Tirana condemns violence in Kosovo

TIRANA, July 5 – Albania’s government has strongly condemned recent violence in neighboring Kosovo, which included an incident in which a gunman wounded an ethnic Serb member of Kosovo’s parliament on Monday.
Four shots were fired at legislator Petar Miletic, 35, as he walked out of his apartment in the northern town of Mitrovica, said police spokesman Besim Hoti. Miletic was hit once in the knee, Hoti said. His injuries were not life-threatening.
Last Friday, an explosion tore through a Serb protest in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica fatally injuring one man and leaving about 11 others with shrapnel wounds.
Mitrovica — split by a river into a Serb area and an ethnic Albanian one — has often been a scene of clashes between the two sides with NATO-led peacekeepers and EU police caught in the middle.
Serb leaders in the north blamed EU police for escalating the situation Friday, but EU officials dismissed the claim saying they deployed to support the local police during the protest.
In Tirana, Foreign Minister Ilir Meta said that he had a telephone conversation with the Chairman of the Liberal Party of Kosovo, Sllobodan Petrovic, to express “our solidarity for the serious incident” against Miletic.
Albanian Foreign Ministry also condemned the explosion in Mitrovica, considering it a severe action, damaging the interests of all citizens of Kosovo.
The ministry also urged local authorities to clarify the case, as well as supported Prishtina’s call on the citizens to remain calm and to avoid any provocation.
“We support the position maintained by the President and Prime Minister of Kosovo, the international authorities and representatives, and we are fully confident that after this incident, Mitrovica can still have even a peaceful future in stability and cohabitation; this requires the contribution by all stakeholders but first and foremost the isolation of destructive elements, who seek to tarnish the image of Kosovo and of the entire region, which is edging ever closer to NATO and to the EU,” said a ministry statement.
These recent violence cases threaten the already fragile peace in the country.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following a bloody civil war, and some of Kosovo’s Serb minority regard Serbs who work with the Kosovo government as traitors.
The attack on Miletic came amid heightened tensions after a man died Friday in an explosion during Serb protests against Prishtina’s rule.
Meta also said recently that a split of Kosovo’s territory could not be done, as some media had suggested, as that would endanger security in the region.
“We have made it clear that any idea on exchange of territories, anywhere in the Balkans, is absolutely unacceptable, because it seeks to return the region back for decades. Today, this region is more stable than ever, and closer to the EU and NATO. The future of the Balkans is not the change of borders, but their removal and naturally the respect for the sovereignty and integrity of each country. Especially, when we talk of Kosovo, which is a very important factor for peace and stability across the entire region,” he said. “We are convinced that the status and borders of Kosovo are unchangeable. It is very important for all to understand that by respecting each-other’s borders, we speed up the future of our countries in the European Union.”
NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days in 1999 in a bid to end a brutal crackdown by the forces of then President Slobodan Milosevic against separatist Kosovo Albanians. Some 10,000 Albanians were killed and close to a million forced out of their homes. Hundreds of Serbs were also killed in retaliatory attacks by Kosovo separatists.
Kosovo declared independence in February 2008, but Serbia and its ally Russia have refused to recognize that.
So far 69 countries, including the United States, have recognized Kosovo’s statehood.