As violence continues in Kosovo, top UN envoy issues new appeal for calm

The top United Nations envoy in Kosovo issued a new appeal today for an immediate halt to violence that has already killed 22 people and injured 500 more in the worst unrest to hit the ethnically divided province since the world body took over its administration nearly five years ago.

“Let no one be mistaken. This violence is destroying Kosovo’s future, for every day that the violence goes on, Kosovo loses valuable friends,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative Harri Holkeri said in a statement in Pristina, the capital, as clashes between ethnic Albanians and Serbs continued into a second day.

Mr. Holkeri, who heads the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), called on politicians and media who incited or supported the violence to refrain immediately from making inflammatory statements ahead of a meeting later today of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation.

“Yesterday Kosovo saw the worst possible violence since UNMIK and KFOR (the international security force) came here five years ago,” he said. “We are deeply shocked, saddened and disturbed by these events and call for an immediate halt to all violence and protests, some of which are on going today.”

Kosovo has been under UN administration since 1999 when NATO forced the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops following fighting between Albanians and Serbs. Eleven KFOR soldiers and 61 policemen were among yesterday’s injured.

“The violence was the worst possible message that Kosovo could send to the international community,” Mr. Holkeri said. “The whole world is watching how the people of Kosovo behave with each other and with the international community five years after the international community at great expense intervened to stop the violence.”