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UN Envoy Maligns Serbs;
Terrorist Bombs Serbian Cafe in Mitrovica

On Bomb Attack:

* Beta, reported by B92 Radio

* Serbian TV (RTS) report

* Agence France Presse

* Associated Press

On UN Envoy's Statement that Serbs are Collectively Guilty

* Serbian TV (RTS) report

================================================

Beta -

Bomb explosion in Kosovska Mitrovica
26 August 2006 | 20:02 -> 22:30 | Source: Beta, reported by Radio B92
 
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Nine people were injured when a bomb exploded in Kosovska Mitrovica around 19:00 tonight.

Beta agency named Adem Dibrani (16) from the southern end of the ethnically divided town as the perpetrator of the incident.

Beta agency reports that the perpetrator has been put under arrest and the Kosovo Police Service has confirmed that a person suspected of throwing the explosive device at the café Dolce Vita is in custody, but declined to reveal his identity or ethnic background.

Deputy Director of the Medical Centre in Kosovska Mitrovica Milan Ivanović told B92 that nine people with injuries from the blast were hospitalised tonight. He added that two people were discharged immediately after receiving first aid.

“Seven people have been kept for further treatment. The injuries were inflicted by shrapnel and one of the injured is an international policeman from Great Britain. The other six are civilians, two of them young women. One Dutch child-bearing woman was also hurt”, Ivanović said.

Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica stated that “both the Albanian terrorists and representatives of the international community were equally to blame for tonight’s bomb attack on innocent Serbian citizens in Kosovska Mitrovica because since their daily actions were encouraging these kinds of incidents”.

“Albanian separatists were quick to react to [UN Envoy]Ahtisaari’s statement that Serbs were guilty as a nation by tossing a bomb at innocent Serbian citizens in Kosovska Mitrovica”, said Koštunica’s communiqué to Beta news agency.

“Although [UN envoy] Ahtisaari has been entrusted with a mandate to ensure negotiations that will lead to a compromise, a historically just solution based on international legal norms, the UN special envoy seems to be acting in complete contrast to such a goal”, the Prime Minister added.

The leader of the Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija Oliver Ivanović was sitting in the cafe Dolce Vita when the bomb exploded.

“This is horrible. I’m very upset. A man calmly approached the café and just threw the bomb. Anyone could have done it and the incident happened when a lot of young people were around”, Ivanović told B92. Ivanović added he was concerned about the feeble reaction by Kosovo Police Service and KFOR.

UNMIK forces blocked access to the café and are currently investigating the scene. Several hundred citizens gathered in discontent and started off towards the bridge that was currently under a blockade.

Jakšić: The attacker should stand trial before a Serbian court

Member of the Belgrade team for negotiations Marko Jakšić told Beta agency he would demand that the person who threw the bomb at the café in Kosovska Mitrovica tonight be handed over to Serbian police and should stand trial before a Serbian court.

“We will also demand the bridge over the Ibar River that divides the two communities in Kosovska Mitrovica be closed down until the status of Kosovo and Metohija is resolved. As of tonight, self-organised citizens will keep watch at the bridge”, Jakšić announced.

He added that the bomb attack in Kosovska Mitrovica demonstrated that the crime wave against Serbs has not come to an end.

“This is more proof of the policy of double standards lead by the international community. Words do not mean anything anymore and we now demand that the international community finally start doing its job and protect those who are in danger, in this specific case the Serb community in Kosovo”, Jakšić said.

***

Serb TV -

BELGRADE TV SHOWS KOSOVO CAFE BLAST AFTERMATH, SERBS WANT BRIDGE CLOSED,  BBC Monitoring International Reports, August 26, 2006 Saturday, A2006082619-1223C-GNW, 268 words

Text of report by Serbian TV on 26 August

[Presenter] Let us recall the news from the beginning of Dnevnik [RTS main news bulletin]. A hand grenade exploded in Dolce Vita cafe in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica around 1900 [1700 gmt]. As our correspondent has reported six persons were injured, including a Canadian policemen working with the United Nations. An ethnic Albanian young man ran across the bridge from the southern [Albanian-populated] part of town and lobbed the bomb into the cafe garden. Eyewitnesses said that members of the Kosovo Police Service [KPS] were on the bridge while the young man was running across it. Kfor [NATO-led Kosovo Force] troops came to the scene as late as half an hour after the explosion, and our correspondent reported that around 300 Serbs already gathered in protest in the area near the bridge in whose vicinity Dolce Vita Cafe is located.

We have received first footage from the scene.

[Footage broadcast by Zvecan-based TV Most shown, smashed glass, shrapnel, holes in the door]

[Nebojsa Jovic, captioned as the chairman of the SNV [Serb National Council] for Kosovska Mitrovica] The Serb National Council will do everything it can to keep the situation under control, because, as I have said, we do not want any incidents, but I think that a decision has already been made. It is clear that the bridge can no longer remain open [for civilian traffic], at least not until that infamous [Kosovo] status is solved, because it is evident that there is no security on the bridge.

