Bomb scare leads to evacuation of UN Kosovo headquarters

Oct 10, 2007, 14:05 GMT

Pristina - The headquarters of the United Nations administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) was evacuated Wednesday after a suspicious looking package was found in front of the building.

Officials of the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) said it was possible that the package contained explosives, and ordered the building in Pristina emptied out until the situation was under control.

The neighbourhood in which the UN building is located was also evacuated.

The centre of Pristina was the scene of a peaceful student protest on Wednesday, with some 500 students chanting slogans such as 'Kosovo is not Palestine' and demanding independence for the province, rather than a partition of the territory or similar solutions which would not create a new, independent state.

Kosovo's majority Albanian population has grown increasingly impatient with delays and postponements in the process of finding an adequate solution for the Kosovo status crisis.

Numerous protests have been organized by independence-seeking ethnic Albanians this year, some of which have included violence and fatalities.