International Herald Tribune Blast rocks Serbian bank in Kosovo
The Associated Press Wednesday, January 2, 2008 PRISTINA, Serbia: A powerful blast rocked the offices of a Serbian bank in southern Kosovo late Tuesday, officials said. No one was injured. The explosion took place in the ethnically mixed town of Dragas, in the mountainous region bordering Macedonia, and targeted the only Serbian bank allowed to operate in Kosovo by the United Nations mission that runs the province, said police spokesman Veton Elshani. Police said the blast ripped through the bank's offices, shattering windows and causing considerable damage to the building's structure. The area where the explosion happened is inhabited by a Serbian-speaking Muslim community that shuns Kosovo's authorities and mostly follows instructions from Belgrade. The bank has offices in areas where the Serb minority lives, surrounded by the ethnic Albanian majority and handles funds from Serbia earmarked for the minority in Kosovo. On Monday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had warned that progress in Kosovo could be reversed if no agreement was reached on the future of the province. He said that events on the ground could overtake diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue and "risk the achievements and legacy of the United Nations in Kosovo." Although ethnically motivated incidents have dropped significantly in recent years, tension between ethnic Albanians and Serbs persist and there are fears they could worsen as Kosovo's leaders prepare to declare independence from Serbia in 2008. Kosovo is legally a province of Serbia, but is administered by the U.N. and NATO troops. Ethnic Albanians, who account for about 90 percent of the province's 2 million population, demand independence. Serbia insists the province should remain within its borders. Kosovo's leaders and Serbia's officials met for over a year in a fruitless effort mediated by international officials to decide whether Kosovo becomes independent or remains part of Serbia. With the failure of the talks, the issue has gone to the U.N. Security Council. The ethnic Albanian leaders have said they will press on with declaring independence early in 2008, but said they would not move without support from the U.S. and EU. They have hinted, however, that they would not wait for approval from the United Nations, where Russia has threatened to use its veto power to block any decision that leads to independence. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/01/europe/EU-GEN-Kosovo-Explosion.php
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