Source: RTS 1 TV, Belgrade, in Serbian 1758 gmt 26 Aug 06

 ***

Agence France Presse -

Grenade attack injures nine in Kosovo
Agence France Presse -- English, August 26, 2006 Saturday,  7:26 PM GMT, 238 words, MITROVICA, Serbia, Aug 26 2006

 At least nine people, two of them foreigners, were injured Saturday in a grenade attack in northern Kosovo, a local doctor said.

He said an international policeman and a Dutch woman along with six Serb civilians, including two young women, were injured when an unknown attacker threw a hand grenade at a cafe in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica.

Three of the nine were severely wounded, doctor Radomir Jankovic of Mitrovica hospital said.

The cafe is near a bridge over the Ibar river, which divides the ethnic Albanian south of the town from the Serb-controlled north.

"Police arrested a person suspected to have committed the attack," a spokesman for the Kosovo Police Service told AFP in Pristina, refusing to reveal the nationality of the suspect.

But another source within the UN mission said the suspect was a 16-year old ethnic Albanian.

Several hundred angry Serbs gathered in front of the bridge to protest against the attack, while police increased security.

Both international and local police are keeping the situation in the town under control, the spokesman said.

The southern Serbian province of Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO since the end of a conflict between Serbian forces and armed ethnic Albanian separatists in June 1999.

Ethnic tensions between the province's ethnic Albanian majority and its Serb minority remain high despite the presence of thousands of NATO peacekeepers. 

****

Associated Press -

Explosion in northern Kosovo injures 9,  Associated Press Worldstream, August 26, 2006 Saturday,  9:02 PM GMT, INTERNATIONAL NEWS, 287 words, By NEBI QENA, Associated Press Writer, PRISTINA Serbia

An explosion at a bar in Kosovo's tense north injured nine people on Saturday night, including a British policeman with U.N. forces in the province, officials said.

An explosive device was thrown at the Dolce Vita bar shortly before 7 p.m. (1700GMT) in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica, U.N. police spokesman Larry Miller said. He said a possible suspect was detained for questioning.

"Two of those injured are foreign nationals, one of them is a police officer," Miller said, without giving further details.

A spokesman for the British office in Kosovo said a British citizen serving with the U.N police in the province was among the injured.

A Dutch woman was also hurt in the explosion, said Milan Ivanovic, director of the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica.

Kosovska Mitrovica has often been the scene of clashes between ethnic Albanians and Serbs. The river Ibar divides the town between its northern Serb-controlled sector and the ethnic Albanian south.

The incident comes a day after the U.N.'s chief envoy for negotiations aimed at resolving Kosovo's postwar status, Martti Ahtisaari, finished a three-day visit to the province. The envoy's latest trip was aimed at pressing ethnic Albanians to grant more rights to minority Serbs.

There have been fears of rising tension between Kosovo's communities during the status talks, which are expected to conclude by year's end.

NATO peacekeepers reopened a military base in the Serb-dominated area in northern Kosovo and U.N. police deployed about 500 police officers to boost security after local Serbian officials said they would sever ties with ethnic Albanian-dominated institutions following a series of violent incidents that they blamed on ethnic Albanians.

***

Serb TV -

Serbia protests at UN envoy's remarks on "collective guilt" over Kosovo,  BBC Monitoring Europe - Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring, August 25, 2006 Friday, 378 words

Text of report by Serbian TV on 25 August

[Announcer] The Serbian negotiating team has sent a letter of protest to Martti Ahtisaari, special envoy of the UN Secretary-General for talks on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija. The letter says that Ahtisaari had said in talks with members of the Serbian delegation on 8 August in Vienna that the Serbs were guilty as a nation. The Serbian negotiating team believes that this seriously brings into question Ahtisaari's unbiasedness in the negotiations and warrants a reply and clarification.

[Reporter Biljana Pekusic] That Ahtisaari had really told the negotiating team that the Serbs were to blame as a nation was confirmed by all members of the Serbian delegation taking part in the Vienna talks. The letter of protest was sent on 10 August - 15 days ago - but Ahtisaari has still not replied.

[Serbian negotiating team coordinator Slobodan Samardzic speaking at presser] The second mistake he made was to ignore our fair offer to clarify such important matters. As far as I personally am concerned, this only made me even more suspicious about his good intentions.

[Reporter] In order for the talks to continue it is necessary for Ahtisaari to clarify his statement. The Serbian negotiating team will assess the reactions of Ahtisaari, the Contact Group and the overall political public and decide on its future moves on this basis.

Speaking about Martti Ahtisaari's recent contacts with Serb representatives in Kosmet, the negotiating team says that in these talks Oliver Ivanovic was systematically manipulating the Serb List for his own purposes.

[Serbian negotiating team coordinator Leon Kojen] What Oliver Ivanovic is doing while submitting different proposals allegedly on behalf of the Serb List, as well as when meeting [Kosovo Premier] Agim Ceku, again allegedly on behalf of the Serb List, is pure political manipulation.

[Reporter] By giving precedence to Oliver Ivanovic, Martti Ahtisaari wishes to shift the focus of the negotiations from the state negotiating team to someone else, Slobodan Samardzic says. However, in the very next meeting his attention will be drawn to the fact that the Belgrade team is the only authorized instance in the negotiations.

Source: RTS 1 TV, Belgrade, in Serbian 1000 gmt 25 Aug 06

* * * * *

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