Top UN official in Kosovo condemns attempt on police commander's life

The top United Nations official in Kosovo this evening condemned the attempted assassination of the police commander for the Gjilan/Gnjilane region of the province, according to a statement released by the UN mission there.

"Such acts of violence have no place in Kosovo or indeed in any society. Whoever perpetrated this cowardly attempt is an enemy of progress in Kosovo," Søren Jessen-Petersen, the Special Representative for Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said of the attack on Col. Dejan Jankovic of the Kosovo Police Service (KPS).

"I am greatly relieved to learn that the injuries are not life-threatening, and I send Colonel Jankovic my best wishes for a full and speedy recovery," he said.

The UN has run the troubled province since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) drove out Yugoslav troops amid grave human rights abuses in fighting between Serbs and Albanians in 1999.

Last month Mr. Jessen-Petersen said the situation in Kosovo, where Albanians outnumber other communities, mainly Serbs, by about nine to one, had greatly improved since the riots of March 2004 when 22 people were killed and 500 injured in ethnic fighting in the worst violence since the UN took over.