Ceku voiced confidence that this isolated incident would not undermine the serious efforts by the government and the Kosovo society to create an atmosphere of interethnic cooperation in the UN-administered province.
Last night two youths attacked with a knife 19-year-old Milisav Ilincic in the northern, Serbian part of Mitrovica, prompting several hundred Serbs to staged a protest rally. Ilincic underwent surgery and doctors said that the injuries he sustained were life-threatening.
Police were unable to confirm Serb witnesses' statements that the attackers had come from the southern, majority Albanian part of Mitrovica. The commander of the UN police said the bridge separating the two parts of town, where the assault took place, would remain closed until further notice for all traffic except by UN staff and vehicles.