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Police Searching For Shooters Of Four Kosovo Serbs
29 August 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Police in Kosovo are appealing to the public for help in finding those responsible for the killing of two Serb youths over the weekend.
Two other Serb youths were also wounded in the attack, which occurred on the Urosevac-Skopje highway late on 27 August.
Police say the four victims were traveling in a vehicle when unknown gunmen sprayed their car with bullets.
While Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has blamed the attack on ethnic Albanians, police say it is unclear if the shooting was ethnically motivated.
Six years since the end of a war between Serb security forces and Albanian guerrillas, UN-administered Kosovo remains volatile and subject to ethnic tensions.
Youths believed UNMIK and KFOR that freedom of movement exists - Serb protests in Mitrovica and Gracanica
Kosovska Mitrovica, August 29 (TANJUG , BETA ) - UNMIK Chief Soren Jessen Petersen bears responsibility for the murder of Serb youths in vicinity of Strpce, said on today's protest meeting in Kosovska Mitrovica the president of the Serbian National Council of North Kosovo Milan Ivanovic. He requested from Petersen to resign. A few thousands of Serbs gathered in North Mitrovica today to express their indignation after the latest terrorist act in Kosovo in which two Serb youths were killed and two wounded . A protest was also held in Gracanica under the motto "Serbs are killed one by one".
Petersen, who acts in a pro-Albanian way, claimed that there is a freedom of movement in Kosovo and Serb youths who were shot on Saturday night believed to him, said Ivanovic. He accused Provisional Kosovo institutions for the terror against Serbian community because they act in direction of "creating an independent Kosovo".
"In Kosovo, which is a center of terrorism, Albanian national army acts thanks to UNMNIK and KFOR", said SNV president of North kosovo. he requested that the Serbian community is granted right for selfdefense. Ivanovic requested from KFOR to return the checkpoint on the main bridge over the river Ibar which divides the north from the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica.
Kosovo shooting suspects freed
The attack is believed to have been carried out by a well-organised group of people. Kosovo governor Soeren Jessen-Petersen said that no stone will be left unturned in finding the attackers. The same phrase was used by his predecessor, Hari Holkeri, after the murder of Serbian children in Gorazdevac two years ago. The attackers have never been identified.
12:26 August 29 | B92 , Belgrade
STRPCE -- Monday – Three men suspected of the unprovoked shooting of four young Serbs in Kosovo have been released from custody, Kosovo media report.
Two of the victims, Ivan Dejanovic and Aleksandar Stankovic, died in the shooting, while Nikola Dukic and Aleksandar Janicijevic were wounded. The attack took place in the village of Banjica, near Strpce.
Local television in Strpce reports that the three suspects said they happened to be in the village of Kostanjevo, near the site of the incident, and that they did not match the description of the attackers given to police by one of the wounded victims.
Aleksandar Janicijevic, who was released from hospital in Gracanica after being treated for minor injuries, told police that the attack had been carried out from a black Mercedes, not a white one as previously reported. According to local daily Glas Juga, this information was crucial in releasing the suspects.
The attack is believed to have been carried out by a well-organised group of people. Kosovo governor Soeren Jessen-Petersen said that no stone will be left unturned in finding the attackers. The same phrase was used by his predecessor, Hari Holkeri, after the murder of Serbian children in Gorazdevac two years ago. The attackers have never been identified.
Despite a tense atmosphere in the province's Serbian enclaves, there were no further incidents during the night.
“Terrorist act”
Describing the murders as “a terrorist act”, Serbian President Boris Tadic said last night that the murders were a message that Serbs do not belong in Kosovo.
“This terrorist act is yet more proof that the key issue in Kosovo is human rights. It's obvious to everyone that the society there is a long way from being ready for democracy and multiethnicity,” said the president.
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica laid the blame at the door of the United Nations mission in the province, saying that its officials were responsible for “Albanian terror against Serbs in Kosovo”. Also responsible, he said, was that part of the international community which ignores terrorist acts in order to expedite negotiations on the province's final status.
Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic underlined Kostunica's comments, saying that a distinction cannot and must not be made between terrorists in New York, London, Madrid, Moscow or Beslan and terrorists committing murders throughout Kosovo.
