Kosovo Serb Cop Shot in 3rd Albanian Attack This Month
Reuters - Sep 28, 2005
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ROB866969.htm
Reuters - Sept. 28, 2005
Senior Kosovo Serb police officer shot and wounded
By Shaban Buza
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro - The most senior Serb police officer in
Kosovo was shot and wounded on Wednesday in the third such attack in a
southern pocket of the majority-Albanian province over the past month.
Dejan Jankovic, 30, the chief of police in Gnjilane, was wounded when his
vehicle came under fire near in the southern region of Kacanik at around
6.00 pm (1600 GMT), Kosovo police spokesman Refki Morina told Reuters.
"He was injured in his arm and taken to Pristina hospital," said Morina. His
injuries are not life threatening....
There are several hundred Serbs within Kosovo's 7,000-strong multi-ethnic
police force. Jankovic was promoted to the rank of regional commander two
weeks ago, becoming the highest ranking Serb in the force.
The attack follows the killing of two Serb men and wounding of a Serb
policeman in drive-by shootings on Aug. 27 and Sept. 10 in the region of
Strpce, a few kilometres west of Kacanik. The area lies at the foot of
Kosovo's mountainous border with Macedonia.
The United Nations, which has run the province since NATO bombing drove out
Serb forces in 1999, has refused to speculate on possible motives and made
no arrests.
But Serb leaders in Belgrade blame what they call ethnic Albanian extremists
trying to clinch independence by force as Kosovo nears negotiations on its
final status.
Legally part of Serbia, Kosovo became a U.N. protectorate in 1999 after
Western powers intervened....
Kosovo's 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority want formal independence, which
Serbia says is impossible.
Thousands of Serbs fled a wave of revenge attacks after the war. Some
100,000 remain, many in isolated enclaves patrolled by members of a 17,000
NATO-led peacekeeping force.
The United Nations expects to open status negotiations this year, possibly
in November. U.N. special envoy Kai Eide will next week recommend the start
of U.N.-mediated talks to determine the final status of Serbia's breakaway
Kosovo province, a European diplomat said on Wednesday.
U.N. and NATO officials have warned of a possible upsurge in violence as
Kosovo nears those talks, viewed with bitterness by many Albanians who
resent the idea of negotiating with Serbia.
(Additional reporting by Branislav Krstic)
Serbian News Network - SNN
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