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Bomb kills one, injures four in Kosovo’s capital

FISNIK ABRASHI

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) – A bomb went off Wednesday near Yugoslav government offices in Kosovo’s capital, killing one Serb and injuring four others.

International officials condemned the attack in Pristina as they searched for witnesses and a motive.

”For the future of Kosovo it could not be a more tragic incident,” U.N. police spokesman Derek Chappell said. ”This is an attack against everything that people trying to build this country are working for.”



Kosovo’s U.N. administrator, Hans Haekkerup, called the attack ”an outrage” and said he was awaiting the investigators’ report.

”I am deeply saddened by the continued violence in Kosovo despite our best efforts to bring peace and security to all people,” he said.



Yugoslav authorities blamed ethnic Albanian rebels and demanded action by the United Nations and NATO-led peacekeepers.

”Clearly Albanian terrorists and extremists are determined to continue with their evil works,” said the Yugoslav government minister for Kosovo, Momcilo Trajkovic.

He also accused international officials of failing to improve security of Yugoslavia’s mission in Pristina.

Last August, a bomb exploded at a nearby building injuring a woman and destroying Serb offices as well as others used by ethnic Albanian parties. In November, a bomb exploded at a nearby building also used by Trajkovic, killing one of his staff and injuring another.

One car was destroyed by Wednesday’s blast, while the windows of several other vehicles and nearby buildings were shattered.

U.N. spokesman Andrea Angeli estimated the device contained 22 pounds of explosives, though there were no further details on the bomb. No arrests were made immediately.

Serb media identified the victims as employees of the Yugoslav government office in Pristina. One of the four injured, a woman, was in serious condition; the others were less severely hurt.

Kosovo formally remains a province of Serbia, the larger of two Yugoslav republics. But it has been run by the United Nations and NATO since June 1999, after the alliance’s bombing of Yugoslavia forced out Serb authorities.


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