A Serb teenager has been shot dead in Kosovo and police quickly arrested two Albanians suspected of trying to ignite another round of ethnic violence in the United Nations-run province.
The killing in the Serb enclave of Gracanica on Saturday was the first since 19 people were killed in mid-March when the UN protectorate was engulfed in the worst violence in five years of international administration. NATO peacekeepers later said the riots were clearly orchestrated.
UN police spokesman Malcolm Ashby said 16-year-old Dimitrije Popovic was killed when gunmen fired from a car into a group of young Serbs at a hamburger kiosk at 2 a.m. Police in Pristina later stopped a suspect car and seized two Albanians with guns.
It was not clear how the suspected gunmen managed to drive in and out of the village undetected. The NATO-led peacekeeping mission KFOR re-established permanent checkpoints on the outskirts of the Serbian town after the March riots.
Serb spokesman Oliver Ivanovic blamed the U.N. and NATO for failing to stop Albanian militants. "There is no living together here... We must seal off all roads through Serb districts," he told the SRNA agency.