A top Serbian official accused the UN and the NATO-led force running Kosovo of becoming "hostages of Albanian extremism and terrorism" and urged them to take decisive measures to establish a multiethnic society in the province.
Otherwise, the international community "will be responsible before history for a resurrection of fascism in one part of Europe and creation of a monstrous mono-ethnic Albanian para-state on the territory that is legally recognized as part of Serbia," Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic warned the UN Security Council.
At an open council meeting, Covic, the top Serbian official dealing with Kosovo, denounced the "hideous murder" of two Serb youths and the wounding of four others, saying the attack was part of an escalation of intimidation and persecution of the remaining Serbs in Kosovo.
The attack was the worst this year against Kosovo's beleaguered Serb minority, which has been targeted by ethnic Albanian revenge attacks since the UN took control of the province following a NATO military intervention in 1999. Since then, two-thirds of the 300,000 Serbs living in Kosovo have left.
Serbian officials blame the recent wave of violence on ethnic Albanian extremists pushing for Kosovo's independence.
Kosovo's UN administration has not said whether the shooting was ethnically motivated.
Covic accused the UN administration, the 17,000-strong NATO-led force, and the 4,000 UN police personnel in Kosovo of doing "less than they could have" to protect Serbs and punish the Albanian extremists.
He said he could understand "the inertia of the representatives of the international community ... but I cannot acquit it."
"The staff of the United Nations civil mission and all officers and personnel of the international troops in Kosovo ... have become hostages of Albanian extremism and terrorism," Covic charged.
Covic also demanded a reorganization of Kosovo's security forces "to address the problem of Albanian terrorist groups supported by organized crime in a more efficient way" and more aggressive investigations and prosecutions of ethnically motivated crimes.
Recently, he called the Albanian National Army a "scam" and claimed the actions it takes responsibility for are carried out by the Kosovo Protection Corps -- the UN-backed, lightly armed civilian emergency unit that includes former rebels that fought Serb troops during the 1998-99 ethnic Albanian insurgency.
In his speech to the Security Council, Covic called for the Albanian National Army to be placed on the international list of terrorist organizations and urged an investigation of the Kosovo Protection Corps "leading to its abolishment."
Council members responded to his speech with condemnation for the attacks on the Serb youths and calls for greater efforts to build a multiethnic Kosovo.
But Britain's UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry rejected Covic's accusation of "inertia" in the international community as "unfounded and unfair."
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS