Coffee bar visited by Pristina official torched overnight

Coffee bar visited by Pristina official torched overnight

The incident happened at around 3 a.m. when two unknown persons threw Molotov's cocktails onto the terrace of one of the most popular cafes in this northern Kosovo town,, torching it completely.

Beside the terrace, the fire also caused the windows on the building itself to crack.

Members of KFOR and Kosovo police who are securing the nearby bridge on the Ibar River - dividing the town into its northern, mostly Serb, and southern, ethnic Albanian parts - examined the scene this morning and launched an investigation.

The coffee bar's owner, Sasa Radisavljevic, did not wish to comment on the incident.

The motive of the attack remains unknown at this time. The incident took place a day after the establishment was visited by Kosovo Minister for Dialogue Edita Tahiri and South Mitrovica Mayor Agim Bahtiri.

"Costumed carnival"

Edita Tahiri showed up in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica surrounded by police and bodyguards, the Beta agency reported on Tuesday afternoon.

The Serbian Government's Office for Kosovo reacted on Tuesday by accusing Tahiri of wishing to cause an incident by arriving to the northern part of the town accompanied by police and numerous bodyguards, and condemned this "attempt to demonstrate force."

The office added that "as a citizen of Serbia, Mrs. Tahiri has the indisputable right to take a walk in any part of Serbia, as long as her behavior is not aimed at provoking and causing unrest."

"She in this way joined a gallery of provocateurs who have been trying to force an ill-considered reaction from Serbia and the Serb people with their unfair and offensive behavior these last days - but the Serb people, unlike they, have a state and a government that does not fall for low class tricks of irresponsible politicians in the region," said a statement.

"Instead of her arrogant behavior in a cafe on the bank of the Ibar River, Tahiri should have offered her apology to the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija for the chauvinist incidents created in the past days by her compatriots and like-minded people."

But, the Office said, she moved with sizable armed escort "to practically storm the first cafe near the Ibar."

"Therefore, there is no decency, no grandiose courage in Mrs. Tahiri's decision to visit the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, as Serbs have seen through the intentions of her costumed carnival, as it marched past the northern side of the Ibar bridge," the statement said.