"We would mourn the dead if it wasn't for KFOR..."

"Thirty KFOR soldiers, of whom 19 Hungarians and 11 Italians, were injured on Monday in a cowardly attack by urban guerrillas. I am with them and their families. Nine Italians are in the hospital at the Camp Villaggio base in Italy, one was admitted to a health facility in Pristina, and one in Skopje. None of them are life-threatening, they will recover quickly," said Ristuccia.
As he said, the building of the municipality of Zvean was turned into an "operation room with an extremely unstable situation".
He stated that on Monday he had assigned a large contingent of soldiers to four Serbian-majority municipalities for the inauguration of the recently elected Albanian mayors.
All the risk, he pointed out, is related to the fact that Prime Minister Albin Kurti decided to continue with the inauguration, despite the protests of the Serbs and the doubts of the international community.
"The stubbornness of the local Albanian authorities not to act on the indications received from the Western partners, indications that serve to facilitate the dialogue, especially in the light of the progress achieved with the Brussels and Ohrid agreements, has greatly weakened the balance," noted Ristuccia.
We are not wrapping up the dead, among the Serbian population or Albanian policemen, because KFOR intervened and managed to calm the situation, he underlined.
He reported that the attack happened because 15 Kosovo policemen were blocked for hours in three armored vehicles, surrounded by an agitated crowd.
"The protest got out of control, of the Serbian demonstrators themselves, and if the Kosovo police had intervened, the situation would have worsened. That is why we intervened, as required by the decree on engagement within our mandate, to...

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