Kosovo Leaders: Blasts Meant To Block Independence
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3 July 2005 -- Kosovo's ethnic Albanian president says that three explosions in the capital Prishtina late yesterday were efforts to sabotage independence for the province.
The blasts shook a triangle of central Prishtina. No one was injured.
President Ibrahim Rugova said today that the aim of the perpetrators is to destablize the country and to influence a UN assessment of its stability.
UN envoy Kai Eide arrived in Kosovo on 1 July to begin an assessment of whether Kosovo -- a Serbian province now under UN administration -- has matured sufficiently to participate in negotiations on its future status.
The province's ethnic Albanian majority wants independence, but Kosovo's Serbian minority and its Serbian neighbors insist that it remains part of the federation of Serbia and Montenegro.
(Reuters/AP)