Albanians doing what they do best...
Kosovo Serb Killed, 10 Hurt in Attack on Cafe
PRISTINA (Reuters) - A Serb man was killed and 10 other people injured when attackers hurled grenades into a cafe and
riddled it with gunfire in a Serb enclave in the southwest Kosovo town of Orahovac, international police and troops said on
Saturday.
International police who arrived at the aftermath of the attack on Friday night were themselves attacked by a furious Serb crowd
and Dutch peacekeeping troops had to be called to protect them as they took dead and injured to hospitals in the nearby towns of
Prizren and Djakovica, a police spokesman said.
The Serbs -- who see the NATO-led peacekeeping force and U.N. police as allies of ethnic Albanians assumed to have carried
out the attack on the cafe -- damaged police cars but caused no injuries, the spokesman said. Dutch troops dispersed the crowd.
Two Serbs injured in the cafe attack were kept in hospital, a spokesman for the KFOR peacekeeping force said.
Witnesses said two or three men had first thrown grenades into the cafe before walking inside and opening fire with Kalashnikov
automatic rifles on the dozen Serbs there, the spokesman added. The attackers fled the scene and no arrests were made.
The Serb area in Orahovac, home to fewer than 2,000 Serbs, is a tense enclave surrounded by ethnic Albanians.
Several massacres of Albanians by Serbs were reported around the town before and during NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia this
year and ethnic Albanians insist the perpetrators are still hiding in the area.
Few Serbs or Albanians dare cross the boundary of the enclave, but Serb and Albanian homes are only a few yards apart in some
places.
Ethnic Albanians blockaded roads around Orahovac with tractors and cars from August until November to prevent Russian
peacekeeping troops from taking over from Dutch soldiers in the town as scheduled.
Albanians say Russian mercenaries took part in atrocities against Albanians during the Kosovo conflict and say Russian soldiers
would take the side of their fellow Slav Serbs if they took over security in the area. |
