It is a crazy world we live in these days!
Yesterday, an 18 year-old boy was shot in a drive-by shooting in Cagalavica, a Serbian village near where I live. The Serbs blocked the highway to Skopje in protest. The Serbs in Gracanica, the Serbian village where I live, is also closed due to a protest near the police station. Basically, Kosovo has been shut-down because the major roads are blocked by protesters! In fact, the roads have remained blocked the entire day. I almost had to spend the night in Pristina but luckily, they opened the road to UN vehicles at 5pm :)
This past weekend, a grenade was thrown into the President of Kosovo's house from a passing car, which supposedly has been identified. On Saturday morning, there was an explosion at the UNHQ in Mitrovica...but of course, no one knew about it unless they read the local media! I only heard about it from Emin Monday morning and he didn't know any of the details...just that there had been an explosion and no one was injured. I am surprised (and at the same time, not) because UN Security did not issue any warnings to stay clear of the area or alert the staff in any way. The common joke is that it is "Un-security" :)
Two weekends ago, a bomb threat was called in to MHQ (Mission Headquarters in Kosovo) where I work. Local police discovered a 4.8kg plastique bomb alongside our perimeter fence set on a timer. Two days later, they evacuated the compound a little after 10pm for another threat while earlier in the day, a bomb threat was called into the Grand Hotel next to MHQ.
On a brighter note, spring appears to have arrived (knock on wood!!!) The weekend was beautiful and sunny. Sinan and I spend the weekend lazing around his flat, watching movies and chatting. We decided to walk the streets of Pristina on Sunday afternoon and took in some of the sunshine. It was an absolutely wonderful weekend :)
