Key Kosovo Serb politician killed

Kosovska Mitrovica ( Kosovo), Jan. 16: 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 8.15 am local time, according to police.

“I am informed that he was shot dead on the spot and efforts to revive him at Mitrovica hospital we- re unsuccessful,” his law- yer 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.

Public prosecutor Shyqri Syla said investigators were at the scene, but that it was not yet known who was behind the attack. Ivanovic, 64, of the Social Democratic Party, was considered a moderate politician in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica. Last year he was elected a deputy in the municipal council of northern Mitrovica.

A former Serbian state secretary for Kosovo, Ivanovic was a key interlocutor with NATO, the UN and later the European Union after the 1990s war.