KOSOVO/SERBIA: An explosion kills one and injures 10 in Kosovo

Record ID: 486613

  • Title: KOSOVO/SERBIA: An explosion kills one and injures 10 in Kosovo
  • Date: 3rd July 2010
  • Summary: MITROVICA, KOSOVO (JULY 02, 2010) (REUTERS) BOSNIAN NEIGHBOURHOOD IN NORTHERN MITROVICA/ KOSOVO POLICE POLICE SECURING THE JUNCTION THAT DIVIDES ALBANIAN AND SERBS ALBANIANS SITTING NEAR THE JUNCTION NATO SOLDIERS NEAR THE EASTERN BRIDGE SOLDIER LOOKING THROUGH BINOCULARS VARIOUS OF EU MISSION ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIERS (APCs) HEADING NORTH ALBANIANS OUTSIDE SHOP
  • Embargoed: 18th July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA9AH0GEBK5CCYWVQFJTJSSDP85
  • Story Text: An explosion kills one person and injures 10 in the Serb part of the divided town of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, police and doctors say.
    An explosion killed one person and injured 10 on Friday (July 02) in the Serb part of the divided town of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, police and doctors said.
    The explosion occurred just metres away from some 600 Serbs protesting against the opening of an administrative office which they see as representing the Albanian majority, northern Mitrovica police chief Milija Milosevic said.
    Kosovo's Serb minority, financially backed by Serbia, refuses to accept Kosovo's independence, declared in 2008.
    Serbs in northern Mitrovica said the perpetrator was an ethnic Albanian. Serb head of the Mitrovica region, Radenko Nedeljkovic, blamed the incident on the NATO and EU mission for not securing the protest.
    Serbia's foreign minister Vuk Jeremic appealed for calm.
    "We have to be firm and decisive but at the same time we have to calm. I am convinced that there are many who would like for Serbia to do something hasty but it will not happen," Jeremic said.
    Serbia's president, Boris Tadic, called an emergency session of the Security Council to discuss the tensions in the region.
    "Serbia is once again facing huge challenges in Kosovo - there was an incident in which our citizens were attacked. That's provocation of Serbia, provocation of peace, and Serbia will not react on provocations as a democratic country which knows how to deal with crises," Tadic said.
    Police said they believed the explosive device may have been a hand grenade. Police and doctors in Mitrovica had earlier said that 12 people were injured.
    Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu condemned the attack and urged local and international institutions to help bring the perpetrators to justice.
    Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci called on is citizens to refrain from using violence as an outlet for their frustrations.
    "The Kosovo government calls all its citizens to restrain from any violent acts and all their dissatisfactions should be expressed in a peaceful and democratic manner. I want to stress once again that the government of the Republic of Kosovo is committed to law and order and it is on the service of all citizens throughout Kosovo territory," Thaci said.
    Two years after Kosovo seceded from Serbia, the Ibar river still divides Mitrovica between Albanians in the south and Serbs in the north and tensions remain high.
    Some 20,000 Serbs live in north Mitrovica. They refuse to deal with Kosovo institutions and see Belgrade as their capital.
    In May, NATO peacekeepers and police had to intervene to separate thousands of Serbs and Albanians who clashed over the Belgrade-organised local election in the north.
    Belgrade effectively lost control its province of Kosovo in 1999 when NATO intervened to halt the ethnic cleansing of Albanian civilians and the United Nations took over.
    The fragile peace in Kosovo is kept by 10,000 NATO peacekeepers along with European Union police and justice missions.
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