Two Pinoys hurt in Kosovo

MANILA, Philippines – Two Filipino peacekeepers serving with the United Nations mission in Kosovo were injured in riots that broke out shortly after United Nations and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peacekeepers stormed a UN court that was seized last week by Kosovo-Serbs, the Philippine Mission to the UN reported yesterday.

In a report to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, the Philippine Mission said the two Philippine National Police (PNP) officers, who it declined to identify pending notification of their next of kin, were among the dozens of peacekeepers hurt in the violence in the volatile northern city of Mitrovica.

Ambassador Hilario Davide Jr., Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said the Philippine Mission is closely monitoring the situation in Kosovo and is in touch with Senior Superintendent Dencio Duldulao, commander of the 40-member PNP Peacekeeping Contingent, and Superintendent Romeo Pillonar, the senior PNP officer in Mitrovica.

Davide said the two officers, who were assigned to the Prisoner Escort Unit (PEU) of the Specialized Police Unit under the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), were part of a three-vehicle convoy that was transporting detainees when they were blocked and attacked by an undetermined number of Serbs along St. Peter Street near the North Mitrovica police station yesterday at around 7 a.m. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe