The UN's top refugee body on Friday called for an international probe into the massacre of four gypsies in an Albanian dominated region of Kosovo.
The UN High Commissioner for Refuges (UNHCR) criticized the recent "climate of impunity" in the province and described the killings as "the worst incident in months."
The bodies of the men were found riddled with bullets early Thursday, two days after they returned to their home village to rebuild houses destroyed in the Kosovo war.
UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said the UNHCR wanted the investigation to be carried out by an international prosecutor.
He confirmed that the four gypsies, who included a teenager, had told the refugee organization they felt happy about going back to their home village of Dosevac in the center of the province.
Dosevac is populated mainly by Albanians and is near the town of Drenica, a bastion of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
Since the withdrawal of Serb forces at the end of the Kosovo war in 1999 Serbs and Gypsies who remained in the province have frequently been the targets of attacks by the majority Albanians.
At least six Albanians, four gypsies and a Serb have been killed since the province's first post-war municipal elections on October 28 -- GENEVA (AFP)
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