New Bomb Attack On International Organizations In Kosovo

DPA, 11:42 AM, February 26th 2007

 

Several vehicles were damaged Monday in western Kosovo when a hand grenade was thrown in a car park of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

 

The attack was the second on international organizations within a week, a police spokesman said.

 

Nobody was injured in the blast in Pec, 80 kilometres west of Pristina, police spokesman Avni Gjevukaj told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

 

Following the blast, United Nations authorities in the province ordered all UN vehicles to remain parked only in secured areas "until further notice."

 

On March 19, a bomb damaged several UN vehicles in Pristina. That attack occurred in the wake of demonstrations which turned violent and ended with two fatalities following a brutal police crackdown.

 

The organizers of the protest, the radically pro-independence Vetevendosja (Self-determination) movement, has scheduled more protests for March 3.

 

Unlike mainstream Kosovo Albanian leaders, Vetevendosja rejects the negotiations and wants independence proclaimed immediately.

 

Meanwhile, the final round of talks between Pristina and Belgrade was due to continue until March 10, under UN auspices in Vienna, with the final proposal due to be drafted by the chief mediator Martti Ahtisaari afterards.

 

Ahtisaari's draft, revealed early in February, envisages internationally supervised independence for Kosovo.