Killing in northern Kosovo raises tensions

Nov 10, 2011, 6:27 GMT

Pristina/Belgrade - A Serb was killed and two others wounded in Kosovo Wednesday night in a shooting that further strained the already tense ethnic relations there.

The incident erupted from an argument involving Serbs and Albanians in Mitrovica, police spokesman Besim Hoti confirmed. Mitrovica is an ethnically divided hotspot town that is frequently affected by violence.

Further details were not clear and no arrests were made immediately.

The government of the mostly Albanian Kosovo condemned the violence and urged the swift arrest of the perpetrators. A local Serb leader in Mitrovica, Krstimir Pantic, described the attack as a terrorist act.

In Serbia, the authorities called on minority compatriots in Kosovo to remain calm.

Mitrovica is the hub of the Serb enclave in northern Kosovo, which has been increasingly tense amid a dispute with the Kosovo government over border crossings to Serbia proper.

Kosovo, with its 90-per cent Albanian majority, declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Encouraged by Belgrade, Serbs in the north fiercely resist the authority of Pristina and insist that they are a part of Serbia.