‘They have to be punished’: prominent Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic gunned down at party headquarters
Kosovo and Serbia have been trying to normalise ties almost 20 years since the start of a bloody war that claimed 13,000 lives
Leading Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic was killed in a drive-by shooting on Tuesday that is likely to reignite tensions between Pristina and Belgrade.
The assassination occurred on the very day that Serbia and Kosovo had resumed talks on normalising ties after a hiatus of more than a year.
The Serbian government official in charge of Kosovo, Marko Djuric, said the murder was “a criminal, terrorist act against the entire Serbian people”.
Ivanovic was shot dead by gunmen firing from a car as he arrived at the headquarters of his party in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica at about 8.15am, according to police.
“I am informed that he was shot dead on the spot and efforts to revive him at Mitrovica hospital were unsuccessful,” his lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic said.
He said Ivanovic, who was set to face a retrial on charges of war crimes over the Kosovo conflict after an earlier conviction was thrown out, had been hit by five bullets.
Police said they have found a burnt-out car that was presumably used in the attack, local media in Kosovo reported.