Police (UNMIK that is) have concluded that the 3 A.M. gas pump wouding of two young men in Mitrovica earlier this week was a robbery. However, Marko Jaksic, a Serb leader from Mitrovica insists that no money was stolen and that the crime was ethnically motivated. Who do you trust?

Petersen also reported this week that crimes involving Serbs in the first quarter of the year have gone done compared to same time last year. In fact, share of violence involving Serbs has been close to their share of population. Yet he says Serbs do not feel safe.

Let's go back to Mitrovica once again now. I feel that half-truths are much more dangerous than outright lies. Half-truths take the guards down and indulge the subject into unquestioned complacency. With the "robbery" and another shoot-out at a Serb church representative's family car before that, the hardly reported fact was that the crimes happened in north of Mitrovica. This makes me believe that it is very unlikely that Albanians were involved. There are only a few hundred Albanians living on the other side of the town proper, under the watchful eyes of Serb paramilitaries. As two Albanians journalists from Gazeta Java and John Simpson of BBC reported, anyone crossing the bridge from the south is followed by the Guards of the Bridge. Java also reported that UNMIK's control of the area is hardly discernible, with only about 1/10 cars checked up when they cross the border from Serbia. Police stay on the main road and don't venture further. The Belgian and French NATO camps have been relocated to the south. Understandbly PM office on Friday judged harshly the stoning of the Serb bus but didn't mention the other two incidents at all. I'm guessing that the reason is that the government doesn't control north of Iber and doesn't feel responsible for what happens there. To Serbs: you can't have security and eat it too.