Blast in divided Kosovo town

Friday 15 February 2008

A blast which caused no injuries, went off near a building housing the advance team for the EU mission in the divided Kosovar town Mitrovica, where both Serbs and Albanians live, the police said. Kosovo is set to declare independence within days.

Kosovo police said Friday that a explosion in the flashpoint town of Kosovska Mitrovica went off behind a building housing the advance team for the European Union mission.
  
"There are no injured," Besim Hoti, the police spokesman in the town, told AFP by phone. Two windows of a nearby house had been smashed in the blast late Thursday, he added.
  
The building is in the northern, Serbian part of the town, which is divided between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. Hoti said investigation for possible reasons behind the blast was underway.
  
The explosion happened in a house occupied by two families, "very probably Serb," said Hoti. Police had taken in a man who lived there for questioning as a witness. More details would be released later Friday, he added.
  
The ethnically divided town, where 20,000 Serbs live in the north and 80,000 Albanians in the south, symbolises the ethnic tensions of Kosovo, the Serbian province that is expected to declare independence as early as Sunday.
  
Kosovo Serbian leaders are also due to meet in the town on Friday to discuss their response. Kosovo's Serb community opposes independence for the province.
  
The EU team already in the town is the advance team for EULEX, a mission of police officers and lawyers due to be formally launched on midnight Friday (2300 GMT).
  
The mission will consist of a political entity to supervise the transfer of powers from UNMIK, the UN mission that has administered Kosovo since 1999, to the local authorities.
  
An operational entity will train and mentor police, justice and customs officials.
  
But many have feared this flashpoint town could be the scene of tensions and violence between the two rival communities.
  
Sunday's blast came just days ahead of the expected declaration of independence of the majority ethnic-Albanian province, a move strongly opposed by Serbia and by the Serb minority living in Kosovo.
  
Tensions over the bitterly contested issue, between Serbia and Russia on one side and the United States and many western European countries on the other, have been rising in recent days.
  
Serbia and Russia bluntly told the UN Security Council Thursday that the expected unilateral declaration of independence from Belgrade by Kosovo's Albanian majority was unacceptable and a violation of international law.
  
Serbia said it would "annul" Kosovo's decision to declare indpendence, deeming it "null and void."
  
Kosovo, technically still a province of Serbia, has been run by the UN and NATO since the end of a 1998-1999 conflict that ended after a NATO bombing campaign to stop a Serbian crackdown on the Albanian majority.

Vidéo

• 

  N.R.

  FRANCE 24's Philippe Bolopion reports from New York 15/02 2 AM
• 

  PHILIPPE BOLOPION

  15/02 7am GMT+1 FR 24 UN correspondent
• 

  KOSOVO

  15/02 Plight of Serbs in Kosovo

Pour aller plus loin

SERBIA - KOSOVO: Security Council holds Kosovo meeting (14/02/2008)