Kosovo Serb killings sharpen UN dilemma

Reuters ^ | August 29, 2005 | Matthew Robinson

[joan]

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The weekend killing of two Serbs in Kosovo was probably an isolated incident and not the start of some new Albanian campaign of ethnic violence, United Nations police said on Monday. But with no suspects in custody to prove the assumption, the U.N. explanation for Saturday's drive-by shooting was unlikely to convince Serbian leaders who believe Albanian extremists are bent on driving all Serbs out of the province.

Ivan Dejanovic, 24, and Aleksandar Stankovic, 28, were shot dead from an overtaking vehicle on the road to the Serb enclave of Strpce as they drove home in a car easily identifiable as Serb-owned. Their deaths shattered a year of relative calm. "I want to highlight that the police consider this to be an isolated incident," U.N. police commissioner Kai Vittrup told a news conference about the shooting. "No one should think this is the start of a terrorist campaign."

But the shooting could not have come at a more sensitive moment for Kosovo. Albanians are pushing for independence of a province which is legally part of Serbia but has been run by the U.N. since Serb forces were driven out by NATO bombing in 1999.

U.N. envoy Kai Eide is due to submit a report next month on whether Kosovo, where 90 percent of the population is ethnic Albanian, has done enough to meet democratic standards, including respecting the rights of its Serb minority, for "final status" talks to begin this year.

NO SAFETY FOR SERBS

The president and prime minister of Serbia seized on the deaths as the resumption of a campaign by extremist Albanians to expel Serbs rather than reach a compromise with them, as urged by major Western powers and the United Nations.

"It is clear to everyone by now that society there is far from democratic and multi-ethnic," President Boris Tadic said. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Albanians were telling Kosovo Serbs that their only choice was "between death and persecution". The U.N. governor, the Albanian-dominated government and main parties all quickly condemned the attack. The deputy prime minister was photographed visiting a wounded passenger.

The attack was the worst involving Serbs since June last year, when a teenage boy was shot dead in Gracanica. Two Albanians were charged for the crime, in a rare breakthrough for police often criticised for failing to solve attacks on Serbs.

Nato prosecuted an 11-week air war in 1999 to drive out Serb forces accused of atrocities as they fought separatist rebels. Some 180,000 Serbs fled a wave of revenge attacks in the months that followed the Serb withdrawal and NATO deployment. Around 100,000 stayed, many in isolated enclaves watched over by NATO peacekeepers, now numbering 17,000.

U.N. officials say freedom of movement and security for Serbs has improved since March 2004, when two days of Albanian riots killed 19 people and left 800 homes in ashes.

Belgrade says this is untrue and has demanded negotiations be delayed.

[No Longer Free State]

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