Tensions Soar in Kosovo after Serb Teenagers Killed

15/08/2003| IslamWeb

Flags flew at half mast in Belgrade as Serbia mourned two young victims of a shooting in Kosovo. The killings of the two teenagers who were gunned downed by a suspected ethnic Albanians have sent tensions soaring in region. After attending the funerals the Serb Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic discussed the attack with the UN's new adminstrator in Kosovo, Hari Holkeri. Fewer than 100,000 Serbs now remain in Kosovo living in enclaves protected by NATO peacekeepers. U.N. figures say 273 Serbs have been murdered in attacks since 1999. Zivkovic has highlightd the fact that no one has been punished for any of the incidents. Albanians in Kosovo suffered wholesale ethnic cleansing and murder under the regime of the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. A number of others were injured in Wednesday's shooting in which a gunman opened fire on a group of youngsters playing in a river. The killings have been condemned by the the UN, the EU, Russia and the US. Serbs in Kosovo registered their outrage in a demonstration near the victims' home village. Holkeri was expected to oversee initial talks later this year that would lead up to tackling the crunch issue of Kosovo's future status. But analysts say the attack and the reverberations it has set off may cloud that prospect. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Members of the Montenegrin police patrol the boundary with Kosovo near the town of Kula, July 24, 2003. (REUTERS/Stevo Vasiljevic)