Gunmen in Kosovo killed five members of an ethnic Albanian family, including a former member of the Serbian police force, in what UN officials yesterday described as the most serious attack in the province in months.
The unidentified assailants stopped the Hajra family's car near their village of Glogovac, west of the capital, Pristina, around 11 p.m. on Monday and opened fire with automatic weapons, said Mr Andrea Angeli, a spokesman for the UN mission in Kosovo.
"This a major incident, the most serious one since the Nis express bombing", when 10 Serb civilians were killed and more than 30 wounded in a bomb blast on a bus last February, said another UN spokesman, Mr Simon Haselock.
Mr Angeli identified the dead as Mr Hamsa Hajra (50), his wife Miradie (45), their son Xhevdet (22), and daughters Mimoza (14) and Adelina (9). Another daughter, Pranvera (16), survived the attack, apparently by playing dead, Mr Angeli said.
Inhabitants of Glogovac, where Mr Hajra's family lived, said they suspected the motive was revenge, as he had "collaborated" with the Serbs during the Kosovo war in 1998-1999.
Mr Rajip Gjoshaj of the Glogovac council said Mr Hajra had worked for the Serbian police until June 1999, when Belgrade was forced to withdraw its forces from Kosovo. But another local official who requested anonymity said Mr Hajra, originally an English-language professor, had been a member of "the Serbian secret services" until 1999.
Mr Hajra survived two murder attempts during the Kosovo war, the official said.
Reuters adds:
President Rexhep Meidani of Albania said yesterday he believed Kosovo should eventually become independent, but only as part of a general process of European integration that included the Balkans.
Kosovo could become independent as part of the accession of Balkan countries to the EU, which Mr Meidani described as the dream of all the people of the troubled region.
Mr Meidani (57), a former physics professor, has been Albanian President for four years. In his previous public statements, he stopped short of endorsing independence for neighbouring Kosovo, calling instead for self-determination for its people and criticising "artificial federative concoctions".
The President rejected suggestions that the creation of a new state in the Balkans would start a "domino effect" or destabilise south-east Europe by stimulating efforts to create a "Greater Albania". Mr Meidani described Greater Albania as an old concept which did not have the backing of any Albanian politicians.