"Murdered doctor asked for police protection"

"Murdered doctor asked for police protection"

He explained that the doctor received bullet wounds to her large blood vessels and quickly bled to death.

A 28-year-old suspect, V.N., was placed under arrest last night. A pistol was found it his possession believed to have been the murder weapon, regional police official Zeljko Bojic said.

According to Bojic, the motive for the murder was most likely "jealousy." The police official drew this conclusion from the fact the victim and the suspect had been, "for a time," in a relationship.

Milan Ivanovic said on Tuesday that the victim had turned to the Kosovo police before the deadly incident, but that she was not given police protection.

"It's clear the institutions of this quasi-state are incapable and unwilling to protect Serbs," the doctor said during a news conference, and referred to the EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX, as "a pro-Albanian mafia against the Serb people."

However, Bojic has denied that the victim asked to be protected, and said she never reported any threats or harassment.

Ivanovic also revealed that the doctors in the Healthcare Center in Kosovska Mitrovica and the family of the victim were last night mistreated for opposing an order of EULEX and the Kosovo institutions in Pristina to transfer the body to Pristina outside the procedures that apply in such cases.

When the doctors at the hospital asked for procedures to be observed, "an order came from Pristina to arrest them," Ivanovic said.

His deputy, Zlatan Elek, who was on duty last night, said that he and Gojko Igrutinovic did not allow the body to be taken to Pristina for an autopsy in violation of procedures.

Elek added that the arrest of doctors on duty - that would have left some 40 patients without medical care - was avoided "only thanks to the engagement of the police officers from northern Kosovo." The body was transferred to Pristina after midnight.

It was announced on Tuesday that a commemorative gathering for Dusanka Andrejevic will be held at the Kosovska Mitrovica hospital on Wednesday, while the 29-year-old will be laid to rest the same day in the town of Nis, in central Serbia.