KOSOVSKA MITROVICA – The vehicle at which an unidentified individual fired several shots in Kosovska Mitrovica late on Sunday is the property of the wife of former Gracanica mayor Bojan Stojanovic who said that the attack was politically motivated.
In downtown Kosovska Mitrovica, a shootout occurred some time after 8 p.m. and nobody was injured in the incident, although one Citroen vehicle without licence plates suffered substantial damage.
Stojanovic told Tanjug that at the time of the attack, himself and his wife, their child and a driver were in the vehicle.
Stojanovic said that they were headed for a private visit and that luckily, there were no casualties and only material damage was caused.
He said that the identity of inspirators of the crime is clear, noting that the shooting was inspired by political clans.
”I have been warning for months and years on end against one and the same group which has been continuously causing tension,” Stojanovic said.
“Either this will stop or Kosovo would be a haven for bandits, and here I am not referring to Mitrovica only, but the entire Kosovo,” the former Gracanica mayor said.
The Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) demands that those who fired automatic weapons at a parked car owned by the spouse of former Gracanica mayor Bojan Stojanovic in Kosovska Mitrovica downtown on Sunday night need to be brought to justice immediately.
“We condemn this act of violence and believe it was carried out to incite fear among the population in Kosovska Mitrovica,” the Office for KiM said in a release on Monday.
“If the attack was politically motivated and if Stojanovic can prove his claims and point to the instigators of the attack, we demand that he does that and that competent authorities find those responsible and bring them to justice immediately,” the release said.
If this fails to happen, the release said, it will be yet another confirmation that there is no safe and secure life and no law and justice in Kosovo-Metohija, and that violence and pressures have become something that occurs and goes unpunished there on a daily basis.
Serbia’s Minister for Kosovo Aleksandar Vulin said on Monday the goal behind the increasingly frequent incidents in northern Kosovo was to destabilize the area and introduce a form of provisional administration and military occupation.
“The person who planted the bomb or set fire to the car of the Kosovska Mitrovica Provisional Council President (Aleksandar) Spiric obviously had a single goal, to reduce Serbia’s presence in Kosovska Mitrovica as much as possible, thereby reducing the presence of the Serbs as well,” he told Tanjug.
Such attacks are part of a plan to completely destabilize the area, to frighten Serbs and convince them that they can no longer live in northern Kosovo, he noted.
“The goal is to introduce a form of provisional administration and military occupation in northern Kosovo because of increased violence and lack of security,” he said, adding that it was not the first time such ideas were on the table and that somce Serbs were also involved in their implementation.
The incidents that target officials representing Serbia in Kosovo and the local Serbs can only bring trouble and those who cause them are enemies to Serbia and the Serbs, Vulin stressed.
No one who resorts to violence in Kosovo will be safe and protected in the part of Kosovo that is under the control of the Serbian government, he pointed out.
Kosovo, is under the provisional authority of the UN according to a resolution of the UN Security Council, and any violence committed in that territory constitutes a criminal act in Serbia’s eyes, he remarked.
A car was set on fire in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, an area mostly populated by the Serbs, on Sunday. The car was given to the local government in the city by the Kosovo government administrative office.
It was the second incident in northern Kosovska Mitrovica in 24 hours, as previously, also on Sunday, an unidentified person fired shots at a car owned by the wife of former mayor of Gracanica Bojan Stojanovic.
