Thursday, March 29, 2007

Super Blast Happy & Upcoming Demonstration

Last night at approximately 2100 hours, a blast damaged a Serbian house and a vehicle in Northern Mitrovica.  This marks the third blast in a week in the area and tension is rising in the area.  The section of town where the blasts are occurring is an ethnically mixed area with both Serb and Albanian populations.  
Reliefweb carries a statement from Serbian PM Kostunica that real negotiations are the only way to determine the status of Kosovo.    Meanwhile, Olli Rehn, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, gave a speech on the EU's future role in Kosovo.  In his speech, he estimates that the EU will have a civilian staff of approximately 1500-2000 people and that the EU will need to invest 1.3-1.5 billion Euros in the first three years of its Kosovo mission.

Vetevendosje has announced a new protest on 31 March, this coming Saturday.  On Tuesday, some of the group plastered Mission HQ with posters, covering the UN busstop and placed posters on each of the concrete barricades.  By Wednesday, all the posters have been removed so I'm disappointed to not get a photo (battery on the camera was dead)...however a friend said that the area by the Grand is still plastered with posters so we'll see what I can find tonight.  I did get a photo or two of a couple across from MHQ