UNMIK/PR/66

Press Statement

12 October 1999

SRSG Kouchner Condemns Murder of UNMIK Staff Member

PRISTINA-The United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, expresses his outrage  and strong condemnation of the murder of an UNMIK international staff member in Pristina last night.

"It was a disgusting and cowardly act carried out in a public venue, where hundreds of people enjoy walking in the evenings," Dr. Kouchner said. "Our staff are here under trying circumstances, devoting their lives to establishing peace and the rebuildng of Kosovo. This innocent man who came here to help Kosovo to achieve a democratic way of life was instead  stopped by a crowd of thugs and an assassin’s bullet."

"My heart goes out to his family. I am appalled at having to give them the news that their loved one has so quickly become a victim of the hatred which still pervades Kosovo."

"The murder of an UNMIK staff member is intolerable. The international community who sends us their sons and daughters, so committed to helping this ravaged land to heal, will not accept exposing them to such brutality."

The victim, Valentin Krumov, 38,  a Bulgarian national, had arrived in Pristina earlier on Monday from New York and Skopje. He was to have joined the UNMIK Civil Administration.

Together with two other newly arrived colleagues, he had dinner at a  hotel in town. The three left around 9 p.m. to stroll down the popular pedestrian avenue known here as "Mother Theresa".

According to a preliminary police report, at 21:10, a crowd of ethnic Albanians assaulted him and took him 50 meters away where someone shot him dead.

Police say he had apparently responded in the Serbian language to a question from a group of passersby who had asked him for the time.

UNMIK Police and KFOR were dispatched to the scene. UNMIK Police are conducting the investigation.