AFP, June 05, 2003
Three Serbs murdered in Kosovo: UN
OBILIC, Serbia-Montenegro, (AFP) - An elderly Serb couple and their son were axed to death and their house was set on fire Wednesday in one of the worst incidents of violence in Kosovo in recent months, a United Nations official said.
Slobodan Stolic, 80, his wife Radmila, 78, and their son Ljubinko, 53, were murdered in their house at Obilic, some 15 kilometers (nine miles) northwest of the Kosovo capital Pristina around 2:30 am (0030 GMT), UN spokesman Andrea Angeli said.
The house was then set alight by the unknown attackers, he said.
The murders came hours before the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, was due to arrive in the southern Serbian province in an apparent bid to win support for a meeting of Serb and Albanian leaders at an upcoming EU summit in Greece this month.
The violence is likely to further fuel the deep animosity between the two communities and complicate UN efforts to find political common ground between the Albanian government in Kosovo and the Serbian authorities in Belgrade.
UN mission chief Michael Steiner and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian prime minister, Bajram Rexhepi, rushed to the town after news of the attack reached Pristina. They were jeered by a crowd of angry Serbs.
"This is a heinous act, a perfidious crime which was directed against multi-ethnicity in Kosovo," Steiner told the gathering, which booed him.
"We need justice here and to find those who are responsible," he added, promising to set up a special UN police task force to investigate the murders.
Rexhepi condemned the slaughter as a "base and barbaric act."
Beta news agency reported that Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic was also on his way here Wednesday.
Kosovo has been under UN control since the end of a NATO bombing campaign in June 1999 which forced Belgrade forces to withdraw from the southern Serbian province and end a brutal crackdown on the Albanian majority.
Hundreds of Serbs and non-Albanians have been killed or have gone missing since the end of the war, while more than 200,000 Serbs have fled the province fearing reprisals from Albanian extremists.
Serbs accuse the UN of bias toward the Albanians and of failing to provide security for the return of the refugees.
Novica Stolic, a cousin of the slain family, said the murders highlighted the ineffectiveness of UN and NATO security for the targeted minority.
"There were threats last night made against the family and pressure from Albanians for the family to leave Obilic," Stolic said.
"Earlier Molotov cocktails were thrown at the house and their car was stolen. It just goes to show the lack of security."
But Angeli said it was too early to say whether the murder was motivated by ethnic hatred.
"It's a murder and we are still investigating this horrendous crime," he said, adding that "a large crowd of Serbs has gathered in Obilic and they are very nervous."
Nenad Radosavljevic, a Serbian advisor to Steiner for minority and refugee issues, told B92 radio in Belgrade that there could be no doubt that the murders were a hate crime.
He said the UN, NATO and Albanian authorities in Kosovo must bear the responsibility.
"I will demand the suspension of all local authorities in Kosovo and the introduction of an absolute protectorate. I will also ask for the resignation of Kosovo Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi," he said.
The mayor of Obilic, local police leaders and the commanders of NATO peacekeepers in central Kosovo should also resign, he said.
"Somebody has to bear responsibility for this," Radosavljevic said.
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