France condemns ethnic clashes in Kosovo

PARIS, March 18 (AFP) – France on Thursday denounced clashes between ethnic Albanian and Serb communities in Kosovo that have left 22 people dead, urging political leaders from both sides to put an end to the violence.

“France strongly condemns the deadly confrontations that took place yesterday in Kosovo between the Serb and Albanian communities,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Cecile Pozzo di Borgo.

“Our first thoughts go to the families of the victims. Whatever the cause, recourse to such acts of violence is unacceptable,” she added.

Paris urged “all political leaders in Kosovo — Albanian and Serb — to tell the population to put an immediate stop to the violence and restore calm.

They must work together, without any feeling of confrontation, to end these clashes,” she said.

At least 22 people died after ethnic unrest broke out in Kosovo on Wednesday — the worst spate of violence in the UN-administered province in five years.

Kosovo has been under UN administration since July 1999 when NATO intervened to end the oppression of the province’s ethnic Albanian majority by Serbian forces under then-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

© AFP

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