'Shocked and outraged,' Annan condemns killing of two UN police in Kosovo

Voicing shock and outrage, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the killing of two United Nations police officers in Kosovo, coming less than a week after the worst ethnic clashes since the world body took over administration of the province nearly five years ago.

"The current violence and instability in Kosovo cannot be tolerated," Mr. Annan said in a statement released in New York on the "inexcusable" shooting of the two officers, one from Ghana and one from Kosovo itself, while they were carrying out routine work in a marked car near Podujevo, in the Pristina region. A UN language assistant who was also shot is in serious but stable condition.

Speaking in Pristina, the Kosovo capital, Stefan Feller, Police Commissioner for the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said he did not wish to link the shooting with last week's riots, which killed 28 people, injured hundreds, displaced over 4,000 more and destroyed 30 religious sites, mostly churches, and more than 300 homes.

"But I must mention that an effort by certain groups of people to perpetrate public disorder in the last few days has contributed to promote an environment that potentially encourages criminal activities," Mr. Feller added.

He said the attackers fled the scene by seizing two passing cars after the police returned fire and reinforcements rushed to the area to give chase. One suspect was hit by police fire and the body of a man with fatal gunshot wounds was later recovered in a nearby village.

"Let the death of these police officers be a wake-up call for people everywhere in Kosovo," he warned. "Each one of us must play a part in rooting out violence by identifying the perpetrators to the police and helping to bring them to justice."

In his statement, Mr. Annan called on all inhabitants of Kosovo to cooperate with UNMIK and the international security force KFOR to support the police investigation, so that those responsible will be brought to justice. The top UN envoy in Kosovo, Harri Holkeri, today reiterated UNMIK's full commitment to the establishment of "a multiethnic, tolerant, democratic society in a stable Kosovo."

The shooting came on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) intervention that forced the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from the province following fierce ethnic fighting and led to the UN taking over its administration in June 1999.