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Kosovo: Security Council members condemn bomb attack in Pristina

Kosovo: Security Council members condemn bomb attack in Pristina

Security Council members today condemned the "cowardly terrorist attack" carried out in Pristina yesterday, and insisted that the perpetrators be "brought quickly to justice."

In a press statement, the body's current president, Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom, said Council members regarded this as "another deliberately planned and clearly ethnically motivated attack on Serbs in Kosovo."

Council members called on Kosovo leaders "to condemn such a senseless act and to do all they could to stop similar incidents." Stating that "extremists violence had to become a thing of the past," they called on all parties to resume the path of dialogue.

In Pristina, Hans Haekkerup, head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) said the attack was "apparently caused by dissidents bent on disrupting UNMIK's efforts to bring peace and security to all people in Kosovo." He urged all communities not to "allow the work of a few to disrupt the ongoing process to bring self-government to Kosovo."

UNMIK Police spokesman Derek Chappell said an "improvised explosive device" involving some 10 kilogrammes of explosive had targeted two vehicles leaving the Serb-administered Centre for Peace and Tolerance (CPT). One vehicle, containing five Serb occupants from the CPT, had sustained the direct force of the blast, with one passenger killed and another severely injured, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the international security force (KFOR) launched an operation at dawn today to clear three roadblocks in Mitrovica set up to protest tax collection centres established by UNMIK. A KFOR spokesman said the "successful" operation was mounted to re-establish freedom of movement for all people of Kosovo.

In another development, the committee finalizing the legal framework for Kosovo's provisional self-government had produced a draft of the document, its chairman reported today. Alexander Borg-Olivier said the draft, reflecting the work of the Joint Working Group on the Legal Framework as of 17 April, had been forwarded to Mr. Haekkerup for review.

The draft would be made available to the media and the Kosovo Transitional Council in the next few days "with a view to promoting wider discussion," he said.