Condolences
The head of the UN mission, Soeren Jessen-Petersen, issued a strong condemnation of the murders and sent condolences to the families of the victims.
“I am shocked and disgusted by this senseless crime. An investigation has begun and I think that speculation can't help. It is irresponsible and immature to speculate,” he said.
The Kosovo Government has condemned the crime and appealed to all Kosovo citizens to cooperate with police in finding the assailants.
Deputy Prime Minister Adem Saljihaj visited victim Nikola Dukic in hospital where he is recovering from surgery, telling journalists “Regardless of the motive and the perpetrators, the police must work intensively with all other bodies and resolve this case to quash speculation. We stand behind the UNMIK police and the Kosovo police,” said the deputy prime minister.
Parliament protests
Today's sitting of the Serbian Parliament began with a minute's silence when Speaker Predrag Markovic called on MPs to honour “the victims of Albanian terrorism in Kosovo”.
Serbs will gather in Strpce today at 1.00 p.m. to protest at the murder and wounding of members of the community.
A crisis group has been set up in the town to set up permanent checkpoints at the access roads to Strpce in order to monitor people coming and going from the area. A preliminary agreement has already been made to re-establish convoys in order to provide safe travel between the area and Serbia proper.
Victims of the recent terrorist attack burried in Kosovo today
"We thought that there will be no more murders of innocent Serbs, but the enemy has taken two more young lives only because they were Serbs of Orthodox Christian faith", said Bishop Artemije and sent a message that "Serbs will pray to God that Ivan and Aleksandar are the last innocent vistims in Kosovo"
LIPLJAN, 30 August 2005. (Beta)
Two Serb young men who were killed in Kosovo on Saturday - Aleksandar Stankovic and Ivan Dejanovic were burried today on the village cemeteries near Lipljan, 10 miles from Pristina.
Bishop Artemije with his priests served the funeral service to Ivan Dejanovic in the center of the Suvi Do village near Lipljan.
An hour later Aleksandar Stankovic was burried on the village cemetery in Livadje near Lipljan, in presence of hundreds of Serbs from Central Kosovo.
After the funeral service Bishop Artemije requested from the international community, from UNMIK and KFOR, to stop further killings of Serbs because, as he said, no country can be built on murders.
"We thought that there will be no more murders of innocent Serbs, but the enemy has taken two more innocent lives only because they were Serbs of Orthodox Christian faith", said Bishop Artemije and sent a message that "Serbs will pray to God that Ivan and Aleksandar are the last innocent vistims in Kosovo".
Aleksandar Stankovic, was born in 1977 in the village of Konjuh, Lipljan municipality. Since 1999 he has lived as an IDP in Suvi Do with his mother and sister. He was burried in Livadje where his brother lives with his family.
Ivan Dejanovic was born in 1981 in Priluzje, Vucitrn municipality. He lived with his wife and two little daughters in Suvi Do near Lipljan where he was burried. Widow and refugee (IDP) Dragana Dejanovic must raise her three small children without their father after her husband Ivan was murdered while she was still pregnant. The Serb members of the Kosovo Police Force (9%) tried to help, but the Albanian dominated force does not seek perpetrators of crimes against Serbs. Local Albanians told her: "What are you waiting for [to leave]? We already killed your husband. Do we have to kill you and your children too?"
With the murder of Aleksandar and Ivan, the number of killed Serbs in the municipality since arrival of the international mission to Kosovo in 1999 has risen to 35. Petpetrators of neither of these murders have been brought to justice so far.
Ivan and Aleksandar were killed on the road between Urosevac and Strpce, near the village of Banjica, 14 km from Strpce. While they were driving the car unknown assailants opened fire on them. Ivan and Aleksandar were killed at the spot while two more Serb youths were wounded.
No representatives of the international community have attended today's funerals in Lipljan.
Source....
- http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/7195.htm
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4193208.stm
- http://www.kosovo.net/news/archive/2005/August_30/5.html
- http://www.kosovo.net/news/archive/2005/August_29/4.html
- http://english.people.com.cn/200508/30/eng20050830_205269.html
- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/international/europe/29kosovo.html
- http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/08/29/two-serbs-killed-in-kosovo-drive-by/
- http://www.neobyzantine.org/movement/problems/kosovo/29_august_2005_killing.php