Three blasts rock Kosovo's capital

Police and NATO-led peacekeepers are investigating three blasts that rocked the centre of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, overnight, near buildings occupied by the UN and the provincial government.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks and no one was injured in the blasts, said Refki Morina, a police spokesman.

At least three vehicles were set ablaze in the UN compound’s car park in Pristina, and some shops were damaged as three nearly simultaneous explosions shook the town last night.

The second blast happened near the building of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is some 100 yards from the UN compound.

The third blast went off near the Kosovo government building, which also houses the province’s parliament, and damaged it slightly, said Hua Jiang, a chief UN spokeswoman.

“The only effects of such incidents are to damage the image and interests of Kosovo … and to demonstrate the stupidity of those responsible,” said Mark Dickinson, head of the British office in the province.

Police were interviewing several witnesses in hopes of finding clues to who was behind the blasts, Morina said. Forensic experts were still trying to determine the exact nature of the devices.

Kosovo has been administered by the UN mission and patrolled by NATO-led peacekeepers since 1999 after the alliance’s bombing of Serb forces waging a crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians.

In March, Kosovo’s President Ibrahim Rugova survived an apparent assassination attempt when a remotely controlled explosive device was set off as his convoy passed the city centre en route to a meeting with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana.

A few days earlier, the UN mission headquarters was targeted by sniper fire aimed at its communications. No suspects have been identified in those attacks.

The attacks come at a sensitive stage for this province. Talks to determine its future status will take place later this year, if Kosovo reaches standards including those on democracy, rights of minorities, and rule of law.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last month appointed a senior Norwegian diplomat, Kai Eide, to evaluate progress and report back to him by the end of the summer. Eide arrived in Kosovo on Friday on his second fact-finding visit since his appointment.

The province’s ethnic Albanian majority want it to become indepndent, while Serbs are demanding it remain part of Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced former Yugoslavia.