UNMIK/PR/266
PRISTINA--- The Kosovo Transitional Council today issued the following statement:
“The KTC fully supports the statement issued yesterday by the IAC condemning the recent upsurge in inter-ethnic violence, particularly the series of criminal acts that took place over the last weeks targeting members of the Serb community.
“The KTC condemns in the strongest possible terms what in many cases appears to be systematic violence against members of minority communities. These acts are destabilizing Kosovo and are playing into the hands of extremists on all sides.
“The KTC firmly believes that Kosovo’s future lies in Europe but this is conditional upon respect for human rights, minority rights and all of the values on which our culture and civilization are based. Thus, the KTC calls upon all the people in Kosovo to contribute actively to the co-existence of communities and support all efforts to stop inter-ethnic violence and crimes, in particular to assist the forces of law and order in their investigations.”
Before the statement, PDSRSG Jock Covey, KFOR’s Major General Jean Philipe Wirth and UNMIK Police deputy commissioner Stefan Feller, briefed the members about the security situation in Kosovo. Mr. Covey urged the KTC members to take a more proactive role in putting a stop to the recent upsurge in violence. He said violence in different parts of Kosovo was rising and destablizing all that the international and Kosovar community has worked for.