By: Steve Dellar | 01-16-2018 | News
Photo credit: @Skidd333 | Twitter

Unrest Returns To Yugoslavia As Top Kosovo Politician Shot Dead

Many feared unrest would return to the unstable Yugoslavian enclave as reports rolled in of a top Kosovo politician being shot in an apparent drive-by. The attack comes two days after the US State Department had warned American tourists for possible terrorist attacks in the region.

From a historical perspective, the news reports stating ‘politician getting shot’ and ‘Yugoslavia’ do not mix well. Back in 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand getting shot in Yugoslavia meant the beginning of the first world war and in the 1990s, ethnic cleansing between different groups in Yugoslavia set off a series of events which resulted in the US bombing this part of Europe.

According to preliminary police reports, 64-year-old Mr Oliver Ivanovic (a prominent Kosovo Serb leader) was shot outside his party office in the northern town of Mitrovica, raising ethnic tensions in the region and immediately halting EU-mediated talks between Kosovo and Serbia on the day they were due to resume.

Marko Đurić, the head of Serbia’s Office for Kosovo said the attack on Ivanović was “an attempt to plunge the Serbs in Kosovo into chaos”.

“This is an attack on the entire Serbian people, to push them into the hell of a new conflict.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OIiver?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OIiver</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ivanovic?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ivanovic</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Serbian?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Serbian</a> politician killed in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mitrovica?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mitrovica</a>, had accused <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Serbia?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Serbia</a>&#39;s politicians of openly supporting &quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SerbianList?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SerbianList</a>&quot; against his party. He warned <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EULEX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EULEX</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KFOR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KFOR</a> for incidents &amp; declared: &quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Serbs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Serbs</a> now fearing Serbs more than <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Albanians?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Albanians</a> <a href="https://t.co/IWEqeOS4Jo">https://t.co/IWEqeOS4Jo</a></p>&mdash; Top Channel English (@topchannel_eng) <a href="https://twitter.com/topchannel_eng/status/953234780233093120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2018</a></blockquote>

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European politicians wanted to know how come the US State Department had sent its citizens a warning two days ago, to "exercise increased caution in Kosovo due to terrorism" and are calling on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to brief them on the details that led to this warning.

More specifically, it now appears that the US embassy in Pristina had issued a message about “possible politically-motivated violence in Northern Kosovo,” leading European intelligence officials to believe the US knew something they didn’t.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USEmbassy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USEmbassy</a> in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kosovo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kosovo</a> had issued warnings about possible politically-motivated violence in Northern Kosovo, a few days before the leader of Kosovo <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Serbs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Serbs</a>, Oliver <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ivanovic?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ivanovic</a>, was killed in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mitrovica?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mitrovica</a>, <a href="https://t.co/59Px4qbBBF">https://t.co/59Px4qbBBF</a></p>&mdash; Top Channel English (@topchannel_eng) <a href="https://twitter.com/topchannel_eng/status/953229462237310978?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Source:

https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/el-mundo/asesinado-tiros-el-dirigente-politico-serbio-de-kosovo-oliver-ivanovic-articulo-733572

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