By Shaban Buza
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - Three synchronised explosions in Kosovo's capital city were aimed at blocking the path to independence from Serbia, the province's ethnic Albanian president and prime minister said on Sunday.
The blasts rocked a triangle of central Pristina at 9.30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. British time) -- at the United Nations mission office, the headquarters of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Kosovo's parliament building.
No one was injured. But any violence could hurt Albanian hopes of a positive review by U.N. envoy Kai Eide, now beginning an assessment of whether Kosovo has achieved enough democratic stability since 1999 to begin negotiations on its future status.
"The aim of these dangerous acts is to destabilize our country. (They) came at time when positive assessment of the progress in Kosovo is expected, which will open the way for the recognition of independence," said President Ibrahim Rugova.
Police reopened the city centre on Sunday morning and three U.N. vehicles gutted by fire were removed for forensic analysis. A senior U.N. security source indicated at least one of the explosions was caused by a hand grenade.
Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi also linked the blasts to Eide's review process, expected to conclude by September.
"It seems there are forces that want to devalue the achievements that our institutions have made," he said. "But they cannot stop the path towards our goal."
NO TIME TO ROCK THE BOAT
Kosovo has seen a spate of bomb attacks and shootings, often aimed at U.N. property, since Kosumi's predecessor Ramush Haradinaj resigned in March and surrendered to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague to face charges of war crimes.
Kosovo Albanians view Haradinaj as a hero of the 1998-99 guerrilla insurgency which ended with Serb forces being driven from the province by three months of NATO bombing.
Analysts say the attacks are a taste of what could happen if the 90-percent Albanian majority is denied full independence.
The United Nations administrator of the province, Soren Jessen-Petersen, issued a statement saying such attacks "are not supported by the people of Kosovo".
"Violence will not divert us from our determination to support the (government) and citizens in their strong efforts to build a peaceful, democratic and multi-ethnic Kosovo," he said.
Western powers are said to be considering "conditional independence" for Kosovo under European Union supervision.
But they have already made clear Kosovo will not return to rule from Serbia and have vested the province with powers Serbia says should only be reserved for an independent state -- its own police force, customs service, currency and postal code.
"This is a really delicate time," a senior U.N. official who asked not to be named told Reuters. "Even among the extremists there's an understanding now is not the time to rock the boat."
Western diplomats say the most likely scenario for "status negotiations" is six to nine months of European-led shuttle diplomacy between Belgrade and Pristina.
Some elements within the Albanian majority say even this is conceding too much. They do not want Belgrade involved at all.
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9 comments:
This form of Serb terrorism should be punished.
Most definitely an albanian did this just to try and get the world against the serbs again.
waske up and smell the coffee. We dont go around killing our own people. You guys are getting imaptient with the UN and are asking for someting you will not get, and that is independence. Deal with it!
>We dont go around killing our own people
Ehhh, actualy you do...last one was the prime minister, the one before that was Stambolic...ahhh but actualy you are right!
Serbs dont kill their own people, AS MUCH, as they rape and murder everything else.
Take my advice, go down to the store next door, get some ice cream, sit down relax, and start loving life, cause it's not our fault for all your misfortune, its actualy the train of thought you follow that makes you hate everything around. You see, we care, this is why we want independence. Once we have it, you will have it, and once you have it, you will start cleaning up the sceletons in your closet...
peace be with you fellow traveller...
Skeletons? Really, We are not the ones who have terrorist working for them such as the brother of Aq-Quida's second in command.
Peace be with you too.
Milosebiatch was Sadam's bed buddy.
Whatever a Serb fabricates for Albanians comes out as a lie when the USA talks about Kosovar the Albanians. Remember the bombed the Serbs for us.
so does that make Schroeder, and Chirac Sadams bed buddy too? Quite an orgy.
DOes it make half of the worlds population wrong when they disagreed with the Bombing?
Grow up and get a grip of reality.
The only way this works is by elimination the radicals on both sides, and quit with the preaching of inflamitory propoganda.
Milosevic will get his, but probably not at the Hague. DelPonte couldnt catch a cold, let alone convict him with the case she has put up.
Do some reading, other than a biased web-site, then form your own opinion, not the one you heard, from a friend, who heard it from a friend.....
First, India, Russia and China make up approximately half the Worlds Population and were against the Bombing.
Second, the KLA's director of elite services was Al Qaeda's top
operative in the Balkans, Mohammed al-Zawahiri, brother of Osama bin Laden's military chief of staff Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to Interpol and bin Laden's biographer Yossef Bodansky, director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.
There is your proof, do your research.
Research this: Recovered at an Afghanistan al Qaeda training camp was an Albanian Kosovar’s application reading, “I have Kosovo Liberation Army combat experience against Serb and American forces. ...I recommend (suicide) operations against (amusement) parks like Disney.”
Or this : The first Western leader to appear at the trial of Milosevic was Lord Paddy Ashdown, former head of England’s Liberal Democrat Party and current UN High Representative in Bosnia. Ashdown was also the first witness to admit that the KLA fighters were a terrorist organization which Yugoslavia was fighting.
Good Luck , apparently you have some more reading to do.
Did this Serbian guy mention anything about his government hostin UBL and selling him weapons, if anyone can submitt any name on this issue please contact www.fbi.gov
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