国际英语新闻：UN Security Council meets over violence in Kosovo

UNITED NATIONS, July 6 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Tuesday held an open meeting to discuss recent violence in Mitrovica in northern Kosovo.

The urgent session of the 15-member body was held at the request of Serbia, which sent a letter to the council's president regarding "the serious deterioration of the security situation in the northern part of Kosovo."

In his briefing to the council, Serbian President Boris Tadic recalled that last Friday, close to 3,000 Kosovo Serbs had assembled to protest the "forcible attempt" by the authorities to establish "a so-called Kosovo Government Office" in North Mitrovica.

Bombs had been thrown into the crowd, resulting in one death and many injuries, a flagrant act of terror resulting directly from the conscious choice made by provocateurs to expand the scope of Pristina-based parallel institutions to North Kosovo, he said.

The action had been carried out deliberately to increase tensions and sabotage the quest for comprehensive peace, he said, describing it as the latest violation of Security Council resolution 1244, which was adopted in 1999 to end inter-ethnic fighting in Kosovo and established the United Nations Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK) there.

UNMINK head Lamberto Zannier briefed the council on the circumstances on last Friday's explosion as well as the general situation on the ground.