SERBIAN OFFICIAL SERBS
ATTACKED 186 TIMES SINCE GREEN LIGHT FOR KOSOVO TALKS
BBC Monitoring International Reports - June 1, 2006, Thursday
Text of report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 1 June
[Announcer] The [Serbian] Coordination Centre for Kosovo-Metohija's press centre
in Kosovska Mitrovica said that barricades made of branches had been set up on
the Zvecan-Zitkovac road [where body of Kosovo Serb was found early this morning
with three gunshot wounds], adding that a number of 7.65-mm calibre shells had
been found at the scene. This is the third serious incident in the area in the
past month. Before that, a vehicle carrying a Serbian Orthodox Church priest
with his family had been fired at, and then two ethnic Serb youths were gravely
injured in an armed attack at a petrol station.
The Coordination Centre for Kosovo-Metohija chairwoman, Sanda Raskovic-Ivic,
today most harshly condemned the incident in the vicinity of Zvecan, describing
the event as a tragedy. In a statement for Kontakt Plus radio, Raskovic-Ivic
recalled that there had been 186 incidents since 24 October 2005, when the
decision was taken to begin talks about the future of Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija].
[Raskovic-Ivic] I made a point of mentioning this date because it was the date
set for the beginning of negotiations about the future status of Kosovo. In this
way we see that in Kosovo, nothing has changed in practice. We see that the
police are not doing their job, that the Albanians attacked the Serbs 186 times
before the very nose of the international community, incidents in which we had
two fatal outcomes and over 20 persons suffering grave injuries. All this
provides very serious cause for concern, a two-fold concern. The first is what
happens when the international community leaves Kosovo-Metohija, and the other
is that the police are not doing their job, whether it is the UNMIK [UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo] police or the Kosovo Police Service [KPS].
[Announcer] Raskovic-Ivic concluded that the latest incident near Zvecan was yet
another story whose ending is not yet known.
Source: Kontakt Plus,
Kosovska Mitrovica, in Serbian 1400 gmt 1 Jun 06
Copyright 2006 Financial Times Information
Copyright 2006 BBC Monitoring/BBC Source: Financial Times Information Limited
Posted for Fair Use only.