UN Staffer Killed in Kosovo
A staffer working for the U.N. civilian mission in Kosovo was shot and killed Monday night after his first day on the job, U.N. officials said.
The staffer was shot on the main street of the capital, Pristina, on his way to dinner after arriving for duty earlier in the day, spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said in New York.
He was believed to be the first U.N. staffer killed since the United Nations began running Kosovo in June aft6er NATO's 11-week bombardment of Yugoslavia.
U.N. officials were withholding the staffer's name pending notification of his family, the spokesman said.
Members of the U.N. police force in Pristina, who asked for anonymity, said the man, apparently a Bulgarian national, was shot near the Grand Hotel, where many employees of international organizations stay while working in Kosovo.
One officer said it appeared the shooting occurred after the man had begun talking to an ethnic Albanian woman, but stressed the circumstances of the killing were still unclear and under investigation.
The suspect escaped on foot, apparently helped by other locals crowding the street, which is closed to car traffic for several hours each evening, the police said.
Almeida e Silva said the staffer had a job in the civilian part of the U.N. mission in Kosovo not in any military or police operation. He was in civilian clothes at the time of the shooting.
While the United Nations has been taking charge of administering Kosovo, NATO is still largely in charge of keeping the peace in the province, with support from U.N. police.
Violence has continued to flare, primarily revenge attacks between ethnic Albanians and the Serb minority still remaining in the province.
On Sept. 28, two rifle-propelled grenades exploded in an outdoor suburban market packed with Serbs, killing two people and injuring dozens of others.
NATO launched its air campaign to compel Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end the Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians seeking more independence for the province.