[ALBSA-Info] Five dead in Kosova

[Iris Pilika]

Five dead in latest Kosovo violence

Investigators search for clues after the explosion at Yugoslavia's chief 
representative in Pristina, Kosovo, on Wednesday

November 22, 2000
Web posted at: 1336 GMT


PRISTINA, Kosovo -- Five people, including four police officers, have been 
killed in the latest outbreak of violence in Kosovo.

One man has died following a bomb blast at the official residence of 
Yugoslavia's chief representative in Kosovo.

The dead man was one of at least two injured in the explosion at the home of 
Stanimir Vukicevic -- who was not hurt -- in Pristina on Wednesday morning.

The independent Beta news agency said Vukicevic's driver was severely 
injured in the explosion and that a committee security guard was slightly 
wounded.

The incident was confirmed by Bernard Kouchner, the head of the United 
Nations-led administration in Kosovo, who said one of the men had died, 
though he did not say whether the dead victim was the driver.

The bombing came after four Serb policemen were killed in a clash with an 
armed ethnic Albanian group near the village of Konculj, in a tense area of 
southern Serbia near Kosovo on Tuesday night.

Zoran Djindjic, coordinator of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia bloc, 
said one policeman had been confirmed dead while three others were reported 
missing.

"Yesterday afternoon and overnight there was an intrusion of commandos from 
Drenica (in Kosovo) into the area around Bujanovac and Presevo and there 
were widescale clashes which could grow into a real war," Djindjic told a 
news conference on Wednesday.

He said that according to the latest information 400 "Albanian terrorists" 
entered a five km (three mile) security zone by the Kosovo boundary.


Kouchner: Bomb was "carefully executed act of violence"
He said local Serb police had intercepted guerrilla communication according 
to which the three missing policemen were also dead. "According to our 
information so far four policemen were killed," Djindjic said.

Beta said the police officers' bodies were found following a clash with 
members of the Liberation Army for Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB).

The UCPMB, named after three predominantly ethnic Albanian municipalities in 
the region, is believed to have been involved in several clashes with Serb 
police over the last year.

Vukicevic heads Yugoslavia's government's liaison committee with Kosovo's 
international administration.

A U.N. spokeswoman said Vukicevic had been among seven people in the house 
when the bomb exploded, but that he was not injured.

Kosovo's minority Serbs have been targets of numerous attacks by ethnic 
Albanians after Yugoslav forces withdrew from the province last year 
following 78 days of NATO air strikes.

And Kouchner said: "This was not a random act of violence; it was 
well-prepared and very carefully executed.

"This was a professional job, and the perpetrators were willing to take 
enormous risks to achieve their ends.

"As I have repeatedly said, Kosovo remains in crisis. The conflict between 
the two communities is not over."

Kouchner said a "trend of premeditated violence" had begun with the murders 
less than two weeks ago of four Roma gypsies who had returned to their homes 
in Kosovo.

He said there were also reports of attacks on Serb police in the boundary 
area between Kosovo and Serbia proper on Tuesday. No one has so far claimed 
responsibility for the blast in Pristina, which happened at 0440 (0340GMT).

Captain Charles Valdes-Scott, a spokesman for KFOR, the United Nations' 
NATO-led peacekeeping force, said: "The first floor of the back of the house 
is destroyed.

"It is a deliberate attack, it is not a leak from the gas main."

The explosion sent glass and debris flying up to 150 yards and nearby 
buildings suffered broken windows, including one housing the academy of the 
Kosovo Protection Force, the successor of the now formally disbanded rebel 
Kosovo Liberation Army.

Beta named Vukicevic's driver as Goran Jeftic, and said the security guard 
was Goran Popovic.

The bomb was thought to consist of between five and 10 kg of explosives 
placed behind the two-storey house, said Captain Valdes-Scott.

He said both injured were taken to a British military hospital near 
Pristina.

A leader in the reformist alliance in Belgrade backing new Yugoslav 
president Vojislav Kostunica condemned what he described as a typical 
terrorist attack against the federal Yugoslav state.

Momcilo Trajkovic of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia bloc is 
coordinating plans by the Yugoslav government to set up a commission dealing 
with the issue of Kosovo's status.

"The blast was a clear message to the federal government and its intention 
to establish a commission for Kosovo," he said.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed

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