Kosovo Serbs Mourn 6 Men Slain in Bar
Church bells pealed and tears and anger mixed freely Wednesday as thousands mourned six young Kosovo Serbs killed in a barroom slaughter blamed on ethnic Albanian rebels.
The attack in Pec--condemned as “appalling beyond words” by U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke--prompted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to renew his quest to wipe out “terrorism” by separatists. It also raised fears that inflamed ethnic passions will lead to a return to war in the southern province.
Ethnic Albanians make up 90% of the 2 million people in Kosovo, a province of Serbia, the main republic in Yugoslavia. Most of them want independence. More than 1,000 people have been killed since Milosevic launched a crackdown on separatists in February, and 300,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, have been forced from their homes.
Monday’s shootings in Pec came on the bloodiest day since an October cease-fire agreement ended months of fighting between Serbian forces and rebels. The Yugoslav army claimed to have killed 36 guerrillas in a border clash with the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA.
No one has claimed responsibility for the shootings, in which masked gunmen sprayed a bar full of Serbs.
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