A Kosovo man was shot dead during an apparent gunbattle in the first serious outbreak of violence since the province's municipal elections, a UN police spokesman said Wednesday.
Hazir Raci, a 40-year-old musician, was killed at 1:10 pm (1210 GMT) Tuesday in Klina, western Kosovo, during what investigators believe was an exchange of fire with two unidentified gunmen, Dmitri Kaportsev told AFP.
A Kalashnikov assault rifle which may have belonged to the victim was found next to his body, he said, adding that a preliminary investigation had found no evidence of a political motive for the shooting. No arrests have been made.
UN spokeswoman Susan Manuel said that while Raci was a member of Ibrahim Rugova's moderate Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) -- which on Saturday won a crushing victory over hardline parties led by former guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the province's first post war municipal election -- the shooting was not thought to be political.
According to partial results released late Tuesday, hours before the killing, the LDK won 58 percent of the vote and 21 out of 27 contested municipalities, beating the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) of Hashim Thaci, former KLA political leader, into second place on 27 percent -- PRISTINA (AFP)
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