New blasts in Kosovo as parliament debates independence motion

ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL (ITALY) 17-Nov-05 17:59

 

Pristina, 17 Nov. (AKI) - Two new explosions have shaken Kosovo as parliament was due to debate a resolution on the independence of the province, police sources said on Thursday. A police car exploded in the centre of Pristina, near the headquarters of the United Nations administration (Unmik) and a truck bomb was detonated at a market in the town of Strpce, injuring two people. Only a miracle prevented a real massacre, local officials said. The province has been under UN control since 1999,

 

"This is a real cause for concern, because for the first time we see such cases of terrorist attacks," Kai Vitrup, the commissioner of the international police in Kosovo told journalists. This was the fourth automobile explosion in Pristina over the past year, but UN officials have avoided calling them terrorist acts.

 

A mysterious paramilitary group calling itself the Army for the Independence of Kosovo (AIK) in early December issued a new threat to Kosovo's ethnic Albanian politicians, saying they would face a "difficult period" unless they proclaimed Kosovo's independence. UN officials in Pristina acknowledged in October that armed gangs had been spotted in western Kosovo, but played down their importance, saying these were small groups that had non support from the local population.

 

Vitrup said that the security situation in Kosovo has worsened, and violent acts have increased with the approaching of talks on the final status of the province, whose Muslim-majority ethnic Albanians demand independence.

 

"There are people who wish to prevent the status talks, but it's the police's job to prevent any violent activities," said Vitrup. These attacks "are directed by those who want to impose their own solution for the future status of Kosovo," he said.

 

The Ethnic Albanian parliament in Pristina was meanwhile debating a draft resolution, which was originally aimed at proclaiming Kosovo's independence, but the session dragged into the late afternoon after chief UN administrator Soren Jessen Petersen, who has wide powers in the province, warned that the parliament did not have the right to adopt such a resolution, and that he would annul it. The most parliament could do was to set guidelines for Pristina's negotiating team in the status talks- expected to start in December - Petersen said.

 

After several hours of political wrangling, the parliament adopted a resolution which was described as a guideline for the Pristina negotiating team. The resolution "confirms the political will of the people of Kosovo for an independent and sovereign state of Kosovo."

 

Had the resolution stopped short of an outright proclamation of independence, it might have been resolution might be acceptable to Petersen. But the declaration went on to state: "The parliament will guarantee the confirmation of the political will of the Kosovo people for independence at a referendum."

 

The Serbian government adopted a resolution this week, stating that Kosovo must remain a part of Serbia, which is expected to be approved by the Serbian parliament on Monday. In the ongoing "war of resolutions", Kosovo Serbs, who form a 100,000 minority against 1.7 million ethnic Albanians in the province, passed their own resolution on Thursday, saying that Kosovo "has been, is and will remain a part of Serbia".

 

The "resolution for Serb survival in Kosovo," as it was called, said that "one sided proclamation of Kosovo's independence by (ethnic) Albanian institutions was unacceptable and non-binding for the Serbs."

 

As the situation in Kosovo got more tense, NATO secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Brussels "strongly and seriously" warned all the parties involved to exercise restraint. "I call upon all participants in the play not to adopt such hard stands, and that applies to parliaments as well," Shefer said.

 

"Don't take irrevocable stands, because you might find yourselves in a difficult position at the closing phase of the talks when a compromise will have to be found," he cautioned.