Thursday, February 17, 2011

UN chief presents new Kosovo report

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has submitted his regular Kosovo report to the world organization's Security Council.



The report covers the period between October 2010 and January 2011, and looks into the implementation of the mandate of the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK.

The document was presented and debated at the Security Council on February 16, and is available for download in a PDF file below.

http://www.b92.net/eng/download.phtml?72768,0,0

10 years since terrorist attack on bus

Source: Tanjug
GRAČANICA, BELGRADE -- Wednesday marked ten years since a terrorist attack near Podujevo in Kosovo on a Niš Express bus carrying Serbs.

A commemoration was held at a church in Laplje Selo near the Serb enclave of Gračanica, Kosovo, dedicated to the 12 people killed in the attack.

After the prayer, SPC Bishop of Ras-Prizren Teodosije said that everyone needs to remember the victims, and that this was one of the biggest crimes in Kosovo after the arrival of international forces. He expressed regret that this crime, as well as other crimes against Serbs, have yet to be solved.

"We pray for our loved ones who died at the hands of villains and terrorists, just because they were of a different nationality and religion. I am sure the perpetrator did not know the victims, because his hate was directed at a whole nation," Teodosije said.

The attack killed ten people on the spot, while two more died of injuries later.

The only suspect in the case, Kosovo Albanian Florim Ejupi, was acquitted by the Kosovo Supreme Court in 2009 for lack of evidence.

EULEX opened a new investigation which only concluded that one person could not be responsible for the attack in Livadice.

On Wednesday, Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanović has asked EULEX, UNMIK and KFOR to say how long they need to shed light at at least one crime against Serbs and what is preventing them from doing so.

"If no crime against Serbs has not been resolved for more than a decade, then the international presence clearly has to say what and where is the problem, and to remove obstacles and create conditions and prerequisites to finally solve crimes," Bogdanović said.

In a statement, the minister said that Serbia is not part of the problem, but is ready to help.

Keeping silent and claiming that there are no witnesses or evidence will only create fresh suspicions, he said.

The only thing about which there is no doubt is that all crimes committed against Kosovo Serbs were ethnically motivated, he said.

"It is devastating that even 10 years after the killing of 12 Serbs, including a two-year child, and wounding 43 of them, in Livadice near Merdare, no one was convicted for the crime," Bogdanović said.

In this context, he reminded that the killers of Serbian harvesters in Staro Gracko, of children in Goraždevac, of the Stolić family in Obilić, as well as perpetrators of other crimes against Serbs in Kosovo, are still unknown.