UN condemns attacks on Kosovo Serbs

Source: RTS, Tanjug

NEW YORK -- Ambassadors of UN Security Council members condemned the latest attacks against Kosovo Serbs in closed-doors consultations held Tuesday, Tanjug has learned.

(Tanjug, file)

The positions of Western ambassadors on the one and Russia and China on the other side remained divided when it comes to the motives for the attacks, as representatives of Washington, London and Paris said it was unknown whether the latest attacks were ethnically motivated, while Moscow and Beijing saw them as attacks on the Serb population.
Most of the ambassadors kept to the same lines as before.

“Western ambassadors say it is not known whether the incidents are ethnically motivated and noted they were isolated,” said Tanjug's source, adding that all ambassadors condemned the incidents.

Herve Ladsus, the head of UN peacekeeping operations, spoke at the meeting about the latest attacks in Kosovo, mentioning the attacks during the celebration of the religious holiday St. Vitus Day on June 28, and the murder of a Serb married couple, Milovan and Ljiljana Jevtić, near Uroševac.

Representatives of Russia brought up the issue of Libyan and Syrian training camps in Kosovo, as well as the fact few displaced persons were returning.

Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sasha Pankin insisted that the recent murders of Serbs in Kosovo be solved and that intimidation of Serb returnees be investigated, a source from the UN told Radio Television of Serbia (RTS).

The UNSC did not adopt any conclusions since the meeting was in the form of consultations rather than a session.

After the issue of Kosovo, the ambassadors went on to discuss the situation in Syria.