Serb couple found dead in Kosovo

Serb couple found dead in Kosovo

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2009&mm=08&dd=07&nav_id=61025

7 August 2009 | 19:23 | Source: FoNet, Beta, Tanjug

GNJILANE -- A Serb man and a woman were found dead in their home in the village of Parteš, close to Gnjilane, it has been confirmed.

Kosovo police, KPS, spokesman Arben Beka stated today that the pair was found dead, but gave no further information.

News agencies are reporting that the victims were Trajanka, 58, and Bogdan, 64, Petković.

Thus far, reports say, there are no indications that their murder might have been "ethnically motivated".

Their neighbor Zoran Karadžić discovered their bodies.

He said that he was suspicious that the Petkovićs had not been out of their house all day, and that when nobody answered the locked door, he looked through the window to see them lying on the ground in a pool of blood, with "things thrown around the house".

Karadžić said he then notified the police.

Neighbors say that the Petkovićs lived alone near the Gnjilane-Uroševac road.

Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanović reacted to the news this evening by saying that he expects an impartial international group to conduct the investigation in order to uncover the truth about the crime.

"The murder in Parteš should be condemned by all and is something that has unfortunately been happening in the past several years in Kosovo and Metohija," he was quoted as saying.

The minister stated it can be considered that this crime was ethnically motivated and that for this reason, the investigation should be conducted by an impartial group.

Bogdanović said it is "absolutely unacceptable" that since 1999 until today not a single crime committed against the Serbs – in the majority ethnic-Albanian province – has been solved, and added that "this is one of the reasons why the murders continue".

"This, and similar kind of unsolved crimes, have encouraged people to commit evil acts against Serbs and other non-Albanians, motivated ethnically, or because of greed or other reasons," Bogdanović said.