Attacks leave two injured in Kosovo

FoNet and Beta News Agencies, Belgrade, December 26, 2005 09:23 -> 12:30

 

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Monday - Dejan Maksimovic and Branislav Antovic where injured in two armed attacks in Kosovska Mitrovica late last night.

 

An unidentified shooter fired through the window the Maksimovic family home and wounded Dejan Maksimovic's leg. The attacker fled from the scene and no one else was injured.

 

In the second incident, Branislav Antovic was shot several times while working the overnight security shift at the Vodovod Ibar public parking grounds, and was taken to the Kosovska Mitrovica Hospital where doctors operated on him last night. Maksimovic is receiving treatment at the hospital as well.

 

"Antovic was shot twice in the stomach, several of his internal organs were damaged and he was bleeding heavily. A four hour operation was done and he is currently is stable but critical condition. Dejan Maksimovic was shot in the shin. The injuries are serious, but he is stable." Milan Ivanovic, deputy director of the Kosovska Mitrovica Hospital, said.

 

Maksimovic told Beta that the attacker shot at him from the terrace of his own apartment. He said that he was watching television in the room in which his parents were sleeping.

 

"I heard steps and sounds coming from the terrace and went out to see what it was. I saw a silhouette of a person holding something in their hands. I could not see anything in the dark. I then went back towards the room and heard the shots." Maksimovic said.

 

The police have yet to give a statement regarding the attacks and investigations are ongoing.

 

Violence "will not be tolerated"

 

US Office Chief in Pristina, Philip Goldberg, said that disorder or violence in any form will not be tolerated in Kosovo.

 

"We are clear in the principles which the Contact Group has introduced when Kosovo is in question, and NATO, along with the international and Kosovo police forces, will do everything to prevent any eventual violence in Kosovo." Goldberg said, adding that "Absolute security cannot be guaranteed in the US, much less in Kosovo."

 

A message to the Serbs

 

Goran Bogdanovic, member of Belgrade's Kosovo status discussion team, has condemned the attacks and said that they represent a message that Serbs are not wanted in this Kosovo city.

 

"I am not going to prejudge who could be responsible for the attacks while the police and institutions have yet to make any official statements, but there are many indications as to where the attacks could be coming from. We know who has pointed fingers at Kosovska Mitrovica thus far. We know who has, on several occasions, tried to cross into northern Kosovska Mitrovica from the southern region, and last night's attack is just another attempt to try and destabilize the only larger city in Kosovo where there are still Serbs living and has remained multi-ethnic." Bogdanovic said, keeping his statement ambiguous.

 

He said that last night's attacks, other more recent attacks on Serbs in Strpac, the turning off of electricity going to Serbian villages in Kosovo, all have one goal in mind; to demoralize the Serbian community and get them thinking about leaving, coincidentally, at the same time that discussions for the future status of Kosovo are set to begin.