Ethnic Albanian Tensions Run
High in Southern Serbia
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) — Four people were killed and another four were wounded in a series of shootouts that fed tensions in Kosovo, the restive ethnic Albanian province in southern Serbia. An unidentified gunman burst into a Serb cafe in the village of Decani, 60 miles west of the provincial capital, Pristina, on Monday morning, killing two people and injuring another, according to a report carried today by the state-run Tanjug news agency. At about the same time, in the nearby town of Pec, a police patrol was attacked by unidentified men who seriously wounded two Serb policemen, the report said.
Police sources in the province, who demanded anonymity, said a Serb policeman was shot dead overnight in the village of Stimlje, 10 miles southwest of Pristina. In Mitrovica, 20 miles northwest of Pristina, another Serb policeman was injured and a woman of unknown nationality sitting in his car was killed when they were ambushed on a road. The violence is the worst since in Kosovo since ethnic Albanian riots in the province in 1989. Police were placed on high alert.
Tensions soared in Kosovo following Sunday’s killing of an ethnic Albanian student by a Serb in Pristina. Ethnic Albanian protests were expected here today. In January, Serbs killed two ethnic Albanians and injured three in Decani.
The local ethnic Albanian pro-independence party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, said in a statement it did not rule out “further radicalization” in the region since “Albanian patience” is running out. The party so far has urged ethnic Albanians to resort to peaceful means of political struggle. Albanians make up more than 90 percent of Kosovo’s 2 million inhabitants. President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia has ruled Kosovo with heavy police and military force since he revoked the province’s autonomy in 1989.
Since then, Kosovo’s two ethnic communities have led separate lives. The Albanians have established their own unofficial institutions and Albanian-language education, hoping to secede from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. More than 150 people have died in clashes with police or as a result of the repression since 1989.
Calling Attention to Kosovo
The Truth about Kosovo and Metohija, Part 1 of 3 Orthodox World News
The Truth about Kosovo and Metohija, Part 2 of 3 Orthodox World News
The Truth about Kosovo and Metohija, Part 3 of 3 Orthodox World News
Kosovo and Metohija Today
Cultural page about Albania and Kosovo
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