Shots fired at Kosovo Serb minivan, eyewitnesses say police refused to help
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - December 2, 2005 Friday

Excerpt from report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 2 December

[Announcer] Shots were fired today at a minivan operating on Gracanica-Kosovska Mitrovica line just outside Pristina. Fortunately, nobody was injured. Jovanka Kostic has a report for KiM [Kosovo-Metohija] Radio from Gracanica.

[Reporter] Shots were fired at a minivan operating on the Gracanica-Kosovska Mitrovica line in the vicinity of Gazimestan today around 1230 [1130 gmt]. At the time, six passengers were inside the minivan, plus the driver, Miodrag Kostic, who explained for KOSMA [Kosovo Media Association] how the incident had occurred. [Passage omitted]

The police carried out an investigation. KPS [Kosovo Police Service] spokesman Refki Morina confirmed the news about the incident.

[Morina, in Serbian] There was a shot fired at a minivan near Gazimestan. Nobody was injured but the windscreen has been broken. Kfor [NATO-led Kosovo Force] went out to the scene and undertook all necessary measures to find the perpetrators, but so far we have no information that any suspects have been discovered. The investigation is in progress. [Passage omitted]

[Reporter] The owner of the minivan said that he did not trust the police because they failed to show up at the scene of the incident today.

[Unidentified man] I do not even know why I called the police, nothing has been found yet. I did meet the police when this took place, some two minutes after the incident. One of them said, this is not my area. The other also said, well, this is not my area - I will let Pristina [police headquarters] know. Half an hour later, nobody came out, and it turned out that they did not inform Pristina in the first place. [Passage omitted]

[Reporter] Eyewitnesses of today's incident, passengers in the minivan, Petra Stojanovic and Snezana Stevic, said the following:

[First woman] A blue lorry was driving towards us from the opposition direction, from Pristina, while we were moving towards [Kosovska] Mitrovica. This was in Gazimestan around 1230. A loud shot was heard. I do not know whether this was fired from a pistol or something else, I do not know. The glass was all cracked. The lorry left. I saw the man who was ducking inside the lorry - the window was opened. Then a police vehicle came behind us, and the driver of the minivan stopped him [the man in the police vehicle] but he [policeman] said that he had nothing to do with this area here, claiming that he was from Dragas. Then the driver tried to stop other police vehicles but nobody wanted to stop.

[Second woman] All of the sudden we heard a shot and we very scared. We did not know what happened. The driver stopped the minivan and we saw that the windscreen was all cracked. While we were waiting for the other minivan, the glass fell out. I was scared, naturally.

Source: Kontakt Plus, Kosovska Mitrovica, in Serbian 1600 gmt 2 Dec 05

Copyright 2005 British Broadcasting Corporation
Posted for Fair Use only.