Source: Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA)
Date: 29 Aug 2005

By Boris Babic, dpa

Pristina/Belgrade (dpa) - Hundreds of Serbs demonstrated Monday in Kosovo, protesting the murder of two of their compatriots, while politicians in Belgrade said the killings proved that the breakaway province was not ready even to start talks on its future status.

Two young Serbs were killed and two were wounded when unidentified attackers fired on their car in southern Kosovo late Saturday night in an attack apparently ethnically motivated. Better conditions in Kosovo, most of all security for minorities, were laid out by the international community as ``standards'', a set of conditions for the start of the talks on the status.

Saturday's killings, which followed a lull in violence, are a setback, with the start of talks tentatively planned for the ``coming months''.

Speakers at the protest in Gracanica, a Serb enclave near the capital Pristina, accused the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) of painting a ``false picture'' that the province was becoming safer.

They also said that Serbs should not take part in Kosovo authorities, which is seen as a crucial step toward integration.

In Belgrade, Serbian leaders blasted UNMIK over the latest attack and said that minority Serbs remain unsafe in Kosovo.

``Albanian terrorists are sending a murderous message to Serbs that they can choose between death and exile,'' Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica was quoted as saying by the Glas Javnosti daily.

``What standards ... are we talking about when innocent people are being killed just because they are Serbs?'', he added, warning that U.N. ``must protect the Serb population from extermination''.

President Boris Tadic said the attack was an ``unambiguous signal that there is no place for Serbs in Kosovo''. Other unresolved deadly attacks showed a ``lack of will by Kosovo institutions to enforce the rule of law'', he added.

``It is clear to all today that Kosovo is far from being ready to become mutli-ethnic and democratic,'' Tadic said.

In Kosovo, the Albanian majority had lived under Belgrade's repression during the 1990's.

In the final two years of the 1990s, Albanian passive resistance was replaced by an insurgency. The conflict was ended in mid-1999 through a NATO intervention against Yugoslavia and the arrival of the U.N. administration.

Ethnic violence however persists, now with Serbs at the receiving end. Serbs worry that Kosovo's slide toward international recognition will leave them without any protection against vengeful attacks.

According to Belgrade's figures, more than 200,000 Kosovo Serbs fled their homes since 1999. Those who remain are virtually confined to their enclaves, where they live under heavy security provided by international troops. dpa bb sc