Thursday, May 25, 2006

Serb Convoy Attacked

This morning around 1000CET a UN convoy escorting two Serbian lawyers assigned to ICTY was attacked by Albanians in a Krushe e Vogel/Mala Krusa, a village near Prizren.  The villagers blockaded the road with rocks and then by laying down in the road in order to stop the vehicles.  Then they began throwing rocks, bricks, pitchforks and whatever else was available at the convoy.  KPS riot police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd which resulted in several villagers being taken to the hospital for related injuries.  The road between Prizren and Djakovica is closed following the riot.  Three police officers and one language assistant were injured in the riot and several vehicles were damaged.
The SRSG later condemned the attack on the convoy stating that "it is important for the people of Kosovo to understand that their quest for justice can only be achieved through the course of justice, not by extra-judicial means".

The incident comes just hours after the UN has released a report stating that ethnically motivated crime is going down.  In the first three months of 2006, there were 19 ethnically motivated crimes compared to 72 in the same period in 2005.