTHER 0.14 3. MV FINNISH APC DRIVING PASS; AV HELICOPTER INSPECTING THE AREA HEADLIGHT VISIBLE IN NI
- Embargoed: 18th August 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MALI ALAS,KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA
- City:
- Country: Yugoslavia
- Reuters ID: LVAAE5KOOS4PKBUXJ0W9EF05NKWL
- Story Text: Three Roma men have been killed in Kosovo after they
ran into a boobytrap bomb outside their home. A fourth was
injured.
British and Finnish members of the NATO-led
peacekeeping force that has been in Kosovo since the Serb
pullout last June rushed to the village of Mali Alas on
Wednesday night (August 2). They initially thought the family
had driven onto a mine planted in the road.
The commander of Britain's KFOR contingent, Brigadier
Richard Shirreff, confirmed that a booby trap had been set. A
grenade had been placed in the garden and a wire strung
between two trees. He said that the KFOR peacekeepers
"realised that this was a potential booby-trap, withdrew
quickly shouting to everyone in the vicinity to withdraw as
well. As they took cover there was a very loud explosion. In
the explosion two people died instantly. The third was
terribly badly wounded and died subsequently."
The village is a mixed Roma-Albanian village and is under
FINBAT (Finnish Battalion) supervision. Out of the population
of 700, 250 are Romas. The Finnish have 800 soldiers as part
of the Peacekeeping mission, 150 of whom operate in the Mali
Alas area.
The commander of the Finnish troops said, "This is not the
first time, there have been some incidents during the summer
with hand-grenade and some shooting, but not on this scale.
This was the worst in a long time."
The former KLA commannder and the chairman of the Aliance
for the Future of Kosovo, a newly formed political party,
Ramush Haradinaj, was also at the site. He said that the
reason for his visit was to give his support to the families
of the victims and the injured.
Albanians often blame Roma for helping Serbs conduct a
campaign of terror against them before and during the NATO air
strikes last year.
Kosovo's Serbs and other minorities have come under
frequent attack since and the United Nations refugee agency
has said that more than 200,000 of them have fled.
In the garden of the house in Mali Alas, around 15 km (12
miles) south of the Kosovo capital Pristina, blood and pieces
of clothing could be seen on Thursday morning.
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