Back to Archive Hope on the Balkans   Kosov@ Crisis 1999
Back to Kosov@
Crisis 1999
News Archive 1999

More casualties of the violence in Kosovo

Canadian KFOR contingent informed this morning the family of 41-year old Zivorad Vasic from Pristina that they found Vasic's body. Vasic was one of the employees of the "Elektrokosmet" power network, and he work at the maintenance of the power relay station several miles outside Pristina. According to his family, he was expected back home yesterday after work in a shift with Albanian colleague, and when he didn't come home, his relatives reported his disappearance to the KFOR. Search for Vasic lasted a day and night, and this morning KFOR informed the family that his body was transported at the Pristina Hospital Morgue. Both KFOR and UNMIK police force launched investigations on this crime.

According to the Information center of the Church's Council, Milan Bojanic and his Albanian fiancée Sofia Sopi disappeared from their apartment. Their relatives are in fear that the pair was abducted and murdered by Albanian extremists, just because Sofia was Albanian, who lived with a Serb. Another Serb, Predrag Vujicic (60-year old lawyer) is missing since yesterday, shortly after he left his apartment.

Miladin Djoric, from Pristina, was abducted by the group of Albanian extremists, beaten at the green market and then released home, in bruises and blood.

KFOR spokesman, Major Roland Lavoie of Canada said on the press conference that the overall situation in Kosovo within the last 24 hours had been calm and incidents of violence and intimidation were isolated.

Major Lavoie said two Serb men had been wounded in a shooting incident in the divided northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica. French forces that patrol the city said a group of Serbs had stopped a car containing ethnic Albanians as they crossed into the Serb-dominated northern district on Saturday afternoon.

One Albanian opened fire with a Kalashnikov semi- automatic rifle, seriously wounding one Serb and injuring another. The Albanian was being held on suspicion of attempted murder but said he had acted in self-defense, French officials said.

German soldiers found the body of a woman yesterday in Prizren, and launched the investigation on the case. According to the reports, woman was stabbed several times. Major Lavoie also said that an 80-year-old Serb man had been found dead with a gunshot wound in Pozaranje, eastern Kosovo. An investigation into the incident was ongoing.

Information service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Pravoslavlje Press, announced today that Miroslav Petrovic, who was abducted by the Albanians on August 7, on the road from Laplje Selo to Pristina, and found dead two days after that in the village of Kojlovica, near Pristina, will be buried today. Pravoslavlje Press reported that four Serbian families have fled Prizren heading North and another four have sought refuge in the Prizren seminary. Three houses belonging to the Kosovo Serbs were burnt for the last two days in Prizren, while downtown Gnjilane one house was fired and one elderly woman was seriously beaten. One house in Vitina was bombed. According to Pravoslavlje Press one thousand Serbs fled their houses and for two months live in Strbce near Prizren, without electricity and basic supplies.

A German soldier in Kosovo was shot in the early hours of Sunday morning but suffered no injuries thanks to his body armor, the KFOR international peacekeeping force said. KFOR said the incident took place around 2 a.m. in the Zjum area of southern Kosovo. The soldier was hit after a group of three men opened fire on a patrol of German paratroopers. In Bonn, a German defense ministry spokesman confirmed the incident.

Source: Free Serbia


Back to Archive | Back to Kosov@ Crisis 1999